Last Week Of School!

I can't believe this is the last week of school!!!
Friday will be our End Of Year Class Party.  It will be on campus at St. Matthew's and all parents are welcomed to come!  On Friday, lunch will be provided but please pack a snack for your child.  We will be dismissing at our regular time - 1:00pm. 

THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you for all of the amazing and heartfelt teacher appreciation gifts!!  Also, thank you for coming to the Mother's Day Tea!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did :)

I'm placing the last scholastic book order for the year this week.  Please order asap - the easiest way is to look online and order/pay using their website.  Otherwise, look for the order forms this week - money due Friday.

In case you haven't ordered online before here are the directions:

Scholastic Book Orders Now Available Online!

Scholastic now offers parents the option to order books online. When you do this, not only do you get a great bargain and earn books for our classroom!!

Ordering online is fairly simple:

1. Go to the parent sign in at Scholastic.com
2. *Click "Don't have a User Name and Password?"
3. *Click "If you have a 5-digit code from your child’s teacher,
   click here to register."
4. *Enter "1FBVH" for the 5-digit code
5. *Create your account, click submit
6. Browse the available catalogs by clicking on the "place an order" button for the catalog you want to view.
7. Once you find a book you would like to order, change 0 to 1 (or how ever many) then click the "Update Qty." button
8. When you are finished shopping, click the "checkout" button at the top of the page.
9. Once you've entered your payment information, the books will be ordered and then shipped directly to our classroom. Once I receive the books, I will give them to your child(or put them in his/her backpack).
10. Yeah! You've now helped build our classroom library(by earning points for our class) at the same time you added to yours at home :) THANK YOU!!

Claire Crosses the Monkey Bars

Katie Crosses the Monkey Bars

Feel What You Want, Control What You Do

I found this short article (http://www.pbs.org/wholechild/providers/dealing.html) and thought I'd share part of it:

One of the most valuable skills we can teach children is how to express strong emotions without hurting themselves, others or damaging property. What we want our children to learn is: feel what you want, but control what you do. Begin by communicating with the child in a non-judgmental way, showing her you understand how she feels. Perhaps she's angry or sad because someone won't let her play or perhaps she wants something so badly, she can't wait another minute for it. Whatever the cause, the first thing to do is to put those feelings into words for her. Encourage the child to say the feelings out loud and tell the other person how she feels. If the child's too young or inexperienced to know what to say, model a simple sentence for her to copy. Finally, do whatever else is necessary to resolve the situation.
        Of course, adults lose their temper and must learn to control their anger. The important thing to remember is that the same rule applies: feel what you want, but control what you do. You can't fool children by denying you are upset or angry or frightened. It's better to simply admit it as calmly as possible.

Doodlebug!!

Addie & Welden helped Doodlebug with a magic trick!

Clowning Around

Grant & Ben clowning around!

Today we introduced our Circus unit... the kids hads fun clowning around, listening to stories about the circus & painting clowns!  Next Friday, Doodle Bug will be putting on a show for our class:)