Happy Winter

January and February 2010

Dearest parents, the holiday season is over, and we move into the winter months with rain for our garden. I hope all the children had a wonderful time, and am so glad to see them back at school wanting to learn and experience many more new things. Can you believe we have made it to the year 2010, and what wonderful learning experiences await your child.

In the next two months, you child will experience growing things, having a key experience with the rooting and growing of a sweet potato plant in the classroom. Your child will also be introduced to the parts of the leaf and it‘s functions, and be introduced to various leaf shapes. If we get through this, then your child will be introduced to the parts of the roots and their functions. For zoology, your child will be introduced to the concept of vertebrates and invertebrates, and to the life cycle of a reptile, different kinds of reptiles, and the parts of a reptile. The next land forms your child will be introduced to will be the cape and the gulf, and the bay and peninsula. Your child will also be introduced to the seven continents on planet earth, and will be learning a song to help him or here remember the names and recognize them.

Your child will also learn a little bit about the artist, Matisse, be introduced to the composer Chopin, and his music, and will be introduced to the writing of Ezra Jack Keats. We will also continue reading books and stories that tell your child about the season of winter. For grace and courtesy, your child will be working on saying please and thank you, putting on a coat independently, carrying scissors, and giving comfort to a friend.

A few Reminders

Please remember that every Wednesday is a half day for the kindergarten students.

On February 15 there is no school due it being Presidents Day.

Spring break will be during Monday March 8th, to Friday, March 12th.

Please remember to see me before your child’s birthday, so I can tell you about our Circle around the Sun celebration.

If you did not make conference time, please see me so we can reschedule.

Things we need

Paper bags

Red and pink glitter

All colors of paint.

We always need Clorox wipes and baby wipes.

Sponges

Bars of soap

Foam harts

Heart stickers

Valentines day

We will be allowing the children to pass out valentines day cards for their friends. Please do not write names on your child’s card unless they are in kindergarten. This will help facilitate the passing out the cards more expeditiously. I will be passing out a list of children’s names the week before Valentines day.

We will be making Valentine bags in the classroom to hold the cards, so there is no need to bring a bag or box from home.

To conclude, we move forward into the new year, refreshed by rain.

If you get the opportunity, take your child to Flagstaff, so they can experience winter at it’s best.

Enjoy the rain and the greenery to come. Spring is around the corner.

Thank you

Mrs. Niederhauser

Dearest Parents,

-I hope your fall break has been well and relaxing? It was for me, and I was able to get lots of home work done for my classes. I wanted to let all of my families know, that along with work, I am also am in school, henceforth; it is hard to write news letters every month. I will do my best, but am making this one for October and November.

-At this time some of the children have been in school since August, and I am beginning to see a want of learning in each child. I have such an active group of students this year, it is amazing to see them working in the classroom. They are like busy bees, buzzing around from one learning activity to another.

-I have begun the lessons on the solar system, with the reading of books, and with ordering the planets themselves. We will just touch on the solar system, talking about the sun and its importance and then we will put our focus on our special planet earth we will also be learning a song about the solar system. I will also be introducing the parts of the tree and leaf, and we will also be introducing the children to living and non living, and the difference between plants and animals. We will also be learning about Mozart, as well as listening to his music in the classroom. Our author study will be The Winnie the Pooh stories, by A.A. Milne. Please remember that your child is getting lessons in Math, Language, Practical life and sensorial, on a daily and weekly basis.

-We will be celebrating our Heritage on October 21st, celebrating United Nations Day. On this day, your child will be allowed to ware a costume that reflects your family’s heritage, or at least a cultural costume. You will be welcome to come, and see a parade and hear your child sing.
We will also have a pot-luck on this day, so please see classroom for a sign up for items to bring. We look forward to seeing you there.


A few reminders:

Please have your child bring a sweater or jacket to the classroom, as the air conditioning can get really cold.
Please remember that every Wednesday is a half day for the kindergarten students.
The best way to contact me is through e mail at
heather.neiderhauser@phxelem.k12.az.us
There will be no paper news letters, as our school is trying to go green, so only one paper version of this will be posted on the classroom window. Also look for other events there, and please remember to have your child bring a back pack or bag to bring home any school information in paper form.
If you receive an insurance form, please fill it out and return it to me ASAP.

Things we need:

We are going to be planting a garden soon, and our garden is in need of four big bags of soil.
Hand soap
Clorox wipes

Dates to remember:

United Nations Heritage day will be October 21st.
Picture day will be on October 22nd (Please look out for the envelope and such)
Thanks giving break will be form November 23rd to November 27th.)


And so, forward we go into this cooler weather. I look forward to watching your children grow and learn, and am excited for the months ahead.

Happy autumn!

Mrs. Niederhauser

Dearest Parents,

-I hope your fall break has been well and relaxing? It was for me, and I was able to get lots of home work done for my classes. I wanted to let all of my families know, that along with work, I am also am in school, henceforth; it is hard to write news letters every month. I will do my best, but am making this one for October and November.

-At this time some of the children have been in school since August, and I am beginning to see a want of learning in each child. I have such an active group of students this year, it is amazing to see them working in the classroom. They are like busy bees, buzzing around from one learning activity to another.

