Easter next week!

Hi Yellow Duck Families,

We appreciate Mr. Dylan (Garrett’s Dad) for coming in on Friday and teaching us all about Bees and Bee Keeping. We really enjoyed learning about what Bee Keepers do and how Bees help us in our world.

Next week we will learn about Easter, and how much Jesus loves all of us! We will be making special stained glass windows with a cross to remember Jesus. Also we are looking forward to some fun Easter Activities on Easter Eggstravaganza on Thursday, April 18th from 10:00-11:15. Ms. Kelsi and Ms. Alexis will be helping with the 6 stations and Egg Hunt afterwards we will be doing all of this with our Whale Friends.

We will need for each child to bring in 6 plastic Eggs with a surprise inside (candy treat, or sticker, or little toy) Please send them in on Monday or Tuesday.

Rosalie will be bringing in snacks this next week.

And remember we have off on Friday, April 19th due to the holiday, Good Friday .

Happy Easter! Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

April update and Easter Celebration

Hi Yellow Duck Families,

The children were so happy today to be back with all their friends! We hope you all enjoyed some time with your families over Spring Break!

We will be learning all about Plants and Seeds. Ask your child what seed they planted today? Marigold, Cosmos, or Green Beans? We will move into Insects next week, and we are very excited about our 5 caterpillars! We are watching them grow, and being scientists as we watch to see what happens to them in the next few weeks.

We have a special Easter Celebration called Easter Eggstravaganza planned on Thursday, April 18th. We will have 6 fun Easter Stations with our Whale Friends: Dying Hard Boiled Eggs, Making a Bunny Headband, making an Easter Basket, Decorating and eating a sugar cookie, Singing with Ms. Rebecca, Egg on a Spoon Race.

Then afterwards we will have an Egg Hunt with our Whale Friends on the Playground.

The following week we will learn about Earth Day and Recycling, then move into Animals on the Farm.

Important Dates:

  • Picture Day April 10th

  • Easter Eggstravaganza Thursday April 18th

  • No preschool on Good Friday April 19th

  • April 28th, Preschool Sunday at Christ Church, 9:45

  • Field Trip to Maple View on May 1st.

Happy Spring!! Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Saint Patrick's Day and Spring

We had so much fun making a Leprechaun House/Trap to try and catch a Leprechaun over the weekend! Be sure to look at our Class Photo Album so you can see some awesome pictures of us working as a team on this. Also Thank you to Max’s Mom for making a beautiful rainbow fruit snack tray with chocolate gold coins and marshmallow clouds! We loved it!!

On Monday, be sure to send your child to school wearing Green! We thought it would be fun to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day by having an all green snack, and looking out for treasure from the Leprechaun.

We will move into Spring next week! Be sure to notice our Class Mural of Spring on our Bulletin Board.

We enjoyed meeting with all of you during our conference time.

Have a wonderful Weekend!

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Conferences, Spring, and Spring Break

Hi Yellow Duck Families,

We had fun learning all about Transportation this past week, and now we are moving into Saint Patrick’s Day and Spring!

We met X-Ray Xavier and will meet King Kevin next week.

Max and Emma will have their turns for Star of the Week this month.

Spring Conferences will be March 12th and 13th and preschool will be closed during conference time.

Monday, March 18th we will celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day.

and Spring Break will be March 25-29th.

Here’s to warmer, sunnier Days!! :)

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Our Five Senses, Rhyming words, and our 100th Day of Preschool!

Hi Yellow Duck Families,

We are having so much fun learning about our five senses! On Wednesday we used our sense of Hearing to Play Bingo and guess what sounds we were hearing! On Thursday we had a ball using our sense of Touch to figure out what was in the black bag! And on Friday we used our sense of sight to mix colors in our sensory table…we loved being Scientists and using colored water with little droppers and ice cube trays. Monday and Tuesday we will learn about our sense of taste and smell.

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday is on March 1st and we will celebrate him by making Dr. Seuss fruit kabobs !

