Happy Thanksgiving P3 Families!

We have been working hard on our lessons the past few weeks.  We have been learning about autumn and talking about the changing colors of the leaves.

This month, we have focused on studies of North America.  We have learned about the plants and animals native to that continent. We have also discussed the Native Americans and the way pictures were used as a written language before the written word.

Here are a few pictures of our reading buddy time with E2 students.  It is a wonderful mentoring activity that the children enjoy each Friday morning.

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The children have been working hard rehearsing for their winter performance.  The show will take place on Wednesday, December 17th @ 10:30 .  Get ready for this festive event!

Olivia’s mother came to our classroom and shared a book about the United States.  The children enjoyed learning about our country’s history.

All of us from P3 want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  We are thankful for our amazing P3 Families and everyone in our FMS community!

Our December Studies Include:

Europe

Winter Environments

Holidays Around the World

Holiday Art

Parts of the Tree

Snack and Flowers Provided By:

December 1st-5th: Rosales Family

December 8th-12th: Krieger Family

December 15th-19th: Muchow Family

December Volunteers:

Cooking Project: Perry Family

Hands-On-Activity: Karns Family

Circle Presentation: Rosales Family

December Practical Life Supplies:

Round Peppermint Candies: Tien Family

Organic Whole Wheat Bread: Singh Family

Organic Strawberry Jam: Kirner Family

Organic Long Stem Carrots: Mohlman Family

Important Dates to Remember

Monday, November 24th: Rain Forest Animals Assembly at 10:00 (afternoon students invited)

Wednesday, November 26th: Half Day, Dismissal at 11:15, Thanksgiving Break Begins

Thursday, November 27th-Friday, November 28th: No School, Thanksgiving Break

Wednesday, December 3rd: Coffee and Donuts with Karen and Dave @ 8:30

Monday, December 15th: Chinese Group Assembly at 10:00 (afternoon students invited)

Wednesday, December 17th: Winter Performance @ 10:30 in the multi-purpose room

Friday, December 19th: Half Day, Dismissal at 11:15, Winter Break Begins

Monday, December 22nd-Monday January 5th: No School Winter Break

Tuesday, January 6th: School Resumes

Happy November P3 Families!  We have been busy creating, dancing, singing and learning new things during the past few weeks!

Charlie’s mother came to school and had the children make mini pumpkin bread loafs. The children enjoyed all of the measuring, mixing and eating!  Thank you Michel Family for the wonderful donations for our FMS kitchen!

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Lane’s mother came to school and made spider crackers with the children for a fun cooking activity!

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International Children’s Day was a huge success!  Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers for transforming our classroom into Africa!

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Annie’s mother also came to our classroom and shared some fun Halloween books!

We’ve had two amazing assemblies for the children to enjoy.  First, we experienced a Native American Pride dancer.  He spoke to the children about Native American traditions, songs and dances.  They loved learning about his clothing and culture. Second, we had a Taiko Drum duo play for us.  It was a fantastic performance and some of our children had the opportunity to play as well!

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Our November Studies Include:

Deserts

Reptiles

North America

United States

Thanksgiving

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Important Dates to Remember:

Monday, November 10th-Tuesday, November 11th: No School, Veteran’s Day

Thursday, November 13th: Kindergarten Field Trip to Red Rock Canyon

Thursday, November 20th: Picture Retake Day

Friday, November 21st: PTO Holiday Bazaar and Kids Craft

Monday, November 24th: Rain Forest Animals Assembly at 10:00 (afternoon students invited)

Wednesday, November 26th: Half Day, Dismissal at 11:15, Thanksgiving Break Begins

Thursday, November 27th-Friday, November 28th: No School, Thanksgiving Break

November Volunteers:

Cooking Project: Arieli Family

Hands-on-Activity: Robinson Family

Circle Presentation: Joe Family

Practical Life Supplies Provided By:

Organic Soy Milk: Dannin Family

Organic Squeezable Honey: Robinson Family

Plastic Straws: Tien Family

Long Stem Carrots: Singh Family

Oranges: Perry Family

Dry Corn Cobs: Kirner Family

Cloves: Yamaguchi Family

Snack and Flowers Provided By:

November 3rd-7th: Smith Family

November 12th-14th: Tyler Family

November 17th-21st: Nivatvongs-Tobin Family

November 24th-26th: Robinson Family

Thank you for your contributions!

Boo…P3 Families!

We have enjoyed the past two weeks in P3 learning about our unit studies for the month of October!

We have learned about the parts of a mammal, how to create a mammal book in the classroom, and have named types of mammals such as lions, monkeys, dogs, and humans.

We also discussed the life cycle of a pumpkin:

seed-seedling-vine-flower-green pumpkin-orange pumpkin

We have also learned about the parts of the pumpkin.The ectocarp is the rine of the pumpkin and the endocarp is the flesh of the pumpkin!  We opened up a real pumpkin in class and have been able to tweeze the seeds out and were also able to name the parts of the pumpkin using a real one!

We have started discussing parts of the body and our skeletal system.

We discussed the parts of a bat and how a bat is the only mammal in the world that flies.

We did a wonderful hands-on activity with the Tien Family.  They generously brought in a mini pumpkin for each student to decorate with glitter, glue, stickers and eyes!  Thank you Tien Family, this was an amazing experience for our students!

