February 8, 2008

Dear Families,
     While time flying this year normally seems like a good thing with everyone wanting spring to come as soon as possible, but in our classroom, time is flying so fast we almost want to slow it down!  We have spent 2 marvelous weeks studying about Ancient Egypt.  If you haven’t been in our classroom in the last few weeks, please stop in and see Ancient Egypt recreated right before your eyes.  We have a huge pyramid in our classroom the children have built and painted.  We even mixed sand into our paint to create a sandy texture.  The children also painted a sphinx to stand guard in front of our pyramid.  There are a few palm trees “growing” around the pyramid, but more importantly, there is a gold throne, a table, and gold plates inside for the children to play with.  
     The children have all decorated linen collars and have designed turquoise and gold jewelry to wear.  We also have white pillow cases which we have turned into Egyptian tunics by cutting  holes into the case for the children’s head and arms.  So, they can’t wait to have a turn in that pyramid, playing “Ancient Egypt” with their friends.
     This week the children also made beautiful gold treasure chests.  Each child began with a plain cardboard box.  They then decorated each side of the box with beans and macaroni noodles.  Once all their decorations were glued on we spray painted the boxes gold and transformed them into ancient treasure chest.  Toward the end of our unit on Egypt we will hide their treasure box, complete with treasure (of course!) deep in the pyramid and the children will all get to be tomb robbers and try to find their treasure boxes!
     We all enjoyed our 100th day of school together this week as well.  Thanks for all your help at home to help make this day special for the children!  The kids enjoyed a 100 Hershey Kiss Hunt, breakfast together, 100 math problems, reading 100 + books with the class, and of course all the kids enjoyed their show and tell time when they had the chance to share their 100 collection with the class.  Wow!  Those collections were some of the best and most creative we have seen in years!
     And now, we switch gears alittle bit ... again!  Today the children chose a Valentine Party Committee to work on and next week the class will work on committees to plan their own party.  This is always one of our favorite projects because the children REALLY have to work together to make their party the huge success that we are sure it will be!  Ask your child which committee they will be working on to plan our party!
     While the kids are planning the party, we will need your help to make your children’s party complete.  We will need paper products including plates, napkins, and cups.  We will also need drinks, prizes (for the games planned and created by the students! - sets of 30),  pretzels and cheese sticks.  (The refreshment committee will be incharge of deciding and making a refreshment - sure to be sweet - so we thought a few extra munchies would be nice.  If you can help to provide any of these above things please contact Rachel Gandhi (Sohan’s mom).  She will be helping us coordinate this event!  Thanks so much!  Her phone number is -------------- and her e-mail is ragandhi at insightbb dot com.  Thanks!
     Have a great weekend.  See you Monday morning!
Sincerely,
Arin Cox & Stacy Kirby


*Our class will be exchanging Valentines.  Please let your child use the attached list to help ensure there is a Valentine for everyone.  Send them to school with your child Wednesday or Thursday!