TCNS E-News 9/10/12

What a stupendous first week!!    

Your kids are adorable and adjusting well to the routines of school.  

We are off to a  fantastic and smooth start!!

A couple of announcements…..

 
There were a record number of Lunch Bunch applicants for Session 1, so we will need to conduct a lottery.  Notices regarding lunch bunch will go in the cubbies this week.

 

Trinity Church will be honoring children and teachers on Sunday, September 16^th in the 10:30 worship service.  Each year they do this in a sweet and kid-friendly way.  You will be receiving an email from TCNS parent, Beth Beeler, to invite you to this meaningful morning.  I hope to see you there!

Our TCNS Open House is on Sunday September 30 from 3:30 – 5:00.  There will be games, crafts, and FUN on the lawn and the classrooms will be open so the kiddos can give tours to family members.  There is an optional pizza dinner to follow.  For more details please check the flyer in your Parent Orientation folder.

 

School is closed on 

Monday, September 17 

and 

Wednesday, September 26^th.   

We close for the same holidays as Wilmette District 39. 

Have a great day!!! - Sue

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TCNS E-NEWS

Just some quick reminders...

Parent Child Meditation Workshop:
Friday, April 20^th   2:00 – 2:45. 
Cost $5 / pair. 

Children must be at least 4 years old.  Space is limited! 

RSVP to sue@trinitywilmette.org

Emerald City Theater Troupe is coming to Trinity on May 3 at 4:15 to perform If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.   

Friends of Trinity welcome!
Admission is a new or gently used book. 
We will be collecting books for the entire month of May and donate them to Bernie’s Books, an organization dedicated to promoting literacy in underprivileged areas. 

If you are purchasing Grocery Dollars and Giftscards, the forms are due on Friday, April 20^th

Have a wonderful week!! 

TCNS e-NEW & Behind the 4am & 4pm

TCNS e-News Week of April 2nd

We are in the home stretch, but there are LOTS of fun things ahead! 

 Take out your calendars and make note of the following UPCOMING EVENTS:

Parent / Child Mediation Workshop on Friday, April 20th: 
For ages 4 and up only. 

This 45 minute workshop is a follow-up to the March 8th Parent Workshop on Building Resilience.  

Fee is $5.  Space is limited so register early to sue@trintywilmette.org.  

Reach Out and Read Kickoff on Thursday, May 3rd at 4:15. 

The Emerald City Theater Troupe will be on site to present
"If You Give a Cat A Cookie." 

Admission will be one new or gently used book that we will donate to Bernie’s Books, an organization dedicated to bringing books to underprivileged kids. 

We are proud to partner will Bernie’s Books to promote literacy!   Friends and alums welcome!
 

End of the Year Celebration on May 20th: 
Dennis DeBondt will return to entertain our kids with his hilarious brand of magic!

Optional pizza party to follow. 

Behind the Classroom Doors...
4AM & 4PM

Fun things are happening in class! 

The classes kicked off their art unit with Van Gogh. 
They learned about still life art and painted a still life in the style of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. 

Soon they will learn about Picasso, Monet, and Matisse, and our art gallery will GROW.

This was a busy week with Centers, Music, Spanish, and….. Cooking!


The kids cut corn tortillas, painted oil on them and baked them for homemade tortilla chips!

They used the chips to dip into their homemade guacamole. 

Thank you, Miss Laurie, for the fun cooking projects!

Of course, they also had lots of time to play with their friends – both inside and outside!

If you have not already done so, please stop by your local school to register for Kindergarten. 

The District will conduct the AM/PM lottery later this month.

Behind the Classroom Doors 3PM & 4s (3/23/12)

A look behind the classroom doors of 3pm, 4am & 4pm...

3 PM

We had the BEST time during our nutrition unit and we saved the very best for last!  

On Monday the kids dictated responses to the questions,

“What did you, learn about food?”
and
“What was your favorite activity during our food unit?” 

All the hands on cooking was a big hit with everyone! 

On Wednesday we took a pretend trip to the Trinity Restaurant.  

We moved one of our little tables to the parlor and set it with a tablecloth plus a vase with flowers.

We explained to the kids that the teacher would be a hostess, waitress, chef, and cashier. 

Lillian then said,
“But then you change back into a teacher, right?!”  

Each child had a menu and enough money to order 1 of everything on the menu. 

When the check came they needed to figure out how much to pay the cashier.  

It was fun and challenging!!  

One aspect of the trip to the restaurant that is hard to capture in words, is how they took on a “fancy restaurant persona.”

  
Picture the kids with their napkins on the their laps displaying manners fit for a king / queen! 
It was so fun!

Today we donned chef hats and made personal pizzas!! 

They were DELICIOUS!!! 

I strongly recommend Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough!! 

And, if they wanted a pizza with the works then every food group was represented!

Combine all that fun inside with lots of running around outside... and you have a great week!! 

The 4s AM & PM

We blasted off into fun territory – space!! 

We are learning about the planets and the sun, and using the appropriate vocabulary such as orbit. 
(The planets orbit the sun!) 

We enjoyed acting this out – one child is the sun and several children are the planets. 

The planets rotate as they orbit. 
All of a sudden – these words have meaning to the children!!   

The absolute best part of this week was that we spent lots of time outside in our playground! 

Wow – what a gift!!

 

More from 4AM

Had a visit from Kari for Spanish and Valerie Dashiell for science. 

We had 3 centers on Centers Day.

At one center the kids played alphabet sound bingo.  

At another center the kids did a dot to dot and number tracing worksheet using the numbers 1 – 20. 

