Friday, September 14, 2012
Farmers' Market
Kindergartners ventured out on a quest for seeds-a journey that landed us at the Farmers' Market. We meandered through small crowds of people and leisurely stopped at "seedy" possibilities. A sign advertising "seedless cucumbers" puzzled us so we bought one for further investigation. Tomatoes and peppers were abundant but we choose "concord" grapes given to us by a very generous vendor. "It's for the kids? No charge!" he said. Tomatillos, tiny squash, and beans were our purchases. We could not resist buying a giant sunflower as well! We made an observation that even some of the breads displayed were chock full of seeds! We practiced our money handling skills, sampled raspberries that tickled our palette, and headed back to school. A "seed" -sational trip!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
First Day of SK Kindergarten 2012!
Shared an umbrella for a light drizzle to downpour...
Snacked on grapes, had A.M. Recess, and envisioned our new playground outdoors...
Diapered and doctored up the baby dolls...
Had A2 construction (including lots of cones) continue indoors ...
Hopscotch and an invented game combined...
Decked out our writing journals (one can never have enough stickers...)
Joanna stopped by for a story and some one on one time...
And had a birthday celebration with lots of cupcake choices but no cha- cha-chas!!!
We listened to a story titled A Place Called Kindergarten at Circle Time and created our own "10 Black Dots" (Donald Crews) illustrations during Math class. The day also included lunch and a trip to County Farm Park for recess. We attended French class with Madame and Art with Tracy for our Specials!!
We Had a Great First Day!!! We missed you C.F!!!
Monday, September 3, 2012
Healthy Snack suggestions
Healthy Snack Suggestions
Fresh tree fruit (whole or sliced): apples, pears, bananas, nectarines, clementine oranges, etc.
Other fruits and berries: cherry or grape tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, etc.
Raw vegetables: carrots, sugar snaps, celery, cauliflower florets, green beans, etc.
Dips: cream cheese, hummus, pesto
Cheese: Babybel, string cheese, or cut up chunks of other kinds of cheese
Whole wheat or whole grain crackers with no sugar, MSG, processed flour or other additives. ORIGINAL Triscuits (varieties with added flavors usually also contain unhealthy additives) or plain or lightly salted rice cakes are good choices.
Popcorn, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Hello New Kindergarten Families!
August/September Special Dates at a Glance:
Aug. 31 Welcome to Platt Day for Students
6-7:30 P.M.
6-7:30 P.M.
Sept. 4 First Day of School 2012-2013
7 Trip to Calder Dairy Farms, 10 A.M.
9 BTS Picnic, County Farm Park
18 Picture Day!
24 Picture Retake Day
28 Field trip to the Toledo Zoo-
departure promptly at 8:45 A.M.
departure promptly at 8:45 A.M.
August 22, 2012
Hello New Kindergarten Families!
Welcome to
Summers-Knoll School and welcome to Kindergarten! I am so very excited about being your child’s teacher and looking forward to seeing those precious faces walk through the door! Our awesome Head of school Joanna and the whole staff has been working very hard
to continue to make our school and new building a creative, inviting, and nurturing place where
your child can feel safe, grow socially, and be challenged academically. A special Thank You to
all of the Kindergarten Parents who were able to attend the SK New Building Open House this past weekend. I appreciated being able to chat with you a bit and hear all
of your positive comments.
And to those families who were not able to make it yet, I am looking
forward to seeing you (and all of your lovely children) really soon! "Welcome to Platt Day" is Friday, August 31 in the evening!
Here is some information and also some quick
reminders to hopefully answer some of your initial questions. Please feel free to email me at vtwynne@gmail.com with any
of your concerns as I attempt to make this a smooth and enjoyable transition
for your Kindergartner and your entire family.
P.S. An extra note to your child from me will be arriving soon in the mail. Kindergartners, can you tell what some of those pictures might be?
Entrance to the
Kindergarten will be made through the main entrance (North rear) of the school
each morning. Parking is available
at the rear as well. SK has a
lovely tradition of having All
School Morning Meeting each day at 8:40 A.M.!
This daily gathering provides for great camaraderie and sets the perfect
tone for the day. A.M. Care is from 7:30-8:30 A.M.
School begins
promptly at 8:40 A.M. so it
is imperative that your child arrives on time. Arriving early also allows for your child to feel more
empowered in his/her environment and eases transitions as well. Our Cloak Room Area is located right outside of our classroom across from the South entrance
of the school. Please provide a
complete change of clothes–shirt/dress,
pant/skirt, underpants, socks, to be stored in your child’s cubby area in the cloakroom. Your child will be
required to have rubber-soled gym shoes for Physical Education classes. Optional/seasonal
items include- a jacket/ raincoat, rubber boots, hat, gloves etc. (I know, it’s
hard to think about that right nowJ.)
The nearest restrooms to our classroom are across from the Library. Individual Kindergartners will be
generally escorted to the restroom and class restroom breaks are planned
throughout the school day.