-I have begun the lessons on the solar system, with the reading of books, and with ordering the planets themselves. We will just touch on the solar system, talking about the sun and its importance and then we will put our focus on our special planet earth we will also be learning a song about the solar system. I will also be introducing the parts of the tree and leaf, and we will also be introducing the children to living and non living, and the difference between plants and animals. We will also be learning about Mozart, as well as listening to his music in the classroom. Our author study will be The Winnie the Pooh stories, by A.A. Milne. Please remember that your child is getting lessons in Math, Language, Practical life and sensorial, on a daily and weekly basis.

-We will be celebrating our Heritage on October 21st, celebrating United Nations Day. On this day, your child will be allowed to ware a costume that reflects your family’s heritage, or at least a cultural costume. You will be welcome to come, and see a parade and hear your child sing.
We will also have a pot-luck on this day, so please see classroom for a sign up for items to bring. We look forward to seeing you there.


A few reminders:

Please have your child bring a sweater or jacket to the classroom, as the air conditioning can get really cold.
Please remember that every Wednesday is a half day for the kindergarten students.
The best way to contact me is through e mail at
heather.neiderhauser@phxelem.k12.az.us
There will be no paper news letters, as our school is trying to go green, so only one paper version of this will be posted on the classroom window. Also look for other events there, and please remember to have your child bring a back pack or bag to bring home any school information in paper form.
If you receive an insurance form, please fill it out and return it to me ASAP.

Things we need:

We are going to be planting a garden soon, and our garden is in need of four big bags of soil.
Hand soap
Clorox wipes

Dates to remember:

United Nations Heritage day will be October 21st.
Picture day will be on October 22nd (Please look out for the envelope and such)
Thanks giving break will be form November 23rd to November 27th.)


And so, forward we go into this cooler weather. I look forward to watching your children grow and learn, and am excited for the months ahead.

Happy autumn!

Mrs. Niederhauser

April and May 09

April and March, 2009

Dearest Parents,

To start, I just wanted to apologize for taking so long to put out a newsletter, as I am in school and facilitating a classroom. I have finally had some breathing room, to be able to get this news letter to you.

Here we are at the end of the school year, already. I wanted to fill you in on what we had done for the month of April, and what we are going to do during the month of March. During the month of April, the children were introduced to the parts of a reptile, specifically the turtle. We got to see a real live turtle, and we read many books about other kinds of reptiles. We also watched butterflies and lady bugs develop and metamorphosis, and we learned the names to the life cycle stages of these animals. In our Botany lessons, we introduced the parts of a leaf and the function of a leaf, and the children began having lessons on the different leaf shapes. An artist that I introduced to the children, and will be continuing to learn about the artist Marry Cassatt. The author, of who’s book we read for the month of April was Helme Heine, who wrote books such as The Marvelous Journey Through the Night. We will continue to work on learning about The continent of South America, so if there are parents who would like to bring in any artifacts for this country, that will definitely be welcome.

During our last month in school, we will finish up learning about South America, and we will introduce the parts of the flower and fruit. We will also introduce the children to the parts of the bird, and the parts of the mammal, and show the students how to classify the five classes of animals into fish, amphibian, reptile, bird and mammal. Towards the end of May, the students will be introduced Arizona, and we will talk about the desert and the animals that live here in our wonderful state. For our composer this last month, we will introduce the students to Fyderyk Chopin, so if anyone has this composer music, or can burn us a copy, we would really appreciate it. The author that I will be focusing on this month will be Dr. Seuss, and his crazy but fun books. In may we will be talking about taking care of our earth and recycling, and we will talk about Mother’s Day and Memorial Day.

Some dates that Mother’s should be aware of, is our annual Mother’s day tea party on May 8th. On this day We are asking all Mom’s to come and hang out with your child in the classroom, between 9:00am to 10:00am. We will be providing iced tea and donuts, as you can come and visit your child’s classroom, and perhaps have them show you a lesson.

Another event to mark on your calendars, is May 26th, as this may be the day that we are going to do the Kindergarten graduation after school. I will have more details about this as we get closer to the date.

Again, we would like to thank all the parents who help our classroom by bringing snack or helping us with other items, such as napkins, cups and Clorox wipes.

To help save paper, we will no longer be making copies of this news letter. We will be sending to parents on the email list, and one copy will be posted in the classroom window. You can also see this information on the Shaw school web sight under teacher blogs, just look for Mrs. Niederhausers.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask at anytime, and we will do our best to get you an answer as soon as possible.

