What a wonderful year it has been! Ms. Ona and I have really enjoyed working with the Parent/Child (birth to three) and two year old classes. It is awesome to witness the growth the children accomplish week to week. So much of the world is brand new in their eyes. This world is a place waiting to be discovered. Simple things we take for granted, become magical once again as we slow down to share their experiences. These little ones are learning to concentrate, take turns and form friendships, choose works that interest them and master basic skills. Our two year olds are all in various stages of toileting. As they shed their diapers and begin to wear underpants, they psychologically shift and begin to see themselves differently: "I’m a big kid now!". Movement and language development are huge areas they are driven to master. From crying to gurgling , cooing and babbling evolve words, then sentences… With words, children can better order and categorize the world and their experiences. The youngest ones seem to put everything in their mouths… this is how they conquer and begin to understand their environment.. . through their hands and mouths. "Don’t you wish you could hear their minds? "Hmmm… this is salty, it is soft and smooth and oops! Oh!!!! It bounces!" Children’s little hands are amazing to watch as they explore the environment around them. How amazing that they can come to manipulate tiny objects, or begin to work with a pair of simple scissors… Cause and effect, constantly studied like miniature scientists! Opportunities for learning call to them. Children are always on the move. If we tried to copy their movement, we’d never keep up. We don’t have half their energy. These children are so interested in everything! Using so much energy, it’s no wonder they need to take regular naps and sleep a long stretch at night.

We wish to thank all the parents for the privilege of working with your little loves. We have come to love them, too! Thanks for all the support this year. We can’t have asked for a nicer group of families!

April 10 Institute Day – No School
April 13 In-Service Day – No School April 29^th Parent Meeting /Workshop
May 25 Memorial Day – No School June 5 Last Day of School, - Class Party
June15 Summer Camp Begins

Saturdays: April 4, 18, May 2, 16, 30 and June 6

We are all looking forward to playing outside! The yard is ready for the children to enjoy and we can hardly wait for
the weather to cooperate. It’s April, and yet there is still snow on the ground. Hopefully, winter is going out like a lion-
and this is its last roar!

To welcome spring we have been enjoying some special activities. The children have been very busy making chicks, butterflies, and chick books. We are anxiously waiting for the arrival of our caterpillars. The children will be able to observe the life cycle of the butterfly and then they will set them free to fly in our gardens. We have been taking
walks to see how all of our bulbs, planted together last Fall at the Outdoor workshop, -are now fragrantly blooming.
The crocus, tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are so beautiful!

The children participated in the Muscular Dystrophy Hop-a-thon during Spring Celebration Week. It was a lot of fun!
At the end of that special week, we hosted special visitors: grandmas and grandpas! We were happy to see so many grandparents attend the Open House. The children were very proud to show off their works… and many of them left
here to have lunch at a favorite restaurant.

In the classroom, everyone has been very busy learning numbers: adding, subtracting, multiplying and even dividing.
The children are working on their word building and reading. Our Word Building Books become treasured keepsakes-
for each child’s unique personality shines through… every child has their own "story". Storybook time is a favorite time
of the day. Even when children are taking off with reading, they continue to love to be read to… it is a way of opening
up doors to the wide, wide world. We love to explore! The children are learning about geography. We are making maps and examining baskets of objects from the corresponding continents. Part of learning about world cultures is through trying different foods, so we have been busy in the kitchen cooking together… The children baked soda bread for us
to enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day. We have made salsa and quesadillas and prepared jicama, with Ms. Lety in Spanish.
We also made pizzas as we journeyed through Italy. Thank you to all the families who sent in their objects from Italy!
We tasted vegemite sandwiches with Mrs. G. when we "visited" Australia with her. Our travels have been so tasty!

Many parents have gone above and beyond the call to help support our school. We would like to thank all the families who sent in their objects from Italy. Thank you to the B.s’ for the poster with fun facts about Italy. Thank you to
Mrs. G. for the wonderful presentation on Australia. From boomerangs to platypuses, kookaburras to koalas, vegemite
to didgeridoos we all sure had a g’ day! Thanks to Mrs. M who has been our sound mom all year and is always ready
to lend a hand with any project we imagine (and she always does this with a smile). Thank you for Mrs. E. who brought cookies for all the children and helped them decorate them for Valentine’s Day. Thanks to the A. family for donating towels and a laminator which will be put to good use for projects in the classroom. Thank you to all the families who
have donated books and made purchases from Scholastic’s Book Club. Thanks to you, we were able to receive many
free books for our class.

We have a few additions and changes in our classroom. Sadly our old fish, Rainbow, died. The afternoon group bid him farewell as he went off to sea. R.E. was nice enough to buy a new fish for us, Rainbow (the Fifth). Thank you, E.’s!
B. brought a snail and M. brought a plant to help keep the fish tank clean…We really appreciate such thoughtfulness! Thanks to the T.’s we have a new hermit crab. This is the most active hermit crab we have seen so far. The children
are actually able to watch him move and climb around in the tank. Usually, the hermit crabs are most active when
they have bath time or at night, -when the children are not here.

We wish to welcome new friends: J.F. and T. B.,- who have joined our class. We are so happy to meet you! We have
had some staff changes: Ms. Karri moved on earlier this month as she accepted a full-time job with a local school
district and Ms. Yadi is moving to Arizona with her family and will be leaving soon. We are sorry to see them go and
we wish them both well… We have been very fortunate to find two new members for our team: Ms. Katelyn and
Ms. Lonnie. Ms. Lonnie, a fluent speaker, will continue our Spanish. Ms. Katelyn is a child psychology student and
is very excited to join us, as well. Because we had sufficient notice, we were able to overlap the staff to make a seamless transition. The children have adjusted quickly -and warmly embraced them both. Please join us in welcoming them to our Hope family!

