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 especially to our room moms for coordinating. 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 21st.
We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially
snow! We will also begin our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards,
especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing
them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't
follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen,"
like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued
reinforcement as we wrapped this up before the holidays, and many children had a
hard time with it.
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 (the 90th day of
school out of 180 days is in the upcoming week), we do need to refresh a
few of our supplies. Especially needed are glue sticks 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 journal component. Very specific directions
about our expectations with the journal will be in your child's homework folder
this week. Please leave it there
for your continued reference. Basically, your child will use the journal 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. 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!
Upcoming Events:
1/18: Staff Development Day, no school
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
