We are making a lasagna garden this fall!  It’s a great way to preserve our pizza garden over the winter and have it even stronger in the spring.  We will be layering it will lots of brown and green goodies.  We will begin with shredded newspaper and then want to build on it with coffee grounds, fruit and veggie scraps, grass clippings and mulch.  If you want to bring us any of these items from home it will help us grow our garden strong! 

In effort to help keep us flu-free, monitor your children at home and please do not bring them to school with a fever (or if they have been running a fever within the last 24 hours).  Additionally, please watch for other warning signs, such as sore throats, achy bodies, extreme fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, or general change in behavior.  Do not hesitate to vaccinate children with both the flu shot and the H1N1 vaccine as well.  We are offering employees incentives to get their shots to help on our end!  Additionally, you should have received the flyer we sent home about the free flu clinics from the Health Department.  If you have the flu, please ring the bell and we will bring your children in or out so you don’t have to worry about coming in and possibly spreading germs.  Thanks for all your help with this! 

SPEECH WEEKLY- Children who speak two languages

Speaking two languages is like any other skill. To do it well, children need lots of practice, which parents can help provide. Without practice, it may be difficult for children to understand or talk to people in both languages.
How do I teach my child to be bilingual?
There are a number of ways to teach children to speak more than one language. You can do the following:
Use two languages from the start. Many children grow up learning two languages at the same time.

Use only one language at home. Your child can learn the second language when he or she starts school.

Give your child many opportunities to hear and practice using both languages in everyday situations.

Will learning two languages cause speech or language problems?
No. Children all over the world learn more than one language without developing speech or language problems. Bilingual children develop language skills just as other children do.
What should I expect when my child learns more than one language?
Every bilingual child is unique. Developing skills in two languages depends on the quality and amount of experience the child has using both languages. The following are some basic guidelines:
Like other children, most bilingual children speak their first words by the time they are 1 year old (e.g., "mama" or "dada"). By age 2, most bilingual children can use two-word phrases (e.g., "my ball" or "no juice"). These are the same language developmental milestones seen in children who learn only one language.

From time to time, children may mix grammar rules, or they might use words from both languages in the same sentence. This is a normal part of bilingual language development.

When a second language is introduced, some children may not talk much for a while. This "silent period" can sometimes last several months. Again, this is normal and will go away.

Financial Memo

December tuition is due on Wednesday, November 25 because of the holiday. When the 27th falls on a weekend or a holiday, tuition is due the closest day PRIOR to the 27th. Automatic credit card payments will be charged on Wednesday, November 25.
 
New tuition rates take effect on November 27, 2009.  Please let us know if this is a financial hardship. Copies of the new rates are located at the front desk.

What’s Cooking?!?!?

Caramel Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
 
Ingredients:
*  1 ½ cups MILKY WAY® Brand Chocolate Covered Caramels
*  1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk (reserve one tablespoon for making the chocolate drizzle)
*  1 box (15 oz.) refrigerated pie crust
*  1 can (15 oz.) solid pumpkin
*  ½ cup sugar
*  ½ teaspoon salt
*  ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
*  2 large eggs
*  ¾ cup whipped topping
*  1 9-inch pie plate
*  Disposable piping bag, or 2 resealable plastic bags
*  Star-shaped pastry tip
 
Directions
 
*  1. Reserve 8 caramels and 1 tablespoon evaporated milk on the side for sauce. Roughly chop the rest of the candy.
*  2. Line pie pan with the prepared pie dough. Sprinkle dough with chopped candy.
*  3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, eggs and remaining evaporated milk until smooth. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.
*  4. Bake in a preheated 425°F for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F, and continue baking for 40-45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
*  5. To decorate the pie top, melt the reserved candy with reserved evaporated milk in microwave for about 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Transfer the mixture into a resealable plastic bag and snip the corner. Set aside.
*  6. Fill a piping bag fitted with star tip with whipped topping, and pipe 16 rosettes around the outside edge of the pumpkin custard. Drizzle with caramel sauce over the rosettes.

CLASS NOTES

 Pelican- Ms. Sue and Ms. Meredith
 Pelicans are having fun with our new toys, including the ABC blocks, and our elephant with shape inserts!  A special thanks to Ina’s mom (from the Rooster room) for donating these items to us!  Jackson and Gray had a great time bouncing our various balls throughout the room.  Sami and Ashlyn enjoyed being our musicians, playing the piano all week long!  Speaking of music, we really enjoy various sounds and Ms. Sue and Ms. Meredith have enjoyed using different sounding toys throughout the room to stimulate us.  We also have a light that we use to shine stars all over the room- it is a hit and keeps our eyes busy!  Keaton has really adjusted to fit right in with us and is starting to enjoy his daily tummy time as well!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and be safe if you are on the busy roads!
 
                              
Kangaroos- Ms. Jen and Ms. Kim
 This week the Kangaroos have had fun searching for a turkey in everything we do!  We made handprint turkeys and placemats.  We made a pretend Thanksgiving dinner and fed our baby dolls a Thanksgiving feast!  During this activity we worked on sharing and helping one another.  We also enjoyed a visit today from Ms. Stacy, our speech specialist.  With her, as well as on our own, we worked on our sign language a good bit.  We also focused on the letter “K”, looking for “K’s” in our books as well as thinking of a bunch of “K” words!  We had puppet plays and made up some outstanding holiday themed shows!  Since the weather didn’t cooperate again, we had to limit our outside time.  We did, however, get to play chase the turkey as well as red light, green light.  Have a great Thanksgiving and safe travels!  See you soon!

