WELCOME TO THE SPPS PRE-K CLASSROOM!

I'm really looking forward to the 2014-15 school year! We have some exciting activities planned. Mrs. McCarthy and I are honored to spend this time with your children, and we strive to make learning fun!

Be sure to check the monthly newsletter sent home with your child around the 1st of each month. Post it someplace you can easily check it, like the refrigerator or family bulletin board. Sometimes, (usually!) there is a Scholastic Book Club catalogue attached. Your newsletter will also tell you how to contact me should you have questions or concerns. Maybe you will need to double-check which day you signed up to either bring snack or volunteer. Also, get in the habit of going through your child's book bag or backpack nightly to make sure you aren't missing important events, deadlines, or other information.

Let's keep our communication open! I will need to know if someone other than you or an adult from the list you provided will be picking up your child. Please let me know by either sending a note with your child or telling me in person during drop-off. Should an emergency arise, call Mrs. Leitch at the front office to let her know. She will pass the info along to me. She can also help answer any questions you have about school functions and activities.

It's going to be a great year!
                                                                                           Sincerely,
                                                                                                            Mrs. Phillips

                                    2014 Polar Plunge for Special Olympics
                                                    March 1, 2014

Well, we did it. Thanks to the students at St Paul Parochial School, enough money was raised for the staff to take the plunge in the icy waters of the Columbia River this last weekend. It was C-O-L-D!!  All for a good cause, though, the Polar Plunge is a major fundraiser for Special Olympics Oregon.
Check out these pics-

 Mrs. Koch, Me, Miss Benson, Mrs. Merrill and Mikayla waiting near a "heater" before the plunge.

Here we are, taking the plunge! In my defense, I was already very cold before I got wet!

Mrs. Routon and I (and another plunger from another team).

                                  Mrs. Merrill is way too into it, it my opinion...!
                            Mr. Williams, Mrs. Merrill, Miss Benson, and Mrs. Montanez.

Afterwards, I couldn't feel my feet and couldn't wait to change out of my clothes.

Yay Team SPPS MUSTANGS!!

 Feb. 13, 2014

 

A spontaneous project in the month of February. We wanted to see what it would look like to form our collective bodies in the shape of a heart...

 

 

...and here it is!

Catholic Schools Week
Grandparent's Day January 29, 2013

We loved having our Grandparents join us in designing Valentine's for Doernbecher's patients! This has become an annual tradition. It's just one of the ways we give to our community. 

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

 

 

 

 

A Mom taught us how to make these adorable turkeys that could be used on the Thanksgiving table as place markers or favors.

 

They were super easy to make!

 

 

THANKSGIVING STUDIES

Last Wednesday the 4's group learned about how the Native Americans were helpful to the Pilgrims by bringing food and sharing the feast on that first Thanksgiving meal. We decided to celebrate that new friendship by creating Native American paper bag vests decorated with real symbols and designs. It was a lot of fun to create them, and even more fun wearing them!

                              Fall 2013 Projects With Paint

                                                                                                       

Our first project in September was a circle study. I like this idea because it reminds me of stained glass windows in a church. We used yogurt cups dipped in black tempura, then filled in the circles with water colors. I like the randomness of this project. When put all together, the results were stunning.

 

One day, I did a little experiment with music and painting. A friend of mine told me about a composer that used mostly synthesized or electronic instruments. The music did evoke imagery, at least to me, but I wanted to see what the children came up with when they listened to it with a paintbrush in hand. I really was not surprised at the results. Three quarters of the class painted about water!! Which happened to also be what the music made me think of. Here are a few of the pieces created by student artists.

   

Another beautiful Fall project was leaf garlands. We painted leaf shapes on coffee filters using water colors. I really love the colors the students used. I made the whole palette available for this one because, really, all colors are found in nature. And the garlands are meant to be the students' interpretation of Fall colors. In this way they are both concrete and abstract.

For Halloween we learned that yellow tempura mixed with red tempura can make ORANGE!
Mixing the colors was half the fun. Each student mixed different proportions of red and yellow to get their desired color of orange for this project. They painted one sheet of white construction paper. When it was dry, they drew a circle free-hand, then cut it out. Add some eyes, mouth, teeth, stem and grass and wa-la! Jack-O-Lanterns! They were as individual as the children themselves.