Welcome Back

Hello parents! I trust you had a great Thanksgiving with your families!!! This week we are kicking off our winter themes by studying reindeer. Our new word for the week is “in” and in math we will work on ordinal numbers.

Thanks to all of you who have already sent in Angel Tree gifts! The deadline to send in gifts is this Friday, December 3rd. The gifts need to be unwrapped and in a bag. The Angel Number needs to be on the outside of the bag. Thanks again for making the holiday special for our Angel.
Our Winter Holiday Party is on December 17th. Everyone is invited to attend! We will hear more about this from our room moms in a few days.
Have a great week!

Turkey Parade

Here is a short video of our Turkey Parade. It was great to see so many of you.

Field Trip

Ms. A finally figured out how to put the Dallas Arboretum pictures on the blog! Sorry for the long delay. Enjoy remembering our fun times at the Dallas Arboretum.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful week enjoying your family and friends.

I am thankful that I have the opportunity to work with each of your children and your families. I am truly blessed!

Scarecrow, Scarecrow, How scarey can you be?

Happy Scarecrow day!

We had the best time today. We all looked so shape in our scarecrow attire. For math today we got to visit all of the kindergarten class and got to play lots of different scarecrow games.

Scary Scarecrows!

No crows here!

Shoo Crows!

Smiling Scarecrows!

Have a great weekend 1 Please make sure that you check your child's folder this weekend. There are 2 special notes about fun Thanksgiving projects that are coming up!

Frisco Cares

Frisco Cares Supply Drive November 15-19 Bring the items below to school on the specific days and leave them outside your classroom. Student Council members will come collect the items and give them to Frisco Cares. Frisco Cares is a great organization and we are excited to support them! Please read below for more information on Frisco Cares. Frisco Cares is a clinic dedicated to providing the highest quality, most cost-efficient health and wellness care to the under served in Frisco and its surrounding communities. Frisco Cares provides acute care, physicals, well-checks and immunizations for children on Wednesday evenings and will be re-opening it's adult clinic on Thursday evenings. To provide the services that we do, we rely on the support of the individuals and businesses in our community, as well as the talents of the many volunteers that serve our clinic. Frisco Cares is located at 6811 Oak Street, Frisco TX 75034; 1 block North of Main at 3rd and Oak St. For more information visit our website at www.friscocares.org or contact our Director, Phyllis Knowles at 214-705-8200 .

11-15 Monday: "More Power Please" Frisco Cares needs AA and AAA batteries for their clinic.

11-16 Tuesday: "Toy Tuesday" Bring small plush toys for Frisco Cares to give to children who are sick or have received shots.

11-17 Wednesday: "Wowie Owie Wednesday" Bring Band-Aids, ice packs, ace bandages, etc . . . for the clinic to use with its patients.

11-18 Thursday: "Travel Thursday" Bring travel size hand sanitizers for the clinic to disperse to its patients. This is a great need during cold and flu season.

11-19 Friday: "Fun day at the Office Friday " Bring reams of printer paper and sticky notes  Office supplies can sometimes run short.

Tips for Teaching Kinds to Tie Their Shoes

Though most kids’ shoes now feature Velcro closures, learning to tie ones own shoes is still considered to be milestone that children should master by 5 or 6 years of age. But, teaching a child to tie his own shoes can be frustrating; kids can lose interest quickly if they feel the task is too difficult, or they may seem to “get it” one day only to completely forget the next.

Have no fear, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves that can make teaching a kid to tie his own shoes a bit easier. All kids learn differently, so try a few of these methods and see what works best for your child.

1. Bunny Ears
Probably the most common method for teaching kids to tie their own shoes is the “Bunny Ears” method.
~Tell the child that he needs to make his shoe laces into “bunny ears.”
~First, he needs to secure a knot for the bunny’s head. Take the laces and cross them over to make an “X”. Then, pull one ear through the bottom of the “X” and pull tight.
~Say, “Now we need to give bunny some ears.” Loop the laces into “bunny ears”.
~Tell the child that now we need to “make the bunny ears tight so they don’t fall off”. Then make another “X” using the “bunny ears”, slide one “ear” under the “X” and pull tightly.

2. Bi-Colored Laces
This is a great tip that can really make learning to tie much easier. Take two laces in two different colors and cut them down the middle. Then sew them together to make two bi-colored laces. Lace a pair of old shoes with these funny shoes strings. Using bi-colored laces can really help a kid who has trouble remembering his right from his left. You can use any learning-to-tie method in combination with your bi-colored laces.

3. Cardboard Cut-Out Shoe
Take a cardboard box and cut out an over-sized shoe shape. Have your kid decorate the shoe in any way he wishes. Using a pen, poke holes for laces. Use the bi-colored lace tip above, but instead of cutting the original laces in two, use two entire laces sewn together to create one long, bi-colored shoe string. Lace the shoe and use any teaching method, using this cut-out. Some kids find it easier and more interesting to practice on an over-sized model.

4. The Squirrel and the Tree
~This is a fun method that utilizes a kid friendly story and movements that help kids understand and remember the basic steps to shoe tying.
~Tell the child to create “tree roots” by making a starter knot.
~Make a tree with a long thin loop; hold the loop in the child’s right hand.
~With his left hand, take hold of the lace and tell him that a squirrel runs around the tree and jumps into the hole under the tree and comes out the other side (he’ll need to switch hands at this point which can be difficult for some kids).
~Many parents prefer this trick because it teaches the kid to tie shoes with the single loop method.

5. Loop It and Swoop It
This is a less childish, but still memorable way of teaching a child to tie in the traditional single loop method. Teach your child to tie his shoes using the standard tying method, but as you go through the motions say, “loop it, swoop it, pull.” Do this over and over while repeating the same three, simple instructions until your child is able to tie his shoes on his own. Encourage him to say “loop it, swoop it, pull” each time he attempts tying his shoes until it becomes second nature.

6. Learning to Tie Toys and Books
If you want to make learning to tie more fun, consider getting your child a toy or book that will help him learn to tie on his own. This is especially helpful for kids who learn best through interaction with toys. Some suggestions:
Franklin Dress-Up Doll
Melissa & Doug Wood Lacing Sneaker

Odds and Ins

Please remember to send in a small stuffed animal tomorrow for our science project.

Picture re-take day will be on Friday, November18. If you are unhappy with your child's school picture when you see it (they have not come in yet) and wish for them to have retakes you will need to send the pictures back in on this day and they will be sent down for re-takes.

Reflections entries are due on Friday, November 5. Get you little artist busy and get those projects turned in.