WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

Dear K-207 Families,

I AM SORRY THAT I HAVE NOT WRITTEN IN A WHILE...I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW FAST TIME GOES. I AM ALSO IN A LITTLE BIT OF DENIAL THAT YOUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN WILL BE LEAVING ME AND MOVING TO FIRST GRADE! WHILE THAT THOUGHT MAKES ME A LITTLE SAD, I AM HAPPY TO SAY THAT EACH ONE OF THEM IS READY!

IMPORTANT!
I would appreciate it very much if you would send in as soon as possible a favorite family recipe. (You could also send in a few if you wish!) I would like to have these recipes before Wednesday of this week. It would be great if the recipes could be typed on white paper but not necessary. I would like you to change the title of the recipe to include your child’s first name. The titles could be made up – for example… “LILY’S LUSIOUS LEMON PIE”. I know this is a last minute notice, so I understand if you cannot do this. (“Always something, Mrs. Graham!”) If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak with me.
NEXT IMPORTANT NOTICES!

Save the date! Our class’ graduation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 23rd from 9am-11am. More information is included below.

Please note Parents as Enrichment Partners this month takes place on Friday, May 14th for the entire school. I am trying to get together a little poem presentation for that day. I will keep you posted

• K207, K203 and K109 graduation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 23rd. Due to the large size of this year’s Kindergarten, we will be holding 2 separate graduation ceremonies. K207’s graduation will be held in the Multimedia Room on Wednesday, June 23rd from 9-11am. Teachers and class parents are collaborating on the planning.

Teachers have decided on colors for each class. Our class color is red. The class color helps create somewhat of a uniform appearance during the ceremony, and helps set a casual tone. Please keep in mind that some children will be coming back to the classroom after the ceremony for the second half of the school day and should be dressed appropriately for school (i.e. paint, clay, playground, etc.) You can, of course, take your child out for their special day. I know that many parents love to take their children to lunch with the family. Please let me know what you decide.

That said, K-207 kids are welcome to wear a red t-shirt or shirt, along with neutral or red bottoms—or a red dress. Alternatively, if you had something else in mind that you wanted your child to wear—in other words, something not red--you might want to incorporate a touch of red just so they feel a part of the color theme. For example red socks or hair barrettes, a red pin, or something else with a red pattern even, could be a fun addition to an otherwise non-red ensemble. Please understand that by no means do we intend for families to make a special clothing purchase for this ceremony.

• We are pleased that one of the grandfathers in Ms. Kissen’s class (K-203), Miles' Grandfather Michael, the Playground Builder, will visit all the Kindergarten classes this Wednesday, May 5th. We are grateful to Miles’ grandfather Michael for driving out to PS 154 all the way from his home in Pennsylvania to show the children images from many of the playgrounds he was involved in building. He’ll also be on hand to continue to answer their many wonderings about playgrounds. Thanks to Miles’ family and for Ms. Kissen for helping to make this happen!

• Interested in joining K-207 this Thursday 5/6 at 9:30 for our weekly walk to the Vanderbilt playground?
Class K-207 has been having a ball watching the progress of the building of Vanderbuilt Playground. We have been making weekly visits (for a total of 5 so far) and have been keeping a journal on the progress. We have talked to a variety of architects, engineers and playground builders. We have met with the designer and interviewed her several times about the progress. When this playground opens in the summer, the children in Class K-207 will be so invested in this playground that they will believe this playground belongs only to them. We have been especially interested in the huge Spider Web from Germany. It is almost completed and the children are so excited that they intend to try to build a large one in our classroom. We will need a lot of supplies to accomplish this huge task. If anyone has large styrofoam balls just hanging around or red rope or the paper towel rolls (we need many of these), please send them in ASAP. If you would like to help us build, please let me know.

• K-207 would love to plant in our classroom!
I would love to have a few parents take the lead with helping K-207 make a class garden! This will be in addition to the garden that we are taking part in the schoolyard. The K teachers have decided on a theme for our plot: A spaghetti garden! I would like to get seedlings and begin the process in the classroom. Let me know if you’d like to volunteer to help the kids’ plant!

• Reminder: Paper Bag Players trip is this Friday 5/7
If you have not yet done so, please remember to sign and return the permission slip for the Paper Bag Players trip on May 7th. I will let you know tomorrow what parents will be coming on the trip.

• Reminder: Kindergarten Author Visit with Nina Crews scheduled for Thursday, May 13th
Local author, Nina Crews, returns to PS 154 to meet with the kindergarten classes! (She visited last year’s kindergarten also.) Over the next several weeks we’ll be reading from her books The Neighborhood Mother Goose and Below. She’ll be doing a presentation on her illustrating and writing process and the children will have the opportunity to ask her questions.

• Reminder: K-207 visits Prospect Park Imagination Playground with our Fourth Grade Buddies on Wednesday, May 19th at 9:30
We are scheduled to take a school bus over to Prospect Park’s Imagination Playground located at Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Road with our Fourth Grade Buddies. We will be leaving school at 9:30 am and will return to school before lunch at 11:10. I welcome parent and/or caregiver volunteers for this trip. If you are interested in joining us, email me, or send me a note in your child’s homework folder.

• Seeking Recycled Materials & Other Materials for Playground Constructions
As I stated earlier, Class K-207 is interested in making a large spider web for our classroom. In addition, some children may be interested in creating other playground equipment. I’d like to start collecting materials now. I’ll be collecting the following: empty cracker boxes/cereal boxes/ & other boxes of a variety of sizes, paper towel rolls, cleaned plastic & tin take-out containers, cleaned plastic yogurt containers and other similar containers of different sizes; felt & other fabric swatches; cotton balls; gardening wire (that is easily bendable by kindergarteners), cardboard; foamcore (hard posterboard); electrical tape in a variety of colors; modeling clay/Fimo, cardstock and other materials that easily lend themselves to 3-dimensional construction. If there are other materials you have on hand that you may wish to donate, simply contact me. Other items on my wish list include a couple of masking tape dispensers and an additional hot glue gun for the classroom. Once we begin this construction process, stay tuned as they’re will be plenty of opportunities for parents to help with the construction process in the classroom.

• Seeking assistance doing general classroom work afterschool
I can use some general classroom help after school. There is work to be done organizing books, cutting cardboard, prepping materials, and more. If you have as little at 20 minutes, after school one day, please let me know.

• Mark your calendars:
- Wednesday, May 5th: Playground Designer visits all K classes.
- Thursday, May 6th: Walk to Vanderbilt in the morning!
- Friday, May 7th: Kindergarten trip to see the Paper Bag Players
- Thursday, May 13th: Kindergarten Author visit with Nina Crews
- Friday, May 14th: Parents as Enrichment Partners 8:50 –9:20am
- Wednesday, May 19th: class trip to the Imagination Playground in Prospect Park with our 4th Grade Buddies.
- Monday, May 31st: Memorial Day, school closed
- Wednesday, June 23rd: 9am-11am, Kindergarten graduation with classes K207, K203 and K109.
- Monday, June 28th: Last Day of School

Thank you for your support! You are a wonderful group of Parents and I have enjoyed working with you this year SO MUCH.

Fondly,
Ms. Graham