 Peacock- Ms. Lee
 What a fun, albeit short week in the Peacock room!  We had such a blast preparing our Stone Soup and Friendship Fruit Salad.  Thank you for all of your contributions and for making our Harvest Friendship Feasts a great success.  During our humanities time this week, we have been working on our Spanish skills, practicing counting from 1 to 10!  In art we continued to work on our Thanksgiving decorations, making all sorts of turkeys for the season.  Our turkey hats were an absolute favorite!  We have been practicing being special friends and have been discussing how to treat our classmates kindly (ex- not hitting, kicking, pushing, biting, and the importance of using our words to describe how we are feeling during the day).  Ms. Lee wishes everyone a very happy Thanksgiving and we look forward to seeing you back on Monday.

Bunny- Ms. Whitney
 Happy Thanksgiving Bunny families and friends!  The bunnies had a wonderful week!  In math we worked really hard on our sorting skills.  We are learning to do so by sorting out colors and shapes.  Riley and Nathan liked playing our color sorting game!  In science, we were experimenting with color mixing.  Emily and Lucas loved getting messy with our paint mixtures!  During language arts, we continued working on our ABC’s and letter recognition.  Nathan, Makayla, and Martin love finding their special letter on the ABC chart!  We have also been learning a good bit of Spanish!  The Bunnies class can count to 5 all by themselves!  We are still working on hello, goodbye, please and thank you.  Encourage your children to practice at home!  It will make a huge difference in learning not only how to say the words, but also what the words mean.  Ms. Whitney wants to wish you and your family a happy and very safe Thanksgiving!  See you Monday!

Walrus- Ms. Erin
 Turkeys, turkeys everywhere!  The Walrus kids have been hard a work!  In math we learned all about time.  We talked about the past vs. present and sequencing of yesterday, today and tomorrow!  We learned about the future by discussing how we grow over time.  We also worked on comparative superlatives with our math manipulatives.  In science we learned about another one of our senses.  We read “The Ear Book”, had a sound show and tell, and played “what is that sound- bingo!”  We all sat together and worked in pairs to guess what it is that we were hearing.  For project green we made a list of outdoor sounds!  Take a look below for all of the noises we might hear outside!  In language arts we discovered and explored the letter “K”!  We came up with words that start with “K”, played find the “K”, and traced “K’s” as well.  We colored our Ready Reader which was called “Dig” and had our weekly community meeting with our Rooster friends.  In art, we made texture art where we painted with different textures we found outside.  We found smooth grass, rough bark, hard sticks, and soft leaves!  We also made fingerprint and footprint turkeys!  Painting to music was also one of our art activities where we listened to a lullaby CD that Bree brought in and painted to the beats and rhythms.  We used different bold colors to create our unique masterpieces and really enjoyed this relaxing activity!  In dramatic play we rowed our class boat and everyone got a chance to go “overboard”!  In social studies we learned all about the first Thanksgiving.  We discussed who was there and the importance of the feast!  For our cooking project, we made delicious Pilgrim Pies!  We first made small, rounds pumpkin cakes and once they cooled we iced one side with cream cheese frosting and topped it with another cake.  We had a great time cooking and an even better time eating our pies!  In humanities, we learned to count to five in Spanish and reviewed our greetings!  We even listened to Ms. Erin sing Happy Birthday in Spanish which we thought was pretty interesting (we laugh every time she sings it!).  We’ve been continually talking about the importance of giving thanks and are looking forward to spending quality time with our families.  Ms. Erin wished everyone a safe holiday filled with lots of laughter and love! 
Outdoor Listening
“Wind”- Sam
“Dogs barking”- Sarah
“Cats”- Bree
“Cars”- Matthew
“Squirrels”- Sophia
“Tractors and dump trucks”- Rye
“Train”- Alan
“Airplane”- Lucy

Reminders and information:  We kicked off our Traveling Tiger adventures at the Torrences!  We’ll continue to send “Pops” (the kids chose his name) home with a different family each weekend.  He has a small travel journal with him so that the student and their family can document his adventures!  Each Monday we’ll share his experience with the class.

Rooster – Ms. Amanda
      This week has been an exciting one in the Rooster classroom as we prepared for Thanksgiving!  In social studies, we shared what we are thankful for.  You can view our responses on the bulletin board outside our classroom. 
      In art, we made turkey “feathers” and handprint turkeys in honor of Thanksgiving.  We also made Indian headdresses so we could pretend to be at the first Thanksgiving feast!  In math, we worked with a variety of shapes during the course of the week.  We sorted shapes, patterned shapes, and worked on shape recognition.  In science, we used our computer program, Encarta kids, to research deserts.  We learned what they are and what types of creatures inhabit them.
      In language arts, we continued working with the letter “K”, focusing on words containing “K” and “K” sounds.  We read several books about the Thanksgiving holiday- our favorite was Franklin’s Thanksgiving!  The highlight of our week was cooking together at our friendship feasts!  Yum!  Thank you to all the families who contributed their supplies and assistance.  Have a wonderful holiday!  Happy Thanksgiving!