TK Update

Samantha is still doing great in TK.  She loves her teacher and has made some really sweet friends, many that will go on to her new school for kindergarten.

I help out once a week in Samantha's class and it amazes me to see how much all of the students have improved.  It also amazes me the conversations they have.  I help with morning rotations so the students are broken up into small groups which rotate to different stations.  Samantha's group happens to be all girls and let me tell you, they are a CHATTY group of 5-year-olds.  While trying to keep them on task the other day of cutting/coloring/pasting a zebra print-out (they are working on the letter Z), my head was spinning with conversations between five girls that went something like this:

"I've been to San Francisco before."

"Oh, my grandparents live there."

"They have a zoo there."

"Our zoo has a zebra."

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does!"

"Samantha, your skirt looks like a zebra."

"Yeah, my mom likes to dress me like a zebra." (no, I don't...)

"I wear makeup at home"

"I wear makeup to school."

"No you don't, you are not allowed to."

"Yes I do, I can do whatever I want."

"I was born in 2007."
"How old are you Mrs. Fallon?"
"35."
"I think my grandma is 35 too."
Gee thanks....

And then cue the music, they all burst into singing the song Yankee Doodle Dandy..... (which I later learned they are singing in music class which helped make sense of the song because I was wondering who even sings that song anymore?!).

Here is a recent note sent home with Samantha.  

She has plenty of time to learn how to do addition but we are proud of her for getting a head start on it and trying.  :)

And here is the most recent TK newsletter from Ms. Trainor:

Dear Parents,

                  I hope this letter finds you all doing well.  I would like to inform you on what your children have been working on in class as well as let you know of important dates and events that we have coming up.  This week your child has been working on the –at and –an word families.  Students have been decoding consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words with these word endings in addition to coming up with their own words with the –at and –an endings.  Next week we will be working on –am and –ap word families.  We are almost finished with our alphabet (as we have been working on one letter a week since school started).  Ww is the letter of the week and we only have three more letters to go before the students finish their alphabet books, which will be one of the pieces of work showcased at Open House.  The students are also working on recognizing their sight words and have been building their own sentences with sight words and CVC words.  In math, now that the students have gained number sense, they are beginning to understand the concept of addition.  I have introduced the concept of subtraction and we will continue to work on both adding and subtracting for the rest of the school year. 

                  I am excited to let you know that I am beginning a unit on springtime and gardening.  We will be making many art pieces in class to build our garden (an art piece that will be on the wall).  We will be spending time in the garden outside to discuss the different plants and the process of how plants grow.  We will be reading many stories about plants, how they are grown, and how much of our food comes from plants.  We will also be reading many stories about springtime and we will be creating art to go along with the stories.  I am working on putting together a fieldtrip to the Fairview Gardens.  They have a great education tour/program: The Urban Seeds Program.  I am hoping that we will be able to go on this fieldtrip in April.  I will keep you all posted! 

                  One of my friends who is a 5^th grade teacher at Franklin Elementary School (here in Santa Barbara) is coming next Friday afternoon to read Peter Cottontail to the students and create an art project with them where they are going to make their own bunnies (and bunny stories too!).  Please let me know if any of you or any of your family members would like to be a special guest in our class and do a project with the kids.  If any of you have expertise in certain area that you would like to share with the kids or if you have an idea of a project that you would like to do with them, please let me know! 

                  Our Open House is on Thursday March 21^st.  On this night your children will show you the fabulous work that they have created at school.  I know that they are all excited to share what they have done with you.

*****Lastly, please remember tomorrow is early release.  The students will be dismissed at noon.

Thank you so much for all of your support!

Warm Regards,

Ms. Trainor

Random February Photos

Lollipop and Todd working on the oven.

Sibling cuddles.

Fancy earrings son.

Celebrating Holley's birthday in Santa Ynez

So lovely to have Mrs. Janelle in Santa Barbara.