Our 100th Day of Preschool will fall on Monday, March 4th. Please allow your child to bring in 100 little things in a Zip Lock Bag. (some good examples could be : pennies, paper clips, little lego pieces, hair rubber bands, little cars, beans, beads…….what other ideas can you think of to count out?)

We would like for you and your child to decide what to bring in on March 4th…..and encourage them make 10 piles of 10 small items on your kitchen table…..then you can put them into a Zip Lock bag and let them bring it to school to show their friends. Every child in our class can count to 10……several of us can even count to 100 !!

Conferences are going to be on March 12th and 13th, school will be closed to the students, we will have the conferences in our classroom. Both Ms. Sue and I will be at the conference, so you will need to arrange a play date for your child. Sign up on the Spring Conference sign up button .

Mark your Calendars!!! The Yellow Ducks and the Blue Whales will have a fun Field trip to Maple View Agricultural Education Center on Wednesday May 1st from 9:30-12:00 . You will have to drive them to and from this Field trip. All Parents are welcome to join us on this field trip…..More info to come…..just wanted you to put it on your calendar.

Have a Great Weekend!

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Monday and Tuesday, Holiday and teacher workday

Dear Yellow Duck Families,

We wanted to thank you for all you did to help make our Pajama and Pancake Day and Our Valentine’s Day so special!! The children really enjoyed wearing their pajamas and then having yummy pancakes and fruit for our snack on Tuesday! We also enjoyed having a fun Valentine’s Party with heart cookies that we all decorated and ate along with some delicious strawberries.

We will be off school on Monday and Tuesday due to Presidents day and a teacher workday.

On Wednesday we will start our Five Senses Unit, and then move into Rhyming Words and Dr. Seuss.

Look out for our Sign Up Genius for our Conferences on March 12th and March 13th.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Chinese New Year, Emma's Mom

We had such a special day today! Emma’s Mom, Shinyu, came into our classroom today and taught us all about the Chinese New Year!

We learned that this is the year of the Pig, and that red is a very special color to help celebrate the Chinese New Year. We also learned about the custom to give children red envelopes with gold coins inside, to give good luck. Shinyu gave each of us a red envelope with gold coins!

On New Year’s Eve Chinese families like to gather around for a special meal.

Parades are popular on Chinese New Year Day, and people dress up as Dragons.

Shinyu brought in dumplings for us to taste with chop sticks, and we even got to keep the chop sticks!

Thank you Ms. Shinyu for all you did for us today,

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

February News

We will be starting our month out with a new Mail Unit, our Dramatic Play will turn into a Post Office and we will be writing notes to our friends in our classroom. We also will be learning about the Five Senses, and Rhyming Words this month. Our Letter Puppets are Zack Zebra, Val Vulture, X-ray Xavier, and Rita Rabbit.

On Tuesday, February 12th, we will have our Pancake and Pajama Day!  Your child may wear their pajamas to school.  If your child plans to wear slippers, please provide a change of shoes for the playground.    

The Yellow Ducks will be celebrating Valentine's Day on Thursday, February 14th.  We like to have your child sign each Valentine, if you feel like that is something they can handle.  Of course every child is different, and you know if this is something they can do.  One idea is to break down the Valentine writing to only 5 Valentines each night, and start a week before Valentines.  If they are up for it, they can also write their friend's name on the outside.  We will be making special Valentine Mail Truck Bags for each child.  Remember if you are bringing Valentines, to include each child so that we don't have hurt feelings.  We would appreciate it if you could help your child "deliver" their cards at drop off that morning. If that's not possible, just let us know.  We would be happy to help out!

Here are the names of our friends in our class...  Anna Jane, Rosalie, Jonah, Mina, Sawyer, Max, Lucas, Julian O. Birdie, Caroline, Evan, Tommy, Julian T. , Emma, Garrett, Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Looking forward to lots of fun in February!   Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue 

Field Trip Update, Planetarium , Jan 30th 8:30-12:00

Dear Yellow Duck families,

Thank you for getting your field trip permission slips and money in on time! We’ve submitted our final head count to the planetarium. We will see the show , “The Little Star That Could” at the Morehead Planetarium at 9:30 on Jan 30th, but we will be leaving the school at 8:30 to catch the city bus.