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We have started to practice our active threat drills which we are calling “Quick and Quiet Drill”.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

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Our October Unit Studies Include:

Anatomy and the Five Senses

Mammals

Vertebrate vs. Invertebrate

Pumpkin Studies

The World and Continents

Children Around the World

Parts of the Leaf

Mark your calendars – International Children’s Day is Octover 30th! Please see our classroom door to sign-up for donation items if you are interested.

Snack and Flowers Provided By:

October 20th-24th: Smith Family

October 27th-29th: Perry Family

 Practical Life Supplies Provided By:

Pumpkins: Michel Family

Pickles: Mohlman Family

October Volunteers:

Cooking Project: Coleman Family and Michel Family

Circle Presentation: Perry Family

ICD Volunteers: Ghaneian Family, Tyler Family, Dannin Family, Reid Family, Robinson Family, Perry Family, Rosales Family, Kimani Family, Arieli Family

 Important Dates to Remember:

Friday, October 17th: No School, Teacher In-Service

Monday, October 27th:  Native Pride Dancers – Primary Assembly @10:00

Thursday, October 30th: Half Day, International Children’s Day (ICD), Pick-Up @11:15

Friday, October 31st: No School, Nevada Day. Happy Halloween!

October 14, 2014

Re: Active Threat Drill

Dear FMS Families –

We currently perform regularly scheduled fire drills and shelter in place. However, we will also begin monthly active threat drills starting in October as part of our continuing safety initiatives on campus. The purpose of the active threat drill is to prepare the students to urgently seek shelter and protection in the event of a violent incident or intruder on campus. The drill will be conducted as follows:

“Test Test Test” will be announced campus wide through the intercom system

Teachers will direct students to quietly hide in bathrooms, closets, or other protected areas and remain out of sight

An admin staff member and/or law enforcement personnel will sweep the campus to ensure the classrooms are secured quickly and effectively. Students and staff will be directed to resume activity after the drill is completed

Please note, we will not be discussing specifics with the children regarding shootings, guns and/or weapons of any kind. Teachers are identifying the drill more in line with “hide and seek” or “quick and quiet”, especially for our younger students. However, it is highly likely our older students will know the reasoning behind the drill. Our primary goal is to stress the urgency and quickness of the lock down process with staff and students alike.

Lastly, we will be sending you a one-time “test emergency text” when the first drill is conducted on October 28th only. The text will be clearly identified as a “test.” Subsequent drills will not be announced in advance and “test” texts will not be sent.

It is unfortunate we have to take such precautionary steps, but preventative measures are necessary and important. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Jason Russell, CEO and President of Secure Education Consultants, may also be contacted at 616-308-7626 or emailed at [email protected] to address any concerns.

Respectfully,

Karen Kolb

Executive Director

We have been busy workers in P3 the past two weeks.

The children have learned about healthy habits such as brushing their teeth twice a day and flossing once, to wear a helmet while riding a bike, and the rules about coughing and sneezing to prevent the spread of germs.

We had a special visitor, Officer DeSpain, who spoke about the duties of a police officer.  She presented important safety information such as always wearing your seat belt while in the car and being careful of strangers.  We also had a discussion about other community workers and what the children might want to be when they grow up.

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For another lesson, we talked about the different seasons throughout the year and the appropriate clothing to wear.  The children had fun determining what item matched with each season.  We took a vote and P3’s favorite season is… FALL (with Spring coming in a close second).

We began learning about different land and water formations as well, including terms such as isthmus, lake, island, ocean, bay, cape and so on.

We spent a day gardening in our garden box in the courtyard.  Thank you to our amazing volunteers.  The children have already learned about the parts of the seed and will be studying leaves and roots this month.

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We have also started reviewing some of our shapes and geometric solids.  We learned shapes such as curvliniar triangle, quatrafoil, square, circle, triangle, and pentagon. The geometric solids we have reviewed are the cube, cone and cylinder.  A great way to practice these at home are to find the different shapes in everyday objects.

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We have changed over our classroom works for the month of October, and this month’s studies include:

Anatomy and the Five Senses

Mammals

Vertebrate vs. Invertebrate

Pumpkin Studies

The World and Continents

Children Around the World

Parts of the Leaf

Mark your calendars – International Children’s Day is Octover 30th! Please see our classroom door to sign-up for donation items if you are interested.

Snack and Flowers Provided By:

October 6th – 10th: Mentley Family

October 13th-17th: Ghaneian Family

October 20th-24th: Smith Family

October 27th-29th: Perry Family

Practical Life Supplies Provided By:

Pumpkins: Michel Family

Pickles: Mohlman Family

October Volunteers:

Cooking Project: Coleman Family and Michel Family

Hands-on-Activity: Tien Family

Circle Presentation: Perry Family

ICD Volunteers: Ghaneian Family, Tyler Family, Dannin Family, Reid Family, Robinson Family, Perry Family, Rosales Family, Kimani Family, Arieli Family

Important Dates to Remember:

Friday, October 10th: PTO Fall Festival!!! See you there!

Tuesday, October 14th: Picture Day

Friday, October 17th: No School, Teacher In-Service

Thursday, October 30th: Half Day, International Children’s Day (ICD), Pick-Up @11:15

Friday, October 31st: No School, Nevada Day. Happy Halloween!