Monday May 21
It’s our LAST week in Kindergarten! We’re all thinking about the end of
our year and the beginning of a new one. The Cubby Fairy made one last
visit! We found fruit snacks in our cubbies. We’re learning about another
famous author, Jan Brett. She is actually Mrs. Lee’s favorite author. She
has written over 20 books. We got out all of her books that we’ve read this
year. Her illustrations are so unique with life like details. She leaves a
picture clue on each page for the next part of the story. It is a great way
to predict what will happen next. She has a fun web site, too if you have a
chance to see it. We read Hedgie’s Surprise. We illustrated our favorite
part of the book. Look for these in Monday’s folders. We’re beginning to
take home LOTS of STUFF.
Tuesday, May 22
We’re celebrating our summer birthdays: Cayson, Joshua, Evlabia, Darren,
Nayan, Claire, Lucy, and Zoe. We made a really fun summer treat: Big Red
Ice Cream! It was a sure hit with this age group. You’ll find the easy
recipe at the end of the newsletter. It was time for us to reshelf our books
from our Literacy Center book boxes. It is amazing how well we have kept our
book boxes and book baskets organized and tidy. We did a great job this year
keeping the books sorted by categories and in the right baskets. Today’s
author is Kevin Henkes. He has written many wonderful books about issues
that truly small children can relate to: feeling worried, learning to make
friends, sharing, etc. Chrysanthemum is one of his most read books. It is
about a little mouse that is learning to like her very special, but unusual
name. We remembered reading that book the first week of school while we were
learning each other’s names. Then we read Wemberly Worried. What do you
worry about? This was a great discussion. Some of our worries include:
going to first grade, making friends, riding a bike without training wheels,
taking the STAAR test, and even going to college! Some of us worry a bit
into the future! Kevin Henkes is a great author. Look for his books at the
public library this summer. Since we have SO much to bring home, we
decorated sacks with a fun sun! Today we read all of the data we’ve recorded
in our Science Journals. It was fun to see how many science experiments we
did this year. Then we packed our Science and Math journals to take home.
These sacks will be FULL in a few more days!
Wednesday, May 23
Baxter brought us a special treat! We’ll miss seeing him and hearing
his funny stories. We said goodbye to him and gave him one last hug! He’ll
always be in his house, when we come back to visit! Since it is Day 173,
we talked about how we are “experts” at Kindergarten. We used our best
handwriting to write “What I Know about Kindergarten!” We really
are “experts” at this. Then we talked about how we got to be experts and
what next year will look like. This time next year, we’ll be experts at
First Grade! We had some great words of wisdom for the new Lovebugs coming
to LME:
Being a Lovebug is the BEST!
You’ll learn to read and write.
Mrs. Lee lets you take books home to read.
Recess is every day.
P.E. is fun.
Lunch is good.
Warm fuzzies are in Kindergarten.
You have fun at LME!
Thursday, May 24
KPAW has been really fun this week. Each day the teachers and staff have
been in charge of the entire KPAW broadcast. It has been hilarious! Mrs.
Lee took time out to go to the 5th Grade Recognition Ceremony. It is just so
special to see former Lovebugs grow up and become LME leaders. Their parents
love seeing their Kindergarten photo album, too. It is a fun trip down
Memory Lane! Mrs. Lee promised to come to our 5th Grade Recognition in a few
years! She’ll bring our Kindergarten photo album and a few tissues! We read
You are all My Favorites. This book is about a bear family with three
precious bear cubs. All through the story they wonder if their mom and dad
have a favorite cub. Of course, their parents love them equally. Mrs. Lee
compared the cubs to all of us! We’re ALL her favorites! And…always will
be! Once a Lovebug…always a Lovebug! We wrote one last time in our
journals. Our prompt was to write about summer fun! We began our
Kindergarten Memory Books. The first page said: Kindergarten Friends. Our
pages were full of names! On page 2, we wrote about our favorite thing about
Kindergarten. Our Sign-In Sheet said, “Do you like to clean? Yes. No.
Sometimes.” Luckily, most of us said “Yes!” We’re doing MAJOR cleaning and
sorting today! All of the baskets of manipulatives have to be sorted,
cleaned, and packed away for another year! Helping pack the room is a
process that gives us closure to our year together. Everything in our room
that is not a piece of furniture has to be sorted, cleaned, boxed, and
labeled before Mrs. Lee gets the clearance to go home for the summer! It’s
amazing how fast we can clean. We used 3 rolls of paper towels and 2 JUMBO
containers of Wet Wipes. Our room is spic ‘n span for sure! We worked on 2
more pages in our Kindergarten Memory book: “Something I learned in
Kindergarten” and “What I want to learn in First Grade.” We took time out to
sign Mrs. Lee’s yearbook. We love looking at the yearbooks from the past.