Our agenda for that morning is as follows:

  • We will be traveling to and from the planetarium on a Chapel Hill City bus. IMPORTANT: You will need to get your child to school no later than 8:30 that morning. We will be leaving for the bus stop promptly at that time in order to catch the 8:40 bus. If you are not at the school by 8:30, we don’t want to, but we will have to leave without you in order to make the bus. Also, it is a good idea to check with your child to see if they need to use the restroom before we leave the school.

  • Please don't forget to have your child wear their yellow duck t-shirt (we will be sending them home on Tuesday). Also, we will be walking and playing outside, so please be sure to check the weather and dress your child accordingly.

  • We will arrive downtown around 9:00 and then walk to the planetarium (it should take about 10 minutes.) We should have a few minutes to use the restroom before the 9:30 show begins.

  • After the show, we will eat a snack, use the restroom if needed, take a class picture and get a little exercise before we walk back to the bus stop to catch the 11:15 bus.

  • We should be back at school around 11:45. We will return to the classroom where the students will have lunch as usual. Pickup is at our regular Wednesday time of 1:00.

We have 14 parents accompanying us on this field trip. Each parent/grandparent will be responsible for their own child. Also, the following parents have been assigned a student to chaperone in addition to their own child: Liz will have Birdie and Caroline, Kammeron will have Tommy and Lucas. Please be sure to hold hands near the streets or driveways and keep them very close to you on the bus ride.  If there is not room for everyone to sit on the bus, try to have your child sit and stand very close to them.  This will help to keep everyone safe! If there are any problems or questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank you for your support! We are looking forward to this very fun field trip.

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Happy New Year, 2019!

Dear Yellow Duck Families,

We hope your Christmas was a wonderful one!   We are looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, Jan 3, 2019. 
 Our month will start learning all about the letter J, and fun activities that go along with it.  Josh Jester is our new letter puppet friend, and he loves Jokes!  If you would like to, you can teach your child a joke to tell us on Thursday or Friday!  We will estimate how many jelly beans are in a jar, and learn how to juice oranges with hand juicers.

     Winter and Hibernation will be our next unit.  Our loft will turn into a cave on Monday Jan 7th.  On that day your child may bring in a stuffed animal that would hibernate. (snakes, turtles, bats, squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, raccoons, skunks, bears, lizards...)    

Martin Luther King, Jr .was a good man who believed we are all beautiful, important people!  We will do an egg experiment to see if all eggs are the same inside, even though the outside can be a different color.  

Later in the month we will learn all about Penguins, where they live, what they eat, and how they move and have babies.  

Finally we will end our month with our exciting unit about Space!  Our classroom will be transformed into outer space, with planets, stars and a space ship that we can ride in!!  On Jan 30th we will visit the Planetarium on Franklin Street and see a show. Let me know if you would like to chaperone….we will need at least 5 parent chaperones to go with us. (we will not be able to accommodate siblings though…thank you for understanding) 

Looking forward to lots of fun in January! Be sure to check out or Classroom Calendar for important dates, holidays, Star of the Week, birthdays, themes, letter puppets and snack child.

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

 

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Dear Yellow duck families,

We wanted to thank all of you for coming to our Christmas Concert! We were so proud of the children, they did an amazing job singing the Christmas songs!

Be sure to look at our Pictures on our Photo Album, we have been very busy this December! Thank you to all the families that shared their Family Traditions, we really enjoyed learning all about what your families do during the holidays.

A special Thank you to Alexis for making Gingerbread Cookies for all of us to decorate! The children loved it.

