The end is the beginning...

I have spent the past seven and a half years at New Berlin Elementary teaching over 175 kindergarten students and having an impact on many others through tutoring, afterschool programs, extracurricular events, and more. Truthfully though, the greatest impact was not from me to them, but from them to me. I learned how to be patient when I had no patience left, to smile when I wanted to cry, to hug and comfort when I needed space, to stir a passion for learning when the odds were overwhelming, to appreciate a child's humor even when the joke had been recited dozens of times, to be a parent to children who didn't see much of their own, to be worthy of these sponge-like minds who put all their trust in me, to teach self-confidence and humility in the shadow of my own insecurities, to light a spark of bravery for trying new things without the worry of failure, to rejoice in small accomplishments because they are the basis for big ones, and to treat all my students with love and respect so that even on a bad day, they never questioned how much they were truly cared for within our classroom family.
I will miss all these things and more, but it is time for me to say goodbye to teaching at New Berlin. The end of this road, however, is just the beginning of another and I am excited to see where it may lead. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of my journey thus far!

In response to some emails, phone calls, and questions I have already received, here is a little more information about what is coming next...

- Private Tutoring: If you or someone you know has a child in need of a tutor, I just so happen to know this teacher... :-) Seriously though, I offer flexible, one-on-one and small group tutoring for reading, writing, and math. Just contact me for more information!

- After School Care: Need an afternoon to run errands or just some quiet time here and there? I am available one or two afternoons a week to pick up your child, or children, from school and take care of them for a few hours. This can be done with or without academic tutoring as well.

- Music: This is the biggest reason I have decided to take a break from education. We constantly tell our children to never give up on their dreams and, yet, many of us as adults never fully committed to going after our own. I don't intend to make that mistake and have to look back 20 years from now and think, "what if?" So, I am going to see where my voice and my passion for music will take me! Currently my acoustic duo, Dust to Dust, is already playing at several venues around Jacksonville and St. Augustine as well as providing live entertainment for weddings, parties, corporate events, and more. Over the summer, our first single, La Luna, also released on iTunes, Amazon, etc... If you'd like more information about coming out to one of our performances or how you can support us as independent artists, just go to www.bygreeneyes.com :-)

- Art: Painting has long been a pastime I thoroughly enjoyed but rarely had adequate time for. I am hoping that my break from the classroom will allow me a few extra hours to apply myself to the canvas. The artwork will be available for sale and the proceeds will go towards furthering my goals as a musician. You can see the most current artwork for sale at the bygreeneyes.com website.

Thank you again for all the support and encouragement I have received both in and out of the classroom. I hope the 2015-2016 school year is a huge success!

Goodbye Kindergarten!

I truthfully feel like it was just a few weeks ago that I was writing my welcome to school message and now, here we are at the end! I hope each of you had a great experience with New Berlin and with your child's first year in school in my kindergarten classroom. I know the students made lots of wonderful memories and hopefully you were able to share with them, if not during the year, then with the slide show each of the students took home in their summer goody bag.

If your child was absent on Friday when report cards went home, remember you can stop by the office during their summer hours to pick up your child's report card. I will be here for post planning until Tuesday afternoon, so if there were any last comments, questions, or concerns you had, please feel free to drop by my classroom.

I have enjoyed being your child's teacher and I hope each of you has a wonderful, safe, and fun-filled summer break. Don't forget to keep practicing sight words, math facts, reading, and writing with your child to make sure they are just as ready for first grade (if not more so!).

If your child is having Callejas withdrawal (it's a thing, hehehe), or you just want to get out and try something new, please come visit me at any one of my summer locations including Blue Bamboo (serving dinner during evenings except on weekends), the Corner Bistro (providing live music on the first and last Thursday of every month - www.bygreeneyes.com), and, of course, the beach!
I also provide summer tutoring and babysitting, so please keep me in mind if you need an afternoon to get errands done or night out with friends! :-)

Happy Summer Break!

Staying Busy!

Even though we're down to the last few weeks of school, we are staying busy in room 123. Click on the links below to take a look at some of the things we've been doing as we countdown our last few days of kindergarten.

Safety Day

Zoo Field Trip

Field Day

Hope to see you at our classroom party on Tuesday, June 2nd! We will be at Sheffield Park from 9-11am and then back in the classroom around 11:30am for our pizza party - complete with ice cream sundaes and a special surprise.

Don't forget that Friday, June 5th, is the last day of school and dismissal begins at 11:30am. Report cards will be sent home in agendas. Students who are absent from school that Friday can come pick up their report cards from the front office the following week.

Have a wonderful summer and remember to stay safe! :-)

Literacy Week

We had so much fun celebrating our love of reading this week! Our two favorite activities were our buddy readers and the character parade. The 3rd grade buddy readers came to our class on Wednesday and brought their favorite books to read to us. Then they helped each of my students design some pretty awesome bookmarks showcasing some of their favorite things, like the adventures of Spiderman, beautiful ocean mermaids, colorful rainbows, hundreds of hearts, and imaginary worlds where ice cream truck-boats float around the ocean and give sweet treats to all the colorful fish! What imaginations we have in room 123 :-)
Today was the school wide character parade. Hundreds of students dressed up as their favorite book characters and showcased their outfits by marching around the bus loop while the rest of the students and staff cheered them on. We saw characters like the Cat in the Hat, Harry Potter, Elsa, Snow White, Batman, Farmer Brown, and many, many more! My little band of princesses and mermaids joined the procession and happily waved to all their friends as we marched around the loop. Reading is just so magical!

Feelin' the Love!

To each of my wonderful students, parents, and families,

Thank you SO much for all the things you have done over this past week for Teacher Appreciation. I have been bombarded with love and I feel so blessed to have had the privilege of teaching these students during kindergarten! The flowers, balloons, chocolates, Starbucks gift cards, candles, popcorn, Bundt cakes, pictures, bath goodies, thank you cards, and hand-written letters, have overflowed on my desk and I am so, very grateful for the many ways in which I have been remembered and appreciated.

It will be a bittersweet moment to watch these lovely students as they finish up their kindergarten year in just a few weeks. I am so proud of the gains that each of them has made and I look forward to seeing them flourish and continue to grow as they move onto the next chapter of their schooling.

Your support at home has been vital to their education and I thank you for all you have done and all you continue to do to support your child’s learning, both in the classroom and at home. You guys rock!

~Ms. Callejas~

SPLAT!

We are always learning in room 123 and these past few weeks were extra fun! We have been learning about onomatopoeia (sound words) and found a great source of supporting literature in the Splat the Cat series by Rob Scotton. During our author study, we not only learned interesting facts about Mr. Scotton, but also had the chance to read many of his stories in class. We discovered a fun website where we could learn more about him and the books he writes (www.robscotton.com) and stumbled upon his email address. The students were excited to write a class email to Mr. Scotton and even more excited when he wrote us back (you can read the full email at the bottom of this post). One of his responses prompted us to come up with our own ideas for new Splat books and the students drew cover pages for our imaginary books. Titles like "Splat and the Bad Hair Day", "Splat Meets Batman", "Splat the Ballerina", and "Splat Stays Home" were just a few of their brilliant story ideas.

We also celebrated Earth Day all week by learning about ways we can help protect the earth and participating in fun art projects to show our love for our planet. We wrapped things up on Friday by making an edible earth activity complete with 'dirt' and 'worms'. Sometimes learning can be so tasty!

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our UNF intern, Ms. Fridkis, on Friday. She did a great job learning how to balance the many roles of the teacher and the students and I were sad to see her go. Thank you to all the parents who sent in items for her first year survival kit. She was very surprised and grateful. Ms. Fridkis won't be far as she will be taking on a long term substitute position in 3rd grade for the remainder of the year. So our goodbye was more like a see-ya-later! :-)

Click here to see more pictures of our adventures last week.

As we countdown the last 29 days of school, please continue to practice with your child daily. There will be quite a few assessments that test their knowledge of sight words, math facts, reading, writing, etc... for information they've learned throughout the year. Your support is so important and greatly appreciated.

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Dear Heather and the wonderfully curious students at New Berlin Elementary, it's very good of you to write to me and thank you for all your clever and  thoughtful questions and comments. I've replied below in CAPITAL LETTERS. 

Ps, this doesn't mean I'm shouting :)

PPS. Don't ever stop being curious. 

Ok everyone. shout out after three; 1...2...3...reading rocks! Yay!

Rob Scotton

 

On 21 Apr 2015, at 15:33, Callejas, Heather A. <callejash@duvalschools.org> wrote:

Dear Rob Scotton,

Our kindergarten class is doing an author study on YOU!! :-)

THAT IS SO COOL!

My students have some things they want to ask you and tell you. If you have time to write us back, we would really, really appreciate it. 

I'LL DO MY BEST...

 

Jayden says she likes that you write funny stories.

THANKS JAYDEN, I'M GLAD YOU THINK THE STORIES ARE FUNNY.

ITS ALWAYS GOOD TO LAUGH...DO YOU HAVE A JOKE YOU CAN SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS?

Corbyn likes that you write fiction stories that are not real.

THANKS CORBYN, WRITING STORIES ABOUT TALKING ANIMALS AND IMAGINED WORLDS IS THE BEST. WHAT STORIES DO YOU LIKE TO WRITE?

Keith woud like to know, "How do you make Splat the Cat books?"