Thank you

Mrs. Niederhauser and Ms. Lipp

February and March news letter

February and March, 2009

Dearest Parents,

The winter months are progressing along with wonderful weather and plenty of rain.
We are sure to see a fantastic spring, and with that will come allergy season. If you are able, we do need more boxes of tissues donated to the classroom, expectation of this season.
Well we do have so much to learn in the next two months, and as we have a two week recess in March for spring break, I thought it best to include that month into the current news letter.
We are going to finish up our studies with the continent of Africa, and to honor this we are going to focus our story time on the Anansi spider stories. We will read many books about this tricky little spider, but we will focus our author studies on the Anansi books by Eric A. Kimmel. The artist that we will study in the next two months will be Degas, and we will be discovering the music of Vivaldi this month. The next continent that we will also begin to introduce and learn about, is the continent of Asia. We will again introduce different peoples of this continent, introduce the puzzle map and name the countries of this continent, and lastly, we will be introduce the children to some animals from this continent. In our zoology studies we will move our learning towards the amphibian, introducing the children to different kinds, and to learning the parts of a frog. In our botany studies, we will introduce the children to the parts of a leaf, the purpose of a leaf for a plant, and we will begin learning the names of different leaf shapes.
As you know we have two holidays this month, the first being Valentines day. We will be giving and receiving valentines on Friday, February 14th, but we will not be celebrating a holiday. We will talk to the children about he significance of this holiday, and go into a little bit of the history for it. We also have Presidents day on February 16th, and will be talking to the children about the importance of this day as well.
Again, I would like to give all of the parents who help donate the snack a big thank you, as the children are so very happy to get snack.
If you are able, our classroom is in need of some supplies, to help us clean up after lunch. Currently we are in need of baby wipes, so if you are able to help us with this, please send some with your child to school.
Thank you to all the parents who helped donate paper bags, plastic zip lock bags and fabric to our classroom. These items will be put to good use.
I also wanted to let all our families know that we will be having our field trip to the child’s museum in march, and will be sending out the permission slips and more detail very soon.
I would like to extend a warm welcome from Sara Lipp, our new class room A.I. Please say hello if you see her. She is very happy to be working with our class, and is very excited to meet and work with your child.
Again if you have any questions, feel free to talk to Mrs. Niederhauser at:
Heather.niederhauser@phxelem.k12.az.us

With the fresh and flowering happiness of spring.
Mrs. Niederhauser and Ms. Lipp

Happy New year, we have lots to do!

Dear Parents,

Welcome back after our winter break. I hope that all of our families had a wonderful holiday season, and all the children got what they asked Santa for. I am so happy to be back in school, and it is wonderful to see all of the children again.
We have lots to do this month, and to start we have introduced the parts of a fish. This is our introduction to the vertebrates. I will be getting a gold fish for the classroom, so that the children can see how a fish lives and eats. I will also be getting books from the library about fish as well as videos. For our Botany studies, we will be introducing the parts of the roots, and we will continue to learn the names of different leaf shapes. In our geography studies, the children will be introduced to the directions of north, south, east, and west, we will review naming the continents, and we will introduce the country of Africa. We will learn about some of the animals on this continent, read stories from there, and see pictures of people from this continent. We will also be introducing the children to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the great endeavors he created for equal rights in our country. The Author for this month will be Beatrix Potter, the author or the Peter rabbit stories, and the artist we will explore this month will be Van Gough.
The composer that the children will be introduced to this month will be the composer Bach, and I will continue to talk to the children about winter and prepare them for the coming of spring.
I would like to extend a big “Thank You” to all the parents who help us with snack, as the children truly love to have food available in the morning. I completely appreciate all the parent participation that takes place for this.
A few things that we will be needing for the classroom: If any parent is willing and able to pick our classroom up some felt from the fabric or craft store, of varied colors. We would like to create more practical life sewing activities available for the kindergarten students, and I have plans to do pouch sewing and pillow sewing with them. We are also in need of two more embroidering hoops and some small glass breads. If you are able to help with this, please see Mrs. Niederhauser.
We are also planning to do a waking field trip to the Children’s Museum by the end of the month or the beginning of February. Unfortunately due to the schools budget crunch, parents will have to pay for their children to attend this field trip, but I thought this heads up would help. It will cost $9.00 for each person who goes, whether they are a parent or a child. I will put our information when a date has been solidified for this event.
Our classroom will be going through some staff changes. Ms. Rojas will be leaving us to seek full time educational opportunities with in a week, and we will be getting a new teaching aid in the classroom. Please feel free to wish her the best in her educational endeavors. The children will miss her, however, they will not forget her.
I am also currently seeking a new laundry parent, as we do not have a volunteer for this job anymore. If you would like to help our classroom out with this job, please see Mrs. Niederhuaser
Again it is wonderful to be back with the children at school, and we have lots to do.
I look forward to all the wonderful things the children will be learning this month.
If you have any question, please feel free to call me, email me, or just ask.

Thank you

Mrs. Niederhauser.

Hello this is Mrs. Niederhauser, and soon I will be posting information on this blog.
This will be a good place for parents to get information on what we are currently learning.
At the moment our Author study will be about Jane Brett, henceforth, we will be reading her books. If you have the book " The Mitten," we would love to borrow it from you. We have also introduced the children to what a vertebrate and and invertebrate can be defined as, and the children are practicing this knowledge by classifying these different kinds of animals. We have also introduced the parts of the tree, and have we have read a book about the pine tree, in honor of Christmas trees you may have at home. We will also be introducing the children to the holiday of Hanuka, Kwanza, and Christmas. We will aslo be introducing the children to winter, and the many wonderful things that can be found during this season.