January 11, 2014

Our school year has gotten off to a crazy start! Hopefully this week will be a little more "normal". Because of the weather/cold last week, not all of our children (and me) were in school every day so this coming week I will be repeating the letters, numbers, etc.

This week we will be working on letters Ii and Jj, numbers 45 and 46, the word "saw", the rhombus (formally known as a diamond) shape and our Bible focus will be Luke 2:52 "Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people". We will be doing a color changing crystals science experiment, graphing our favorite winter activities, reading books about snow and creating a fun polar bear art project using ivory snow soap shavings. Our book of the week will be "Bad Dog Marley", written by John Grogan and illustrated by Richard Cowdrey. We have been talking about what an author does, what an illustrator does, where is the front of the book, where is the back of the book, where is the spine and where do you begin reading....all important concepts for pre-readers to learn!

We are beginning to incorporate two new things in our clasroom...one is our kindness doll and the other is our "penalty flags" (like used in football, soccer, etc) Our kindness doll sits on a shelf and watches for kind things taking place in the classroom. The children have to do the kind things on their own, without me asking them to share, take turns, etc. When someone does something kind, the doll tells me and I let the children know they were "caught" being good! The kids really seemed to like the kindness doll!

 Our 2nd new thing, the penalty flags, just happened to appear to me in Wal-Mart, believe it or not. I was walking past a display and saw the flags and an idea popped into my head. The kids hear my voice saying things like please stop and make a better choice, or keep your hands to yourself...with the penalty flags, this will add a visual reminder as well, in a fun way. If they are doing something they shouldn't be doing, they will get a flag on the play as a reminder they need to change what they are doing. They thought this was a fun idea and I heard a few kids tell their parents "I didn't get a flag today" when they went home. So if your child tells you they didn't get a flag, that's a good thing! Sometimes a visual reminder makes a more impacting statement than just hearing my voice alone.

Update on sleeping arrangements:   As of right now, we will be spending another week in the classroom in the main building. Things are progressing and we should be in our own classroom soon! :) 

Since this week was crazy and off schedule, I did not take pictures to put on our blog, but will be taking them starting this coming week!


Leader Calendar for the week of January 13th to 20th:

Monday:       Dara

Tuesday:       Logan

Wednesday:   Grant

Thursday:      Ella

Friday:           Lila



Upcoming Events:  

Our center will be closed on Monday, January 20th in observation of Martin Luther King Day.

Snow Day Party!!  Tentative date is February 17th. Have the kids wear pajamas! We will be having a special breakfast, having a snow ball fight, making some crafts and watching a movie with hot chocolate and cookies. If anyone has any snow related movies that are rated G, like Snow Buddies, let me know if we can borrow it to show that day.


 Reminders:

If you haven't done so already, you might want to sign up for text alerts for school closings. You can go to www.wlos.com and click on the "breaking news text alerts" blue box and it will take you to another web page where you can register your cell phone number and choose the schools you wish to get notices for delay/closures.


 With the change of the seasons, please change out your child's extra set of clothes and include pants and a long sleeve shirt.

If your child has been sent home sick or has been sick at home, they may not return to school until they have been fever, vomiting and diarrhea free for 24 hours without medication. This is to help prevent the other children and staff from becoming sick as well.

If you would like to pack your child's lunch for them, per our food program guidelines, please make sure they bring a nutritiously balanced lunch including fruit and/or veggies and some protein. If you pack them juice, it has to be labeled 100% juice or we can not give it to the children.

Chapstick, Germ-X and lotions for dry skin are not allowed in the classroom or in the reach of other children. If your child wants to use these things, please make sure they use it before coming to school, you can apply it to them when they arrive at school or you can fill out a permission slip for us to apply it at school. We can not allow the children to use them and we are not allowed to apply them on the children without a signed permission slip.

Please do not bring toys from home unless it is your child's leader day. We have plenty of toys and activities going in our classroom and the extra toys will be put in your child's tub.


Things for the kids to practice at home:

Blowing noses

Buttoning

Zippering

Putting on a coat

Putting on their shoes and tying them

Learning their phone number

Learning their address

Cutting...give them magazines, newspaper, note cards to practice their cutting skills. Most of these kids love to just sit and cut paper!


Have a great week!






Mrs. Wendy