HI KEITH, I WRITE A STORY ABOUT SPLAT AND THEN PAINT MANY PICTURES OF SPLAT AND THEN ASK MY WONDERFUL PUBLISHER TO DO THE HARD PART AND MAKE THE BOOK. AND THEY DO! BRILLIANT! DO YOU HAVE MANY BOOKS AT HOME?

Samantha says that she really likes your pictures.

THANKS SAMANTHA. I ENJOY PAINTING THEM. HAVE YOU PAINTED ANY PICTURES OF SPLAT?

Lea would like to know, "How old are you?"

UH-HO...OVER 21...I HAD A PET DINOSAUR WHEN I WAS GROWING UP. 

William would like to know, "Why do you write all your books silly and stuff?"

Hmm, WILLIAM...BECAUSE SILLY AND STUFF MAKES ME SMILE. DOES SILLY AND STUFF MAKE YOU SMILE ALSO? 😃

Ian says that he likes to read your books.

THANKS IAN, BE SURE TO TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS! OH, AND DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA FOR A NEW CLASSMATE FOR SPLAT? 

Zayne would like to know, "How do you write your name?"

THATS A TOUGH QUESTION. AND I USUALLY GET IT WRONG. BUT LETS SEE...WITH AN 'R' AND AN 'O' AND A 'B' AND A S-C-O-T-T-O-N. MY SPELLING'S GETTING BETTER, BUT IT TAKES LOTS OF PRACTICE.   CAN YOU SPELL YOUR NAME BACKWARDS?

Sadie would like to know, "How do you write your stuff so neatly?"

HI SADIE, I'M AFRAID I DON'T WRITE NEATLY. I BET YOUR HANDWRITING IS REALLY NEAT THOUGH...IS IT?

Zariah likes how you do your funny pictures.

THANKS ZARIAH, DRAWING AND PAINTING FUNNY THINGS IS HUGE FUN...WHATS THE FUNNIEST THING YOUVE EVER PAINTED...OR WRITTEN ABOUT?

Mason likes your books.

THANKS MASON. WHICH BOOK IS YOUR FAVORITE? AND WHICH OF SPLATS FRIEND'S ARE YOU MOST LIKE?

Eva would like to know, "How do you make your books?"

HELLO EVA. I WRITE THE STORIES AND PAINT THE PICTURES AND THEN HARPER COLLINS, MY PUBLISHER, MAKES THE BOOK. I THINK ITS MAGIC!

Josiah would like to know, "Why do you make so many crazy books?"

HI JOSIAH. BECAUSE CRAZY BOOKS ARE GOOD FUN AND THEY MAKE ME LAUGH. AND I DONT THINK I'D ENJOY WRITING ABOUT SPLAT IF THE STORIES DIDNT MAKE ME LAUGH. HAVE YOU GOT A GOOD IDEA FOR A STORY?

 Brooks says that his favorite book you wrote is "Fishy Tales". 

I LOVE THAT STORY TOO, BROOKE...AND AQUARIUMS! HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO AN AQUARIUM AND SEEN A SEA HORSE? A SHARK? AN OCTOPUS? A CLOWN FISH?

Hollie says that she loves your funny books.

THANKS HOLLY...I'M HAPPY THAT YOU ENJOY MY BOOKS. DO YOU THINK YOU COULD DRAW A REALLY PRETTY DRESS FOR KITTEN?

We have more students in our classroom but we are running out of time. 

TO ALL MY FRIENDS AT NEW BERLIN ELEMENTARY...

A BIG HI FROM SPLAT AND SEYMOUR AND OF COURSE ME, ROB. 

HAPPY READING EVERYONE!

Thank you for reading our email. Thank you for writing such wonderful books.

A PLEASURE TALKING WITH YOU ALL AND SHARING SOME SPLAT CHIT CHAT. 

Have a great day!

 

HAVE A GREAT DAY ALSO! ;-)

Rob

 

 

Heather Callejas

Kindergarten Teacher

New Berlin Elementary

http://callejas123.blogspot.com

      

 

 

Egg-cellent!

Yesterday the students found themselves immersed in the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss as we watched his stories come to life during our field trip to JCA. From pants with no one inside them to a speck of dust on a clover that contained a world that only Horton the elephant could hear, the students experienced a taste of some of Dr. Suess' most wonderful tales!
As if that wasn't already enough fun, we then headed over to Sheffield Park for an egg-cellent time hunting eggs with our friends and playing on the elaborate playground. It was a beautiful, sunny day but quite hot and we arrived back in the classroom exhausted and ready for some down time.
"Horton Hears a Who" was the perfect remedy and we finished our day with snacks and a wonderful retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss tale.
Click here to take a look at some of the fun we had!