Week of 1/3

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things!

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all the help I received with the Nutcracker performance. From making the paper costume pieces, applying the make-up and helping children get dressed, to photographers-- every job was covered! The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks especially to Jill Brehmer for coordinating and to those who donated cookies.  Finally, a huge thanks again to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts I received. This class is amazing, and I am looking forward to a fun & productive 2016 with all of you.

We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the weekend of the 16th-18th.

We will start right in with a new letter-- Pp-- and a new word-- and. The Alphafriend's name is Pippa Pig. We will have centers all this month. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will conclude our math topic on addition, and then begin the topic of subtraction. Again, plenty of at-home reinforcement is appreciated on this topic, as it can be quite difficult.

Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!

Now that we are coming up on our half-year mark, we do need to refresh a few of our supplies.  Especially needed are tissues and baby wipes.  If you can donate either, we'd appreciate it.

Blue bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the blue bags will contain a "book report" component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the book report will be in your child's homework folder this week. Please leave the directions there for your continued reference. Basically, your child will use the journal page in the homework packet to respond to the book that's in the blue bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. If it is a non-fiction book, they will be writing a fact they learned. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.

Enjoy your final day of vacation, and I look forward to seeing your children on Monday!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Centers (Johanna & Camille), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Lizl & Tanya), P.E. with Coach Jose, Sharing
Wednesday: Computers (Johanna), Sharing, Blue Bags go home

Thursday: Centers (Lawrence & Jill), Sharing
Friday: Story Time with Grandma Gail, Sharing

Upcoming Events:
1/15: Art Vista Lesson

1/18: No School: MLK Day
1/21: Incoming Kindergartner Parent Information Night
1/22: Snow Day
2/2: 100 Day
2/15-2/19: President's Week Break