Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Community Trip Reminder!

Tomorrow is our community trip to the
Oak Forest Bowling Alley and Mickey's!
We will be bowling one game and then eating lunch across the street!
Today I will send home a copy of the menu at Mickey's. They do offer a kids meal but since we have a class of growing 5th and 6th grade appetites, I think they can chose from other items on the menu. Ms. Connelly's classroom will be joining us!
Everyone is very excited to bowl, eat lunch, and have fun with friends!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Lake Katherine Field Trip!

     Today was our field trip to the Lake Katherine Nature Center!  We learned so much about animals! We attended a class given by Ms. Marian. She was very nice and very knowledgeable. We learned about mammals, reptiles, and birds. We got to examine different types of pelts (animal furs), animal bones, skulls, and shells.

Ms. Marian showing us a coyote skull!


Shannon holding a turtle shell!


     Then, we went downstairs in the Nature Center and got to explore live animals! There were many types of animals downstairs. We saw rabbits, fish, frogs, and snakes. Ms. Marian took out and passed around a ferret, turtle, and a guinea pig. It was so much fun! Some of us were excited to pet the animals, and some were a little afraid at first.

Asma petting a ferret!

Amaya and Shannon petting a guinea pig!

     After our nature class, we got to explore and look around the center. We saw lots of bones, rocks, shells, and stuffed animals.


Shannon exploring the shells!
Lorenzo guessing what butterfly the caterpillar will turn into!

     Parents/Guardians, thank you for helping make our trip such a great success by turning in permission slips and money in such a timely manner!!! The students truly enjoyed themselves today!



Thursday, September 23, 2010

Reminder!

Tomorrow is our field trip to Lake Katherine Nature Conservatory!
We will be attending a nature class and going on a hayride. We are so excited!
Please send your student with a sack lunch!

Apples, apples, apples!

     The past few weeks we have been learning all about apples! We have been learning about their life cycle, how an apple tree changes throughout the year, apple facts, what we can make with apples, and about the apple parts. Ms. Kempke has also been incorporating our apple theme into her speech groups too, and they have been delicious!

Here are some pictures of what we have been working on in class!


We made apples out of a paper plate! We glued real apple seeds in the center!


Here we used our arm and hand print in brown paint to make the apple trunk and branches. Then, depending on what season you chose, you decorated your tree with leaves, apples, snow, or flowers.
(Starting from top left working clockwise: winter, spring, fall, summer)


This recipe was a big hit! We scooped out small apple balls and then dipped them in melted butterscotch chips and then dipped them again into sprinkles!
If you'd like to try it at home, visit this website:

This activity was fun too! We learned all about the word hypothesis! We made a smart guess at how many seeds were in our apple. After we wrote down our hypothesis we picked the apple seeds out of our apple to find out if we were right. We knew our hypothesis would be close because apples can have up to ten seeds inside them!


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Happy Birthday Amaya! (September 16th)

We celebrated Amaya's birthday with cupcakes, presents, and music!
Everyone had a wonderful time!
Amaya loved her bracelets, nail polish, and hair clips from her teachers and classmates!

Meet Our Classroom Pets!

On Thursday, September 2nd we took a community trip to Petland! While we were there we took a tour of the store and got to see many different animals! We saw rabbits, guinea pigs, puppies, kittens, fish and other critters! A store employee named Liz gave us the tour and took out a rabbit for us to pet. Also, she gave us some great advice as to what kind of classroom pet we should have. After much discussion we decided on... hermit crabs! They are very low maintenance and easy to leave alone on the weekends. The students have so much fun feeding them, caring them, taking them out and watching them crawl around.
We decided as a class what to name them. Their names are Mr. Crabs, Crabby Patty, and Tess. Two of the names are from their favorite TV show Spongebob and the other is after our social worker Ms. Theresa.
Here they are!


This is Mr. Crabs! He is the most friendly!

This is Crabby Patty! She is very, very shy!
We hardly ever see her out of her shell!

This is Tess!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Meet our Pre-Student Teacher!

We are happy to have Katlyn as our pre-student teacher this fall semester! She comes from ISU, which also happens to be my alma matter! She is very kind and great with the students! She will be collaborating and co-teaching with me as the semester progresses. Then, with my guidance and supervision she will begin teaching a new subject every couple of weeks. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me!

Here is here letter of introduction! I will also send a hard copy home tomorrow!

Hello Parents/Guardians!
     My name is Katlyn Yanahan, and I am student from Illinois State University. I am currently in my senior year, majoring in Special Education. As a part of my program, I have been placed here at Kerkstra Elementary in Miss. Bartkowski?s classroom to complete my pre-student teaching. This means that I will be in the classroom with your child every Monday-Wednesday & Friday until December 16, 2010. With the supervision & guidance of Miss. Bartkowski and my supervisors, throughout my semester I will gradually begin creating and implementing daily lessons . I have always had a passion for helping others, and I have enjoyed working with people of various disabilities since I was young. I spent my last semester teaching at a high school twice a week in resource and co-taught classrooms. I have also worked as a special recreation counselor for the past three years in the Tinley Park Park District. I believe that teaching is such a rewarding experience, and I am excited to share some of my first teaching experiences with your child! I am looking forward to learning from your child this semester so that I can become a better future educator!

Introducing...

...the lovely, dedicated ladies working with your students in room 24:

Teacher
Stephanie Bartkowski

Paraprofessionals
Ms. Marilyn
Ms. Carol
Ms. Margaret
Ms. Amber

Speech Language Pathologist
Ms. Kempke

Occupational Therapist
Ms. Irene

Physical Therapist
Ms. Sharon

Social Worker
Ms. Long