Video Below

I noticed your comments about the video below not loading right. I changed one of the settings on it to see if that helps. Let me know if this one works. :-)

Class Info List

I will be putting together our class information list this next week. Below is a list of the names I have that have requested to be on the list. If your child's name is not on the list and you would like to share your number and email with the class, please let me know either by e-mail or by putting a star by your child's name on the sign-in sheet.

Thanks!

Amelia
Cali
Ellie
Isaac
Jack
Josie
Lola
Madeline
Madison
Tate

Tasty Treat

I thought you might enjoy the recipe we used today to make our Friendship Mix. It was really yummy. If you are looking for an easy snack to make, it's great. If you are looking for a healthy snack...well....ok it's not that healthy. :-)

Ingredients: Sugar, cinnamon, pretzels, M&Ms, craisins, chex cereal, butter

The ingredients are really up to you. Nuts would be a good addition but I can't use them at school.

The amount is up to you too. I put in about a cup of M&Ms, a cup of craisins, 2 cups of pretzels and like 5 cups of chex cereal.

I started by mixing sugar and cinnamon in a big bowl. How much is up to you. My first batch I didn't use a lot. It wasn't that great. The second batch I probably used a couple cups of sugar and added cinnamon until it was just a little "cinnamony." :-)

Then I poured in all the other ingredients except the butter.

Then I melted a stick of butter, poured it on top and mixed it all together.

Then I put it on a cookie sheet and baked it at 350 for like 5-10 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy!

Video

To enjoy this video, make sure you turn the volume up on your computer and listen to the kids in the background.

A couple of important pieces of info...

1) Prior to being on the loft, A. had been building a tower. Faye knocked it down. You'll hear him talking to her about it.

2) Also prior to being on the loft, I. had been playing keyboard and A. had wanted to play it. You'll see I. come up on the loft in the middle and talk to A.

Originally I had turned the camera because S. was reading the book out loud. It was nice to capture the kids being good friends as a bonus! :-)

Friendship Week

We've had a good wee working on our friendships. Today the kids found a buddy in the beginning of the day and spent their day with that buddy. It was nice to see new friends connecting. I put up a few photos of the last couple of days. I'm working on uploading a new video as well.

For now, enjoy the photos! www.apriln.shutterfly.com

Title: Friendship Week - September 22-28

All About Me Week 2

This past week I've been spending my home time getting ready for my in-laws visit. They arrived on Thursday and we've been running around Portland and Vancouver, showing them around. :-) So, to keep it easy, I put all our photos from this past week in one album.

Title: All About Me Week 2, Sept 2007

http://www.apriln.shutterfly.com/

I won't be joining you for class on Monday so I can spend one last day with family before they head back home to South Dakota. Teacher Denise will be there and has lots of fun planned for the day! :-) See you again on Tuesday!

All About Me Week - Friday

I just caught a few pictures of the kids playing together today. You'll notice some of the photos of the peg boards. It's one of the kids' favorite choices during free time and it's a great fine motor activity. :-)

http://www.apriln.shutterfly.com/

Title Album: All About Me Week - Friday, Sept 14

All About Me Week - Thursday

Our morning class cracked me up this morning. We decided to go outside even though the weather wasn't overly nice. I'm glad we did because they had sooooo much fun together! The entire class ended up playing "Trip to Disneyland.." together. At first a few of them were on the boat searching for treasure. Then they ended up inviting the entire class (including Denise and I) to join them on the boat to take a trip to Disneyland. They would then say we arrived and run into the house where they would take turns being the different characters. Isaac was walking around saying he was Donald Duck and talking in a silly voice saying, "hello, I'm Donald Duck, nice to mee you" as he shook kids hands. Then they would all run back to the boat. This went on for quite a while.

Our afternoon class today were crazy, wild on the playground! They had so much fun chasing each other around, acting silly on the slide, trying to ride the horses together (although not very successfully) and more. You'll see in the photos, they were just having such a good time together.

A new album has been added to: http://www.apriln.shutterfly.com/

The album is titled: All About Me Week, Thursday, Sept 13

And who says girls don't like playing with trucks and planes? The girls in this video below had been playing together for quite a while before I got out my camera and they continued to play for a while after I turned it off as well. The structure is a little airport. They are trying to land planes and helicopters on the roof and apparently crashing into each other. :-)

Some New Info

We're having a great week this week! It's always fun to watch the kids playing together and getting to know one another. I especially enjoyed watching our afternoon class dress-up and engage in make-believe together today!

A few important things...

