Ms. Hartshorn’s Classroom News
May 27, 2011
Dear Families,
It's been a busy few weeks as we come to the end of our 2010-11 school year. Your children have been busy writing thank you letters to classroom volunteers, creating retirement messages for some beloved teachers who will be leaving us, and continuing with outdoor science education in addition to the reading, writing and ‘rithmatic that happens each day.
We had our final Four Winds lesson with Sharon Stafford, learning about honey bees and the designs of their bodies and hives. The children found it quite interesting that most honeybees are female and do almost all of the work of the hive and gathering the nectar for making honey, while helping to pollinate. Then there are the drones---male honeybees and the queen bee, who are responsible for continuing their species. As a follow-up, we drew and colored large honeybees in studio art to hang in our classroom.
Mrs. Partridge, one of our school nurses, led a health lesson this past week, teaching us about our hearts and the importance of this organ. We learned about the pumping action to keep our blood flowing, and how exercise and oxygen is a vital part of keeping our bodies and blood healthy. We enjoyed listening to our hearts with the stethoscopes Mrs. Partridge brought into the classroom.
In honor of Arbor Day, John Hoogenboom, as representative of the Waterbury Rotary, donated a flowering crab apple tree to our school. We joined him and the rest of our school body to plant this tree and read a poem in honor of trees to celebrate and thank Mr. Hoogenboom. We are very fortunate that Mr. Hoogenboom and the Rotary choose to donate a special tree to us each year in honor of Arbor Day.
This will be the last classroom newsletter of the school year. I encourage you to take a final look at the new photos that have recently been posted on Shutterfly along with this newsletter for your enjoyment. Thank you for a wonderful school year. The end of the school year always comes with mixed emotions for me—so wonderful to see the growth academically and socially that has been made by your children, but difficult to send along those children who are ready for third grade who have been a part of our classroom family. May each of your children have a wonderful summer break filled with lots of sunshine and happy memories!
Please watch the general school-wide newsletter that is sent from the office each week for important dates of school-wide events.
I hope to see all of you on June 6th at 6pm for the Primary Family Sharing Night (raindate is June 8th).
Sincerely,
Brenda