And we wanted to thank Alexis and Charmaine for coming into our classroom and sharing all about their Holiday Traditions from Puerto Rico. They read “The Night Before Christmas” in Spanish, and shared that they both like to celebrate the Three Kings Day on Jan 6th. with traditional foods and presents. We enjoyed tasting special treats; a Puerto Rican Egg Nog called Coquito. (it’s like a coconut smoothie) and Guava Pastries called Pasteles de quayaba.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful cards and gifts! We really appreciate it!

We wish you and your families Peace, Love, and Happiness over Christmas and into the New Year!

Love, Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

December News

     In December we will learn all about Holidays Around the World, and Christmas.  Is your family from another country?  Does your family have special traditions over the Holidays?  We are looking forward to hearing all about it.  During the week of Dec 3rd-7th, we would love to hear about your Family Tradition, if you would like to do this with your child. Or if you would rather let your child just talk about something fun your family does over the holidays…we will give them some time to share with the class.  

On Dec 11th we will be decorating Gingerbread people cookies!  

Our letter puppet friends will be Quella Queen, Carla Cow and Yuri Yak.  Lucas will have his turn to be our Star of the week Dec 10th.  

    We will end our year of 2018 with a school wide Christmas Concert and Cookies on Dec 19th at 11:00. (we will not have lunch bunch on that day) Our Christmas Break will be from Dec 20th-Jan 2nd returning to school on Jan 3rd.
Many blessings to you and your family,   Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Week of Thanksgiving, Nov. 19th and 20th

Dear Yellow Duck Families,

This next week we will have a short week due to Thanksgiving. Thank you for signing up for our Thanksgiving Celebration on this Tuesday at 11:30. We are looking forward to performing for you by singing some songs and telling everyone what we are Thankful for, then sharing in some food together with our Whale Friends and Families!

We are Thankful for you, our Yellow Duck Families,

Wishing you love and peace on this Thanksgiving Holiday,

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

November

We have started November with many fun activities.  

This week we learned about the four main food groups: fruits and vegetables, grain, dairy, and protein groups.  We are learning to have something from each group at every meal.  And to only eat a little of sweets and fats.  Our bodies need healthy food and exercise to grow.

Next week we will learn about the Pilgrims that came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.  We will learn how the Native Americans lived here in America first, and how they helped the Pilgrims settle in a new country.

We are making special banners with cloth, glue and paint.  We are batiking our material to make a beautiful banner where we will write what we are Thankful for.   We also will make special Native American shirts and headbands for our Thanksgiving Celebration on Nov. 20st at 11:30. 

Please sign up to bring in something for our Thanksgiving Celebration with our Whale Friends! Click Here to sign up on Sign Up Genius!!

We will meet our letter puppet friends, Norma Nurse, Timmy Turtle, and Paula Pig.

Also we will be working hard to earn our new skill rings tokens....

1)  I say please and thank you

2)  I can count out 10 acorns

3)  I know my phone number (Is your child ready for this?  Some of us are ready to memorize a cell phone number for safety reasons.  You could sing your phone number to your child, as a way of helping them learn it.)

4)  I can put on my coat

5)  I can zip my coat

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families,   Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue    

skill ring tokens to help your child with...

Hi Yellow Duck Families,

We are working on several Skill Ring Tokens:

  • I can put my jacket or coat on all by myself

  • I can zip my coat

  • I can say the emergency phone # ( 911 )

  • I can say my parent’s cell phone number (pick one to teach your child) You could teach this in a song form.

The last skill is one that some children need more time with. Some children can remember a long number, like a cell phone number when they are in kindergarten or first grade. But others are able to memorize this at age 4. It is a wonderful safety skill that you can teach your child in case they ever need to reach you, and are separated from you.

Thank you for changing out your child’s change of clothing to long sleeve and long pants.

We just put a copy of the words to our Halloween Songs in your child’s cubbie, in case you want to sing with them at home. :)

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Fall, Nocturnal Animals and Halloween

Hi Yellow Duck Families,

We have had a fun week learning about Fall and Apples. We even tasted 3 different types of apples and graphed our favorite apple. (Gala, Granny Smith or Honey Crisp)

Next week we will start to sing Halloween songs and learn about Nocturnal Animals (animals that sleep in the day, but are awake at night.)