Daily attendance is taken, but the children will be asked to sign themselves into the
classroom on Monday mornings. This
Sign-In
activity provides your child with some practical “practice” at writing his or her name. It is perfectly fine if
your child is tentative about writing or in the beginning stages of the
process. The exercise is designed
to give them some ownership and sense of responsibility so even if your child
writes a scribble, it is still valued and valuable. Kindergartners, as time goes by, become proud to see their
own writing abilities and improve as the year progresses. And while speaking of attendance, please call the
school and inform us if your child will be late or absent. We will be attending many field trips and
outings (some spontaneous) and it is essential that your child is properly
accounted for. It is also important
to know if your child will be picked up early and/or have appointments during
the school day. I will also
attempt to inform you as soon as possible about scheduled trips and outings and
send out emails of unplanned excursions as well. Volunteers and/or
Chaperons are always welcome!
My email address again is vtwynne@gmail.com. I will respond at my earliest
opportunity usually the same day. I
will call or email you (both parents) directly and immediately for more urgent
concerns i.e. injury or illness.
Our amazing Office Manager, Karen, will inform all families of
any school closings and/or early dismissals.
Please complete and return a "Child Web"
regarding information I can use to provide optimal individualized care. Extra copies are available in the
classroom on the teacher’s desk. Please return completed forms sometime during the first few
weeks of school. Our first Kindergarten Parent/ Teacher Conferences will be scheduled for October
15-19th.
Various A.M. and P.M. time slots will be available.
There will be a Sign Up Sheet for Snack
Duty. This consists of each family and myself providing the classroom’s
snack for one whole week, 2 snacks per day, several times during the school
year. A list of classroom allergies will be provided
A.S.A.P. Although nothing can be
ever be 100% certain, we at SK attempt to be a nut aware school as much as
possible. Please consider ingredient and nutrition content while snack shopping. The
classroom and school’s ongoing goal is to provide a healthy, nutritious
environment for all students as much as possible. A suggested snack list will be provided to all
families. Family traditions are
very important to us! Please feel
free to share your family’s traditions/celebrations (i.e. your child’s
birthday) and we will work them into our classroom snack plans wherever
possible. Also, feel free to
provide alternative snacks for your child at any time. By the way, any takers for Snack Providers September 4-7th or 10th-14th?
Volunteers are always welcome in our classroom! Please let me know your desires and availability. We already have Skye's Mom coming in on a weekly basis to assist us with cooking projects and how to make healthy snack choices! Thanks, Gabrielle!
Please keep in mind that this The SK School Blog is my way of
keeping families abreast of current classroom and school-wide activities. I make Kindergarten entries at least
once per week and attempt to include photos and other general information about
our classroom’s learning experiences.
Please subscribe at vtwynne.blogspot.com to receive prompts of new entries and feel
free to make comments about what you find most enjoyable or helpful. More specific or confidential/personal
info will be shared in person or by email. I am also available for chats before (I usually arrive at
7:30) and after school and evenings (after 3:45 most days) or you may call me to
find out my mid-day availability times.
I try to reserve other times during the school day for the kids and for
planning to provide optimal attentiveness to their needs and concerns.
Whew!! I think that's it for now. Again welcome, Happy Labor Day, and I’ll see you all on the 4th of September if not before!
Valerie (Val) Tibbs-Wynne (The kids call me Val generally)
Our “General” Kindergarten Daily Schedule
7:30-8:30 Morning Care
8:30-8:45 School-wide A.M. Meeting
8:45- 9:00 Homeroom
9:00-9:45 Math, (beginning in January Latin 9:15-9:45)
9:45-10:15 A.M. Snack/Recess
10:15-11:10 PE & 11:10-11:30 HR (M, W); 10:15-11:30 Homeroom
T, TH
K Buddies with Mrs. Carpenter’s class Thursday’s 10:30-11:30
11:30-12:30 Lunch/Recess Daily
12:30-1:25 Music (M, W), HR (T), Science (TH)
1:25-1:55 French (M, T) HR/French 1:55-2:25 (W) 1:25-2:35 HR
(TH)
2:35-3:30 (T, TH Art) or HR (M,W,F)
3:30 end of day, Parent pickup or escort to
Aftercare
Friday's all-day open schedule allows for classroom time,
field trips, etc.
Other information, changes, and corrections will be
forthcomingJ
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Donation Day for Andy's Cans!
As you may have read in previous blog entries, our class began the project by studying Pop Artist Andy Warhol's Soup Can Series of paintings especially the one titled "100 Cans." We also read A Weekend at Uncle Andy's written by his nephew James Warhola. Throughout the year, we also discussed how there are those in need of food, clothes, and other resources all over the world. A generous outpouring of cans came in throughout the next weeks and months. We made 100 cans our goal and graphed our results. We ended the unit (and the school year) with a trip to meet one of those needs.
Yesterday, we packed our 113 cans and jars into boxes, loaded them onto the bus ( a special thanks to Ava's Dad for being "the Rooster"), were praised and cheered on by our head of School, Joanna; and ventured across town to Food Gatherers. We immediately knew we were in the right place because of the carrot shaped door handle, gigantic carrot pillars, and the worm motif on the garden hose!
The volunteers at Food Gatherers graciously accepted our donation and began quickly loading the cans and jars into a giant barrel. We nearly filled it half full! The attendant then went and weighed our gift and reported that we had donated 130 lbs! He thanked us for all of our efforts. We then took time for a photo op and headed back to school for lunch. I wonder if anyone had soup?
Thank you to all of the SK children and families who participated with your donations.
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