At the third center the kids worked together to write a story. 

Every child added to the story. 
Then they acted it out. 

We will be doing lots more of this after break!

 

4PM

On Tuesday we used the letter vests to sound out short A words. 

The kids are getting GREAT at this – they are starting to crack the code!!

We also had a visit from Kari for Spanish and Valerie Dashiell for science.   

 

We had 2 centers on Centers Day. 

At one center the kids did a dot to dot and number tracing worksheet using the numbers 1 – 20. 

At the other center the kids worked together to write a story. 

Every child added to the story. 
Then they acted it out. 

We will be doing lots more of this after break!

Drum roll please...

Our fundraising team has been very busy reconciling, calculating, and crunching numbers and …. 

the grand total of our Benefit is $49,000 net! 

 Thank you all so VERY, VERY much for your generous support of our school!  

 The money raised from our benefit will be used to finance our Music Programs,  Science Program, Spanish, Teaching Assistants and special projects.   

We could NEVER have done it without YOU!!!!  

Speaking of the Benefit

Here are some great pics taken by 

Michelle Flood, Kimberly Newman and Alton Smith...

 

 

Behind the 4-5s Classroom Door... (March 1st, 2012)

Life is so wonderful in our classes – you might even say it’s a bit like Camelot!

Your kids are enjoying all the discussion of castles and life in the middle ages.  

This will culminate with our Camelot Ball on Tuesday, March 6th. 

Parents are invited to join us for the last 15 minutes of class to enjoy the dubbing ceremony and the dancing.  

We had an especially FUN time at Centers today. 

One was an art center and the children decorated castles. 

One center was devoted to graphing jelly bean stickers to match a corresponding number.  

The final center was a blast!
The children were shown picture cards and as a group they named the initial sound.   Then, they wrote that letter – in shaving cream!

FUN!!!!

Kari Grace comes once a week to do a Spanish circle time complete with songs and movement activities.  

The children know colors, numbers, some weather words, family words, and common nouns. 

And they are learning it all while having FUN!
 
So….. that’s a peek behind our doors.......  into Camelot!!

Behind the 3PM Classroom Doors...

3pm Class Update

It’s been a while since our last class update and there is LOTS to report!!   

We never told you how ADORABLE your kids were at the Valentine’s Day party.    

We made a circle of chairs and each child went around and mailed their own cards.    

 They loved it!!

 Your kids really enjoy cooking!

We are now studying nutrition, or as we call it - 

Food That Makes Your Body Grow.    

We begin by introducing the concept of healthy food  as food that can be eaten always, and non-healthy food as food that can only be eaten sometimes and in small amounts.    

 

Today each child was given a picture of food and they needed to decide if their food belonged on the SOMETIMES or ALWAYS side of our chart.

We will soon learn more about each food group.   

We will slice, dice, cook, and taste our way through this unit!  

 Our studies will culminate with a trip to the Trinity Restaurant!  Fun never tasted so good!!

Miss Laurie recently delighted us with 2 cooking activities.  

 Check out the recipes below.   

CHOCOLATE DIPPED PRETEZLES

Put peppermint candy in sealed baggies and crush them with toy hammers.

Melt chocolate chips.

(Adding a spoonful of Crisco to the chips before your melt them ensures that the chocolate stays soft.)  

Roll pretzel logs in melted chocolate

Sprinkle peppermint candy on top

 

SOFT PRETZELS

 Mix and let sit 5 to 10 minutes:
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 packet active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
 
Mix together and combine with wet ingredients:
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour

Knead and shape into pretzels. (We made our initials)   Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees or until done.
 
Have fun!

TCNS e-News February 3rd

TCNS e-News

February 3rd 2012 

PLEASE let Sue know if you did not receive your invitation to the Benefit!!   

We hope YOU will be there!

The slide show is always heartwarming, and this year there will be a short film (complete with hilarious dialogue) featuring every class!

So, please join us on the Red Carpet!

February 25^th

Return your RSVP today!

Classroom Valentine’s Day Parties will be held on the 13^th and 14^th of February!   

Watch for details via classroom emails.

Interested in going to a Justin Roberts concert???  Contact Beth Beeler at babeeler@hotmail.com

And now... let’s  take a tiny peek behind the classroom doors...

Parent Tot kids are amazing!! 
There have been no tears!

Wooo Hooo!

And they loved their visit from Miss Wendy this week!

Ready Two Grow painted heart shaped bubble paper and then made a print of it.   

COOL!!

The 3’s made their binoculars and maps and are ready for their Polar Expedition!

 Kids can bring a backpack and flashlight on Monday!

If yesterday was Thursday, the 4’s enjoyed Centers! 

At Center 1 the kids played Alphabet Bingo, but to make it more challenging, they were told the letter sound and name, but not shown the letter!   

Center 2 was a fun game of Go Fish with numbers.   

Center 2 involved comparing and contrasting several objects.   
(We used the words same and different with the kids.) 
It was wonderful how many different attributes the children were able to identify and compare!

The AM KE Kids enjoyed pancakes in their jammies on Pajama Day! 

The PM KE kids poured oil and water into a soda bottle to demonstrate that oil and water don’t mix!!

After playing with Iris B., Ben S. was overheard saying to himself,”Wow!  That was some shirt Iris was wearing!” 

Tyler V. and Brock B. were in the bathroom together washing their hands for snack.  Just then, Ty looked at Brock in the mirror and noticed that he was wearing a Trinity shirt.  “Hey!!” Ty said.  “I have a bag like that!”