Friends for life ;)

Out with friends celebrating Bess' birthday.

Superbowl party at the Paskins!

Dinner with our Southern family, the Proctors 

Samantha played Bananagrams with the Colonel. 

We had a little taste of Mardi Gras and sampled some King Cake.  And guess who went home with the baby in the King Cake?!  (on a side note: I packed that piece of cake in Thatcher's snack bag when we went to the park and he never mentioned the baby stuck in his cake.  So either a. he swallowed it b. it fell out of the cake unnoticed c. finding a plastic toy baby in your cake is not that exciting to him so he never mentioned it to me.....

Thatcher's "fish"

This is how Samantha woke up one morning....

Someone likes Mardi Gras ;)

Babysitter no-show means these two come along to my hair appointment.

Thatcher got a new book from Dancing Grandma on their Costco trip and as you can see, he didn't like it very much ;)

My Starbucks date.

At the movies.

Enjoying the beautiful February weather.

CHEESE!

Farmers' Market fun

The skeleton jammies are in heavy rotation (thanks Sarah M.) ;)

Thatch at Preschool

A couple weeks ago I checked in with Thatcher's preschool teacher, Ms. Cindy, regarding Thatcher and how he was doing at school.  Thatcher really REALLY loves school and all he talks about when he is not at school is school!  He loves his friends, the teachers, the tricycles, music class, the snacks, the toys, everything! So I figured I would just get a glowing update from Ms. Cindy since at least on his end, it doesn't seem like it could go any better than it already is! 

Ms. Cindy said to me, "Well, Thatcher is a really sweet boy and I enjoy having him in class.  There is one thing that we are trying to work on with him.  He has a difficult time sitting still."  This is not earth shattering news to me.  He doesn't sit still much at home.  He is a boy, a VERY active boy.  And at the time, he wasn't even 3 years old yet (he turned 3 yesterday!).  Ms. Cindy continued, "Thatcher is the youngest in my class.  He is two and some of the students are four."  Okay, well that explains things more.  That is quite an age gap so I imagine when they do activities where they are required to sit still and pay attention, it makes sense that the four-year-olds are setting a better example than my sweet 2-year-old.  Ms. Cindy reassured me that he is a joy to have in class and not to worry.  I'm not worried but I thought I would have a little talk with Thatcher.

So, the next time I took Thatcher to school I spent the entire drive talking to Thatcher about paying attention, sitting still, following directions etc.  He was very quiet in the back seat which I took as a sign that he was taking it all in because all 2-year-olds listen, right? ;)  As we reached the school and I started to unclip him from his car seat I said, "Thatcher, do you understand everything I told you?"  To which he replied, "Who were you talking to?"

So with that I say, good luck getting my kid ever to sit still ;)

Grandma and Poppy Visit

Grandma and Poppy came up for a quick visit last Saturday and spoiled the kids.  We had lunch at the Brewhouse and then we spent the day shopping for Thatcher's upcoming birthday and some early Easter gifts. We ended the afternoon with frozen yogurt at Pinkberry.

 

My phone died so not too many pictures but I will say we have two very happy kids with some fancy new stuff.  

 

 

 

Sammy got new Sketchers from Nordstrom called Twinkle Toes.  You have to see them in person but they are blinding they light up so bright.

 

And did you know at Claire's right now you can get 10 things for $10?!  Samantha got rainbow hair extensions, fake nails, sparkly bows, lip gloss, bracelets, necklaces.....

 

 

 Spider-man running shoes.  He has literally slept in these things.

 

Thanks Mom and Dad for the visit!

New Flamenco Dress

Dancing Grandma made, yes MADE, this beautiful flamenco dress for Samantha.  Thank you Grandma, she loves it!  We all do!

Reese and Sam

Reese had a sleepover at our house last weekend. 

 

 

Reese is always a pleasure to have over. 

 

 



And how cute are these two singing together?!  I can totally envision them acting the same way when they are teenagers.