Our school year is off to a great start! We are very fortunate to have such a great group of students this year! Each one brings his/her own uniqueness and charm to the class!

This past month has been very exciting. We have been getting used to our daily routines, getting to know each other, and learning how to make good choices. As a class we have made up five classroom rules that we have posted in the front of our circle area. The rules are: Walking Feet, Quiet Voices, Good Listening, Hands To Self, and Fingers Out Of Mouth. We have learned about germs and what happens when they get into our bodies. We did a really fun science experiment using paper baggies to represent skin and sand to represent germs. The kids really connected to this hands-on-experiment. After participating in this activity, our friends decided to add the last rule (hands out of mouth) because they did not want those icky germs inside of our bodies making us sick.

Have you heard about “Bailey” and “Sunny” yet? If not, ask your child! Bailey and Sunny are our new classroom pets. They are both female Chinese Dwarf Hamsters. The children love to observe the hamsters, feed them, and even help to carefully clean out their cage. We have also had a recent donation of two male Beta fish. Although they are currently unnamed, we are sure to take a vote fairly soon!

This week we are focusing on signing our names each morning and adding our sign-in slips to the “job jar.” Each child has the opportunity to be picked for a job during the day, and what an incentive to sign in that is! We have also been focusing this week on colors. We have done some fun color mixing experiments using paint, and also mixing food coloring with water to make a rainbow of colors in baby food jars. We have made homemade orange play-doh and rolled it out with real oranges to make impressions in it. We have made a book called “Our Favorite Colors” and are able to actually sing it to the class! The kids have really enjoyed these activities and are able to enjoy them throughout the week around our room.

Looking ahead:

• Next week our theme will be “shapes”! Be on the lookout for some really fun and colorful art projects.
• Fall Portraits are next week! If you have not received the paperwork with your child’s portrait day, please let us know! Lil’Angels Photography will be at Pembroke Kids on September 27, 28 and 29^th.
• October 5^th: All School Field Trip to Burnham Orchards – rain or shine! There will be no classes this day, and parents are responsible for transporting and supervising their own children for the entire field trip.

Can you believe it’s Fall already? Please visit your child’s extra clothes bin at your convenience to change out some summer clothing for some more appropriate cooler weather ones. It may be a good idea to pack a sweatshirt or light jacket each day for your child as we have already had the weather drop a few degrees between the start of the day and our recess time. We don’t want our friends to get sick.

As always, if you have any questions please let us know!