Beautiful Wreaths

Our beautiful holiday wreaths went in the Lobby today for the silent auction to raise money for Promise to Kate.  Make sure to stop in and make a bid on one of the beautiful auction items, but pay special attention to the reindeer and snowmen wreaths that our children made!  It wouldn't have been possible without your donations for the supplies and without Kelly Quedado's (our wonderful Room Mom's) help on every single detail!  Thank you all!

Update:  We were able to give Promise to Kate over $1500 from the sales of our silent auction!  Woo hoo!

Radishes! Radishes!

The radishes are ready for harvest so it was to the garden we went!  The children have pulled the radishes several times over the past weeks to see the different stages but they were still surprised at how big the radishes had gotten.  They took their bounty inside and talked about the different parts of the plant  and used their five senses to write about the radishes before they cleaned them for eating.  Many of the children had not had radishes before and they were surprised at the "spicey" taste.  After tasting, about half the students said they would eat radishes again!  Not bad, but next time we'll remember the Ranch!

May the Fork Be With You!

 We added our class ornaments to the Chets Creek holiday tree today.  So... going with the school theme of "Recipe for Success" we added our little forks (hehehe).  The tree includes a picture of every single child at Chets Creek!  Make sure to stop in and find the picture of your child!

Promise to Kate

Every year each class at Chets Creek chooses a "Seasons of Giving" project to help teach our children the lessons of giving and service.  Some classes are collecting markers and school supplies in support of former first grade teacher Beth Young who left the Creek to do full time mission work in Africa.  Other classes are collecting coloring books that will be donated to Wolfson Children's Hospital.  One class is collecting blankets for the homeless...  The projects are as varied as the classes.

Our class has decided to support a project near and dear to the Chets Creek heart.  It is a foundation called Promise to Kate, founded by  Kindergarten teacher Elizabeth Conte and her husband Dave, after their daughter Kate was born with myotonic muscular dystrophy, a very rare form of MD.  The foundation supports research with a goal of a cure in Kate's lifetime and also supports families that need the services of Wolfson Children's Hospital.

Before we left for the holiday Elizabeth came to our class with Kate to tell them about Kate's condition and to let them meet Kate.  Kate demonstrated her ability to say the letters of the alphabet and letter sounds to the delight of the children. Elizabeth shared with them about Kate's lack of tone and early development and how hard Kate has worked for things they often take for granted.  They were enthralled with every word that Elizabeth said and loved meeting Katie Bug.

Our class will join other classes at Chets in making a gift for the silent auction.  The money raised from our gift will be donated to Promise to Kate. Don't forget to stop by the Lobby and make an offer on one of the silent auction gifts and to tour all the service projects that the children at Chets have supported this season.

It is important that our children learn the value of service to others and that they are empowered to understand that they can make a difference. Our children have met Kate and will see her as she already walks the hallways for physical and occupational therapy and for Speech and Language services before she goes to preschool. They will see her as she grows up in the Chets family and they will know that they have had a hand in making a difference. We are so proud to be helping to support a project so close to home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The last day before the holiday was our tribute to Thanksgiving.  We watched a video about the first Thanksgiving to help us understand why we celebrate and why this day is so special.  Then we learned about the "Legend of the Five Kernels."  We learned that the Pilgrims had almost starved in their first year after landing on Plymouth Rock and so they put five kernels of corn on their plate in the next years to remind themselves of how thankful they were for the harvest and Native Americans that helped them survive.  They were thankful for many other things including their families, their creator and their freedom.  Each of the children then had a chance to write the five things they were most thankful for - from freedom and family to toys and video games!

After talking about how the Pilgrims' clothes looked different from ours today, we finished the activity by making a snack that looked like a Pilgrim hat.  Yum!  The Pilgrims certainly would have been thankful for that!

Next we made a "Gimme Five" board!  Each child turned a hand print - 5 fingers -  into an original turkey.  When they finished we lined the turkeys up so that we could count by 5's! Gobble!  Gobble!

 At the end of the day we made turkey hats!  Our little gobblers strutted around and were probably the cutest turkeys that you have ever seen!

As we leave for this holiday we leave with thankful hearts.   Each day we have the honor and the privilege to come to school and work with the most precious first graders -  who fill our hearts with joy and our days with smiles and laughter.  It just doesn't get any better than this!  May your Thanksgiving be filled with fun, family and warm memories.

Diamond D

There's nothing like visiting a farm to gets you in the mood for fall and our visit to the Diamond D Ranch was a blast.  Although our bus was the last to arrive at the ranch (because our bus driver had no idea where we were going and didn't follow the other buses), the children lost no time in jumping off and going straight to the horse rides when we arrived.  For some of the children, it was their first time riding a horse and for some it was their favorite part of the day!

Another favorite was the drum roll.  The children had the choice to just swing back and forth or to to go all the way around.  Most children decided to go all the way around.  A few just wanted to go back and forth and a few opted to get off at the first swing and a few even decided not to ride at all.  We honored all choices.

Next it was off on a hay ride.  The children went into the cow pasture and watched as the cows gathered around.  The children fed the cows from the trailer.  I think we were all surprised at how long the cows tongues were.  What fun!

We stopped by the petting farm and got to feed goats and turkeys.  The squeals of laughter were music to our ears as the goats ate right out of the children's hands!

Our final stop was a nature walk.  We identified maple trees and learned about the sap that comes from the trees up North to make maple syrup.  We also learned that the black pine trees were from a controlled burn.  Mrs. Ruark reminded us about the woodland ecosystem that we had been studying and we guessed some of the animals that might be in the brush that we could not see.  I think a few of the children wondered if there were hidden snakes for the rest of the walk!

We stopped by the pond and fed the catfish.  We also saw lots of tadpoles and baby frogs.

What a great time with friends!

Home again.  Home again. Jiggedy jig!