Ms. Shannon’s Purple Room:

It’s been a busy year! The children have thrived, and we have formed a little community. The children are eager to
learn and are happy, content, and peaceful. All areas of the classroom are being put to good use, and we feel that
a strong base is being laid for continued academic and social growth. Concentration, self-control and direction, self-discipline and a respect for others and the environment are in evidence everywhere! It’s been a successful year!

A look back: during Winter Celebration Week, the children had such a wonderful time making projects such as
decorating glitter pine cones, baking ginger bread cookies, making snowmen, putting cloves in the clementines (pomanders) for the wonderful smell, making bracelets, and making homemade bird suet’s for the birds to enjoy
during the cold winter month. Thanks to Mrs. M. (M.’s mom) for coming in to decorate ginger bread cookies with
the children,- they had so much fun! Since then we’ve had dad’s day and parent/teacher conferences. Every
chance we have to get together with parents, we learn so much about each other and we become a better team…

Spring is finally in the air! It seems like Mother Nature took an extra long winter nap this year.  This month the
children are very excited to see all of our fall bulbs (that we planted during our fall outdoor workshop) popping up
along our building. The colors are so beautiful and this is the best time to start exploring the nature around us,
just in time for Earth Day! The children have just planted sunflower seeds and are very excited to watch each step
in the growing process. We read a book on sunflowers in English & in Spanish.  The children were amazed at what the seeds will do over the next few weeks. They are checking on them every day to see what growth stage they are in.
We are also looking forward to having ladybugs in the classroom. Once they are ready we will let them go free outside and watch them fly away. The children are so happy be playing outside now and taking walks -exploring all the things
we see and hear in nature.  To welcome Spring, we are enjoying some fun special activities… We made chick books to show the stages in which a chick hatches from the egg to its full growth. We also made butterflies with coffee filters.
We baked Irish soda bread in the bread machine on St. Patrick’s Day. The children ate the bread the next day for
snack and really enjoyed it and were proud of their wonderful cooking skills! It was so nice to smell bread baking as
they worked in the classroom.  Ms. Lety also made quesadillas with the children and taught them many words in
Spanish as they prepared their yummy meal. This coming week we plan on making some blueberry pancakes and
reading Curious George Makes Pancakes (an all time favorite story from Curious George in our classroom).   Ms. Yadi
is so very kind to donate her fish tank to the classroom so I will be bringing in some different kinds of little fish for
the children to learn about. It’s always fun to watch them swim around and use our magnifying glass to get a
close up view.

We are so lucky to have so many supportive, generous parents! You help make this school so wonderful! We are
truly thankful! We would like to thank Mrs. J. (P.’s mom) for coming to help make the bird feeders. We would also like
to thank Mrs. F. (A.’s mom) for coming in during Valentine’s Day week to decorate heart-shaped cookies with the
children. They came from the Zettlmeier’s bakery right across the street,- so they were delicious cookies! Thank you
to all the children who donated a special gift to the classroom during their birthday celebrations… it really means so
much to the children to bring in a special gift for their classroom. Thank you to Mrs. V. (J.’s mom) for bringing us
ibrary books each month during our different seasons. It is so wonderful to have such a variety of books to share
and read with one another. Thank you to X.’s family for donating towels and washcloths to our classroom. We can
always use those in our practical life area! Thank you to all the parents who really make our classroom a beautiful
place and for all the thoughtful things that each of you do for all of our children throughout the school year.

Our Outdoor Workshop is scheduled for Saturday, May 9, 9-11 am.

The whole family is welcome! We will be beautifying our outdoor spaces, weeding our gardens, and filling our borders
and planters with annuals. We will also be planting our herb garden, vegetable garden, butterfly, and hummingbird gardens. So bring your garden tools and gloves… together we will accomplish so much! Many hands together will make light of heavy work.

Sign up at Dismissals. This year we will be pre-assigning families to certain areas. If you wish to donate something for
our gardens, just let us know. Plants, wind chimes, gazing balls, stepping stones, trellises, garden gnomes… are all welcome gifts for the gardens. As always, we look forward to seeing you here!

School Spirit Week will be on June 8^th-12th. Children can show their school spirit by participating on the days they normally attend:

Monday: Tea Party Day. Bring out the dress up trunk, or do creative second-hand/garage sale shopping. Yes, we’re talking boas and bow-ties!

Tuesday: Sport’s Day. Wear a jersey, hat, uniform etc.-or your favorite team’s colors.

Wednesday: Plushy/Doll/P.J. Day. Bring your favorite stuffed animal or baby doll to school and wear your jammies!

Thursday: Crazy Hair Day. Do the do!

Friday: We are the World Day. Bring something for "Show and Tell" or wear clothing from a different part of the world, representing your family heritage… or a place you would love to explore.

We will end the school year with a Family Picnic on Saturday, June 13^th from 10-1pm at Lewis Park. Lewis Park is our favorite neighborhood park, located on Riverside Drive.

Please sign up for Pot Luck. We will have a clipboard out at arrivals/dismissals.

Besides sharing food and conversation, we are planning to play games, have relay races, face painting, and an award ceremony. There is also a very nice playground for the children.

Some of the children will be moving on to new schools in the fall, so it is a chance to celebrate friendships with our
class one last time, and in some cases…a time to say goodbye, (at least, for now). So, bring your family, your picnic blankets, and be sure to wear sunscreen!

-Let us know if you have a bean bag toss game that you can bring to the picnic.

Traci