Happy New Year, Everyone!
We were so happy to be back together this week. It seems to me that they have all grown so much in the past few weeks! In addition to growing physically, I have noticed how much they have grown in many other ways, as well. When observing them play, I hear the children using their words to negotiate their needs and express their feelings. Children are trying new activities, demonstrating great interest in learning new letter sounds and they love talking about math. They are ready to learn!
To welcome the new year, the children traced, cut out and decorated New Years hats. Some children chose to write “2010” on their hats. We also discussed the fact that we can say “2010” at least two different ways. We can say “two-thousand-ten” or “twenty-ten.” When reading our message, we will say “twenty-ten.” We also talked about the fact that it is also a new season and a new month.
On Thursday, Beatrice brought Mr. Bear back to school. He began his visit with her family at Thanksgiving and then made the trip to South Carolina with them over Winter Break! We read a fun story of his adventures and we saw lots of pictures of Mr. Bear at a park and with Beatrice’s family and friends. Beatrice reported that he had so much fun that he hoped he would be able to return to South Carolina soon! Mr. Bear will visit each family at least once. If the calendar allows, we would love to send him around for a second visit.
On Friday, we celebrated Olivia and Gabriel’s Star Day. They turned five years old during our Winter Break. Joining us for Morning Meeting was their dad, Geoff, their mom, Carmen and their new baby brother, Aidan. We learned that when they were little, Gabriel liked to ride his scooter and Olivia liked to talk. Now that he is five, Gabriel likes to play with his cars and trucks and he likes to read. Now that Olivia is five, she likes to play dress-up and make up games with her brother. Gabriel’s favorite food is rice, anything chocolate and mac and cheese. Olivia’s favorite foods are fruits and vegetables. On the weekends, they like to stay in thier PJs and play games all day. Their star board was filled with photographs of their family and Olivia and Gabriel doing all sorts of activities. For snack, we enjoyed pink and chocolate cupcakes. Happy Star Day, Olivia and Gabriel.
This week, we met the Letterland character “Lucy Lamplight.” Lucy lives in a lighthouse in Letterland. The animals really love her, even the lions, leopards and lambs. If anyone is lost or lonely, Lucy smiles and her lovely light shines brightly and helps them. A few of the children initiated their own project of studying the letter “L” in our children’s dictionary. Some were copying words beginning with “l” and some were copying pictures from the pages. They were very enthusiastic. Next week we will meet Munching Mike.
In addition, next week, we will begin our exploration of dinosaurs. We have already started learning some dinosaur fingerplays, building dinosaur puzzles and working with dinosaurs in the Math Corner.
Once again, we would like to thank all of you for your generous gift of the digital camera. I am pleased to be able to post some photos for you at the end of this blog. We will continue to post photos and videos of your children at work and play. Technology can be a wonderful thing! We are learning new tricks everyday. We hope you enjoy the new look of our blog.
Reminders:
- Please remember to send library books in each Friday
- Please check and replenish extra clothes
- Please remember to wash hands before entering the classroom each day
- Please remember to send appropriate utensils in lunch boxes.
- Show your child your calendar (we’ll be making one next week)
Dates to Note:
Friday, January 15th, Pizza Lunch and Ski-Friday, 12:35 dismissal
Monday, January 18th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, NO SCHOOL
Dinosaur Puzzle
Gabriel and Olivia's Star Day
Have a Great Weekend!
Ellie