We met Dan Dinosaur, Abby Ape, and next week we will meet Helen Hippo.

We are looking forward to Dan the Magic Man on Wednesday, he is wonderful with children.

Would anyone like to volunteer to help us carve a pumpkin on Tuesday Oct. 30th? Please email me and let me know.

Put on your calendar we will have a Costume Parade on Wednesday, Oct. 31st at 9:20! It’s a very fun event for all families (grandparents and friends too!)

Julian T. will be bringing in snacks next week.

Rosalie will have her turn of Star of the Week!

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Nice to talk with you last week at conferences and Oct. update

Dear Yellow Duck Parents,

I really enjoyed talking with you last Tuesday and Wednesday at conferences. And I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

My son and daughter in law’s wedding was a beautiful one in Charlotte. We were so lucky with the weather! It was sunny and blue skies, and that was great because it was an outdoor wedding!

This week we will start a new Unit on Fall. It is the first mid October I can remember when the leaves on the trees have actually not changed in their color yet. I guess we have had too much rain so far this month!

Ms. Debbie and the School Board decided we will be having school on Thursday this week, due to the days lost because of the hurricane. And on Friday we have a Teacher conference, so we will be closed on Friday.

Oct. 24th- Happy Dan the Magic Man will come to CCP

Oct 31st 9:20 Costume Parade (you can send your child to school in a costume and we will all walk around the main square of Southern Village in a Parade. Please remember no toy weapons or scary costumes)

Happy Fall- Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Community Helpers and Fire Safety

Dear Yellow Duck Parents,

We really enjoyed learning all about Community Helpers and we will continue to meet other Community Helpers next week! Thank you to Kris, the dog trainer, Liz, the nurse, Rachael, the nurse, Kelsi , a social worker, and April the Cosmetologist .

Next week we will meet Grandpa Ed (Anna Jane’s Grandpa) who volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. He will talk to us about building houses. And Jeremy, Caroline’s Dad will talk to us about being a Scientist. Also Jonah’s Mom, Heather will share about her job as a Pastor.

We will learn about Fire Safety next week and Firefighters will visit our school on Thursday. They will bring their Firetruck to our school. We have conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday and Ms. Virginie will be in the classroom with Ms. Sue.

Also I have some exciting news! My younger son, Zack, will be getting married this next weekend! So I will be out on Friday, Oct. 12th because of that very special family event!! (Ms. Virginie will sub for me on Friday)

Thank you for making our Community Helper Unit so meaningful.

Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue

Community Helpers, Parents coming in next week!

Thank you to all our parents that volunteered to come into our classroom and tell us all about their career!

Monday 9:15 Scientist (Caroline’s Dad Jeremy)

Monday 12:40 Dog Trainer (Sawyer’s Dad Kris and his dog)

Tuesday 9:15 Nurse (Birdie’s Mom, Liz)

Thursday 9:15 Nurse (Max’s Mom, Rachael)

Thursday 11:45 Social Worker (Garrett’s Mom, Kelsi)

Friday 9:15 Pastor (Jonah’s Mom Heather)

Friday 11:45 Cosmetologist (Rosallie’s Mom April)

Thank you for helping us to make this next Theme so meaningful.

Sawyer will have his turn to be our Star of the Week next week. (Oct. 1-5) And Rosalie will have her turn on Oct. 22-26)

And the month of October we will meet 3 new letter puppets, Dan Dinosaur, Abby Ape, and Helen Hippo. We will cover 4 themes, Community Helpers, Fire Safety, Fall, and Nocturnal Animals. We also will have a fun Costume Parade on Oct. 31st.

Be sure to look at our calendar that is in a link in a green/blue box on our Blog.

It has all our important dates on it.

Happy Fall! Mrs. Walton and Ms. Sue