1) Please have your child try to go to the bathroom when they arrive at school, prior to coming to class.

2) Even if they don't have to go to the bathroom, please have them wash their hands before coming in. Being so close to each other, we easily pass germs and spread illness. Washing hands prior to coming to class will help some of that. You may also want to wash their hands before you leave school after picking them, to try and keep some of those germs from going home with you. :-)

3) Lastly, please make sure you check your child's cubby every day and take any items in it with you. Most children share their cubby with someone else so it's important that they get cleared out every day after class.

Thanks for your help on these things and thanks to everyone who has signed up to volunteer! If you didn't get a chance to sign up this time, don't worry, we've got all year ahead of us! :-)

All About Me Week

We took advantage of the beautiful day today and took a walk around the school. We talked about the things that are "living" and "non-living." We learned that things that are alive require food, water and air. Tomorrow and Thursday we'll be making picture charts of living and non-living things and we have a story to read about those things.

Also, I just wanted to let you know that if you see a project made by other children but not by your own, it may be that your child simply chose not to do the project or that they weren't in class on the day we did the project. Teacher Denise and I believe that the kids should never be forced to do things they don't want to do, such as art projects. We encourage it and give them several opportunities to do the project and then if they still choose not to, we don't push the issue. A perfect example is the "What I like" booklet we've been working on this week. Not all children will have a page in the book because some of them were just having too much fun playing with friends to stop and make their page. :-)

I updated the "Individual Photos" album with the rest of the kid's pictures today. I think I only have one child I haven't gotten yet. :-)



Also, I added another new album today: All About Me Week - Tuesday, Sept 11.



Here's the link to the photo website: http://www.apriln.shutterfly.com.

Heads Up

When I logged out of Shutterfly a minute ago I noticed that they offer you a link for $10 off your next purchase. A lot of online companies are doing this now so you may have seen it before. I just wanted to warn that if you sign up for what they are offering, you will begin being charged on your credit card for an amount of some sort. I must have done it at one point on another site because I was getting charged $14.95 every month on my credit card and it was several months before I noticed.

Anyway, just wanted you to be aware of that in case you hadn't seen it before. I LOVE the internet and I LOVE shopping online, but you do have to be careful as I'm sure you all know! :-)

Kid's Individual Photos

We're working on a class booklet that will be all about the things we like. We're working on getting everyone's picture to include in the project. I got several of them today and will continue to add to the album the rest of the week. They should all be done by Thursday. :-) When we finish the booklets I'll put them out for everyone to enjoy.

www.apriln.shutterfly.com

The album title is: Kid's Individual Photos.

Ok, I Think I've Got It...

Ok, so I went to Shutterfly to check out how things work over there. :-) I created a webpage that will contain all my albums. The website is http://apriln.shutterfly.com/action/.

Whenever I post a new album I'll let you know on this blog by writing the title of the album. I don't think I can provide a direct link to the album like I used to.

I have password protected the photo site so I will put the password in your cubbies next week. You can always e-mail me and ask me for it too.

You'll still be able to purchase pictures from the site by creating an account. You can also leave comments on our photos if you create an account. Oh yeah, you can always leave comments on this blog as well. It's a fun way to communicate with everyone! :-)

Questions? Let me know!

Photo Change Information

When logging into my www.imagestation.com account I discovered that they are closing their site! :-( However, all my images will be transfered to Shutterfly and we will be able to continue accessing them.

I have already started the transfer so you may not be able to access the photos that I've linked to in the blogs below. When I figure out how to access them in my new account at Shutterfly, I'll let ya know!

Until then.... :-)

A Successful First Week

Well we made it through our first week! Already I see little friendships blossoming and new skills being learned. Teacher Denise and I are having lots of fun getting to know your little ones and you as well! Don't forget, if you ever have a question or anything, please always feel free to drop me an e-mail.

Next week I hope to have a "parent volunteer form" up and ready to be filled out. There will be openings for people to make playdough, cut out craft materials and wash our dress-up clothes. We'd love your help with any of these things but of course volunteering is never required at Little Acorn. :-)

Anyway, enjoy these photos...

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2087771199

Our First Day!

We had a great first day of school today! Moms and dads, you did such a great job dropping your little ones off with positive attitudes! I know you probably want to linger when they are crying but you did such a great job hugging them and releasing them to have a good day and they did have a good day! All of them! Hopefully all of your first day jitters were relieved by receiving happy kids at the end of our day. :-)



Click on the link below to enjoy some photos of our day! Photos of both morning and afternoon classes are included...





http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2087829243