GARDEN PARTY MENU

Wednesday May 23, 2012 10:30-11:30

Tomato, Basil Bruschetta- Beal’s

Guacamole or Mango Salsa with Cilantro- Nieman’s

Cucumber Salad with Dill- Breckner’s

Dill Pickles and Mint Tea or Lemonade with MInt- Garcia’s

Veggie Tray with Radish Roses- Wallace’s & Boyle’s

Fruit Salad with Mint- True’s

Chocolate Mint Brownies- Stenger’s

Dirt Cups- Jones

Mint Ice Cream- Wistrom’s

Garden Theme Decor- Skile’s

Garden Art- Your Children!

Please take your child’s work and some freshly grown garden herbs with you.

OUR HARVEST/ TRIMESTER CELEBRATION will be Wed. May 23, 10:30-11:30.  It will be an informal play date and picnic with kindergartners and their parents.  This will be in place of their scheduled lunch.The children’s garden journals and plants they grew will be on display.

Please bring or send a potluck item made with radishes or herbs- basil, cilantro, dill or mint.  Please e-mail me with your culinary talent so we have a variety.  A few suggestions: radish roses with salad dressing, mango salsa or guacamole with cilantro, pizza or pasta with basil, slices of mozzarella cheese, Missouri tomatoes and basil, cucumber salad with dill, dill pickles, fresh fruit with mint, chocolate, mint ice cream, mint tea.  For those with no time for cooking, it would be nice to make it a garden theme celebration.  We need paper plates, napkins, a table cloth…Picnic blankets, and umbrellas welcome.

Thank you for your thoughtful participation in your child’s learning and his or her classmates.   We had Thunder Cake cupcakes made by the Stenger family.  We are expecting tadpoles from the Wallace family and as you heard, we have Pajama Day this Friday.  Thank you.

KINDER GARDEN NEWS FLASH!!! The Wistrom family is planning to get started on building garden boxes for a rooftop and patio garden for The Summit. Grant and Melissa are generously donating money and time.  I would like to welcome our kindergarten families to help fund the project.  Please send cash or checks to The Summit Garden Project to me by Friday May 11.

Another way to help with our current garden is to share your culinary talents and prepare a food item using an herb (basil, cilantro, dill or mint) and radishes we planted. Sampling day to be determined.  Let me know if you are willing to volunteer.

The life learning benefits are endless- health, nutrition, environmental awareness, respect, global consciousness, peace and creative inspiration.  Our goal is to have it finished in time for me to offer a summer garden arts class. The gardens can grow over the summer for everyone to enjoy when they return.

This week was filled with highlights!  Bella, my Himalayan cat, came to school.   At first she was shy.  I heard a child’s voice say “She is playing hide-and-go-seek.” They all seemed to agree.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them otherwise.  Our fluffy friend was petted, brushed, hugged, kissed and loved by every child.  All learning was around her for 1 day.  The children created cats in the style and flair of Laurel Burch. Her artistic cats are known for patterns and gold highlights.  We discovered that she is a mammal.  Her tail is 12″ or 1′ long.  It costs a lot of coin money to care for her. She knows how to tell time when it comes to breakfast and dinner.

Radishes are thriving in our kindergarden.  The herbs are making an effort, but cool temperatures and storms have slowed their growth.  The children are learning about composting and are knowledgeable enough to start one for your home garden.

The Academic Fair is a proud display of the kindergartner’s choice of their favorite work this year.  I hope you stop by.  The grandparent’s and special guests admired the children’s work.  It was a sentimental moment for me to see grandparents answering questions about their childhood memories, knowing that someday their grandchild will cherish them.  Story time  reading came from grandparents.   The stories were Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco and The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster and Chris Raschka.

The children had a Symphony Quartet Concert.  It was an experience to hear how young the musicians were when they started playing the violin, viola and cello.   The children listened to a range from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to Somewhere Over The Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz.  I hope to see you tonight for The Summit musicians spring concert.

On April 25, Kindergarteners were excited to have Ms. Bagby’s cat, Bella, visit. They have been looking at the art of Laurel Burch and her many depictions of cats. It was fun to make observations about Bella. “She’s so fluffy!” commented Weston. Bella didn’t mind getting lots of love and pets from 15 friends either.

On Monday, we planted our flower pot garden.  All week, we nurtured the seeds with a gentle daily watering and sunshine.  Let’s hope the cool temperatures and rain predicted give our seeds a fighting chance.  The kindergartners planted radishes, which are quick to grow and an herb garden with basil, cilantro and dill.  We anticipate food to harvest and would love to have parent volunteers willing to prepare some delicious, healthy recipes for the children to sample.

Just follow these 6 easy planting steps.  !. Cup your hand and warm the baby seeds. 2.  Push back a blanket of soil.  3.  Sprinkle the seeds like Tinkerbell sprinkles pixie dust. 4. Cover the baby seeds and tuck them into the ground.  5. Water gently.  6.  Blow them a kiss and tell them night, night.

Enjoy the photos sent from Laura Skiles this week!

Here are some wonderful photos from the Wonders of Wildlife presentation and from an integrated Pre-K/K class.  Enjoy!

The excitement was contagious as Wonders of Wildlife gave a presentation to enhance our theme of the life cycles and animal characteristics.  ”They’re alive!”  was their first realization.  The kindergartners were allowed to get up close and personal with a bullfrog, salamander, snake, bunny and a turkey vulture.  This presentation and a mammal trunk of furs, animal tracks and skulls from the Conservation Nature Center  allowed children to touch in many instances.   Parents will be billed a small amount for the experience.  Please stay posted for upcoming photos.  

Please make note of a computer program the children were introduced to called Dance Mat Typing www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing.  

The Book Fare is here.  Participation is a great way to encourage reading.  The children and I have made our wish lists.  

Smoothies will start being offered on Fridays.  This is a great chance to buy a healthy snack for a good cause.  Please use the opportunity to apply math skills by having your child practice a variety of ways to make  $1.50.

We are running out of disinfecting wet wipes for classroom cleaning.  Any donations to help us until the end of the year would be greatly appreciated.

I know it is hard to believe, but the children  were able to focus on academics outside the realm of butterflies.

In math, the kindergartners were introduced to time on the half hour, calculators and fractions such as 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4.  Hearing the story of Thunder Cake by Patricia Polloco was a fun way to learn about measuring.  I hope you will save the cake recipe and gather the ingredients  for the next rain storm.  The children learned that calculators  are a useful tool for checking their Mad Minute.

In reading, the kindergartners are becoming experts at identifying nouns, verbs and adjectives.  They are able to pick up any book from their reading folders and find them.  Their journals are reflective of their growing ability to write their thoughts, start sentences with capital letters and end with the correct punctuation.

Our thematic learning has taken a turn as we moved from poetry to facts.  The kindergartners are learning characteristics  about insects, mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles.

I know you have all been waiting for the exciting conclusion to our butterfly news!  We waited to make sure the temperature was warm and the sky was blue and filled with fluffy clouds to let them go.  The children expressed mixed emotions in saying goodbye to their beloved butterflies.  The classroom would seem a little sad and empty without them, but the thought of setting them free to the sky made us happy. One strong butterfly was quick to go.  The others took their time, drinking sugar water from the flowers and fruit and gathering up their strength and courage.  The temptation to touch them was strong.  Many of the children had farewell words:  ”Fly high butterfly.”  Bye bye best buddy.” “Have a nice trip.”  ”I’d kiss you, but humans can’t kiss butterflies.”  ”Be safe crossing the street.”  ”We will miss you.”