It is fun to find siblings and friends! We made a card for Mr. Luis, the
friendly custodian that cleans our room each night. We also gave him a pack
of Cokes, popcorn, and a big bag of M&Ms. He is a great helper to us! We’re
taking home our HUGE summer sun sack loaded with all sorts of
Kindergarten “stuff”. Before we packed our Poetry Journal, we read/sang each
poem/song. It took us 30 minutes to get through the entire journal! We’ve
learned SO many songs and poems this year! Since Genevieve was headed home
with Mrs. Lee for the summer, we put her in her ball and let her roll around
inside our circle for a bit. Very FUN!
Friday, May 25
Happy 175th Day of Kindergarten! We’re taking down the number strip
that we’ve had going since Day 1. We’re each taking a part of it home. We’re
getting ready for the Luau. When we came in this morning, Mrs. Lee had the
Hawaiian CD playing! She was at the door greeting us with, “Aloha, welcome
to the island!” Our room was turned into a great Hawaiian Luau…complete with
a 6 foot palm tree, leis, Hawaiian music, and Luau decorations. All we
needed was to “just add water and a little bit of sand” for “Surf’s up”! We
began our Luau party with a great Treasure Hunt! It didn’t take us long to
find all of our clues and the hidden treasure. We made decorated foam frames
with summer shapes. Our photos looked great in them. Thanks to Andrew’s mom
for taking the photos. We have a forever memory of our last Kindergarten
party! To make our Luau authentic, we did the Hula Dance! Who knew we’d be
so good at it? Our tropical treat was a perfect way to begin summer:
popsicles! Thanks to our party moms for organizing our party! We appreciate
it! Thanks to ALL of the parents that stopped by to help, too! Our last
cleaning project was to get our tables clean. Mrs. Lee let us clean our
tables with shaving cream. Cayson said, “Is this Mr. Lee’s shaving
creme?” “Well yes, but don’t tell him!” Now that was really fun…and our room
smelled great. Mrs. Lee had Kindergarten Keepsake folders for us to take
home our really valuable keepsakes! Inside, we found our report card, a
summer letter from Mrs. Lee, a certificate of completing our Kindergarten
year together, and MUCH MORE! Does it get any better? Probably not! Before
we knew it, the day –and the year--- was OVER! Where did it go? We said
goodbye to all of our friends with lots of hugs and smiles. We said our
Kindergarten Cheer one more time! We’ll look forward to seeing all of you at
LME. As of now, all of our little K buddies are coming back to LME. Baxter,
Buddy Lee, along with Mrs. Lee, will be looking for our friends come August.
However, if you are in our neighborhood, stop by the Lee house…for a
Popsicle! We just might be home! Have a great summer, my Little Lovebugs!
Wow…we were really busy making memories! Matthew said, “Mrs. Lee, I am going
to miss you.” We all agreed we were going to miss each other, but our fun
memories are just a thought away!
Coming Up:
June, July, and August: Read 20 minutes each day. Keep a journal about all
of your summer adventures. Review the K Core Word List. (This one you’ll
find in the yellow Literacy Center reading folder.) You’ll also find a copy
of the First Grade Core Word List in your child’s Kindergarten Keepsake
folder.
Stay tuned for the Annual Lee Kindergarten Reunion Playdate…on August 25th.
I’ll send postcards and e-mail reminders. It is always fun to get caught up
with our summer memories before school begins!
Tuesday, August 27th First Day of First Grade!
Do write or call this summer. I love to hear what my little friends are up
to! And once again, thank you for HUGE gift cards, precious photo book with
the Lovebugs, and card, from the most generous families I know. I was
totally overwhelmed! I thought Teacher Appreciation was the first week in
May! Today’s surprise was just a blessing! I am very grateful and blessed
to have had such a lovely group of children and parents. Their lives have
deeply touched me…and will leave tiny footprints across my heart as they move
on…Warm fuzzy hugs!!! Take care!
Write, call, or just stop by for a Popsicle!
Donna Lee
7805 Blue Lilly Drive
78759
257-2757
CalDonCal@aol.com
Big Red Ice Cream
2 cans of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 bottle Big Red soda (2 liter size)
1 bag of ice
Rock salt
Combine ingredients in the ice cream freezer container. Freeze according to
ice cream freezer directions. Ice cream will be soft and more like sherbet.
