Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! We 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 pieces of the costumes at the paper party, to applying the make-up and helping them 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 again to all of you. Finally, a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts I received. I have been so touched by how giving this class is, and I appreciate it so much.
We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the 16th.
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 also begin our math topic on 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!
Blue bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the blue bags will contain a journal component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the journal will be attached to the journal this week. Please read that letter and leave it in the homework folder for your reference. Basically, your child will use the journal to respond to the book that's in the red bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. 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.
We still have an opening in the SPARK schedule. SPARK helpers come every other Friday, weather permitting. It is from about 2:00 to 2:30, and we provide a copy of the lesson that we'll be covering and usually send it home in the Wednesday envelope for your perusal. Feel free to add more to the lesson or change it as needed! Please let me know if you'd be available to add to the schedule.
Enjoy your final days of vacation!
Upcoming Events:
1/2: Inservice Day
1/16: MLK Holiday
1/25: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break
2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday
