Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful week the Sea Turtles had! I am still in awe of all of the fun and excitement we had. From gingerbread cookie decorating to the preparation of our secret parent gifts to a special visit from Santa to having Dominic's mom, Ann-Marie and grandma, Kathy, in our class to help create the beautiful sea turtle ornaments! Las Posadas was a huge success and such a sweet time. Thank you for all of the thoughtful and generous gifts, cards and donations to my incredible gift basket!!! Words to not feel like enough to describe my gratitude for each one of you. Have a wonderful holiday! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love, Miss Meika

I'm Dreaming of a Sea Turtle Christmas!

What a great week the Sea Turtles had once again! The week was filled with all things Christmas including a cute gingerbread craft where the boys covered each of their men with buttons! The Sea Turtles also made a beautiful hand print angel craft with a sweet poem to go along with it. We have been working hard on special gifts for mommies and daddies and I am hoping they haven't said anything yet! This next week we will be celebrating St. Lucia Day on Monday and looking forward to Las Posadas on Friday! I cannot believe only 1 week until Christmas break, this has been a truly special first semester of school!
See you Monday!
Love, Miss Meika

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

The Sea Turtles are getting into the holiday spirit! And not just the kids, we had a mom's night out at the Biltmore, and had a great time! In the classroom the boys adorned wreaths with beautiful sparkles, sang Christmas carols, and most importantly began talking about what Christmas is about! For the kids, presents and Santa are usually what comes to mind first (especially at this age). But we also began a discussion about what it means to give and how we can do that. The children also began work on their top secret Christmas presents for mom and dad! Shhhh! It's a surprise :). 

On Friday we celebrated Mason's 4th birthday, yipee! Mason's mom, Sherri, made it a very special day by organizing a dinosaur dig in the lower playground sandbox. Needless to say, the boys loved it! And all the dinosaur treats were fantastic! Thank you!

Sunday night is our Advent Christmas program and I am looking forward to seeing you there! This next week we will be celebrating Sinterklaas and continuing lots of fun art projects! 

Love, Miss Meika

Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We had a very short week, one day, but enjoyed an amazing time together at our Thanksgiving luncheon where the boys sang a beautiful song and dined on delicious food provided by the parents! We also were treated to a story by Liam and Matt's older sisters, Bella and Monica!
Thank you all for your continued participation! Have a wonderful holiday!
Love, Miss Meika

Working Together!

Two things I really value about my class are the way we work together and the involvement of the families. I am lucky enough to have six boys who care about each other deeply and truly enjoy one another's company. I try and promote independence and self sufficiency in each of them and the results are easily seen everyday in class. Whether they are cleaning up, passing out snack, putting up chairs, they work together to any common goal and it is so refreshing. We are complemented on our behavior and manners by other teachers and visitors. 

I had the privilege of holding parent/teacher conferences this past week and loved my time with all of the parents. Thank you to the dads who were able to come, always enjoy more time with you! I always say the strong relationships I create with the children are just as important as the relationships I create with the families, so thank you for letting me partner with you! 

Thank you also for the parents who bought books from the book fair for our class, such a sweet and generous gesture. Thank you for the continued parent participation, I love having you in the class as do your children! 

Can you tell that I am thankful yet? This next week is a short week but looking forward to our Thanksgiving luncheon!

See you Monday!

Love, Miss Meika

It's A Pirate's Life For Me!

 

The Sea Turtles ended our pirate theme with a bang, well actually, a treasure hunt, and it was GREAT! They loved the idea of going on a real treasure hunt with real treasure maps and well, digging up the chest of treasure was a highlight. They don't quite understand the idea of the end of our pirate theme, as Dominic asked, "End? Let's keep doing this forever!" Well, we will keep the books and imaginary play but this next week will be all about Thanksgiving (maybe with a pirate twist).
The book fair was extremely successful, thank you for all of the books you bought for me and our classroom! WOW! I am overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and generosity!
Looking forward to seeing you on Monday!
Love, Miss Meika

The Pod

The Sea Turtles had an exceptionally fantastic week! We were busy turtles, well this week, busy pirates, as they have been enjoying our pirate theme immensely! From hook hands to eye patches to a mini treasure hunt to turning our clubhouse into a pirate ship...WOW! Needless to say they are loving every minute of it. We also helped make wrapping paper for the book faire (this Monday and Tuesday) as well as saw an opera show on Friday! The week continued with a fun day at Padaro Beach Grill, thank you so much for coming out, spending time together outside of school is a real treat!

This next week we will continue our pirate theme by painting parrots on Monday and a large treasure hunt on Wednesday (shhh it's a surprise)!

See you Monday!

Love, Miss Meika