President's Day

Hello Parents,

Sorry for the late post. It has been a very busy weekend!

This week we talked about the presidents and America.  On Monday we started
with making American flags (which we learned is also called the star spangled banner).  We patterned the stripes and followed directions with 10 stars, and then stop. We did this 5 times until we had 50 stars!  We listened to the Star Spangled Banner while we worked.  We also started a syllable center with presidential words.  After students learned how to do it, it was put in the pocket chart center.

We also discussed George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We watched short Scholastic videos on them and can now tell some short facts about them.  George Washington was our first president, is on the quarter and on the $1 bill.  Abraham Lincoln fought a war for freedom of slaves, is on the penny (the brown one), and on the $5 bill.  Barack Obama is our president now and he lives in the white house.

On Wednesday, we talked about the coins the presidents were on and did some coin rubbings to see the presidents' faces show up on our papers.  We also practiced flipping the coin, and graphing heads and tails. We then said which had more and how many it had.  Students also made a bald eagle from their hands. We talked about the eagle being our country's symbol, showed a picture of it on the oval office floor, and talked about how they aren't really bald, but have white feathers on their neck and head.

In addition to our letter of the week project, on Thursday students got to play Presidents day bingo.  This reviewed and taught some new American symbols.

The letter of the week was Ff We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter F with feathers.  On Wednesday, our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, F is for Flamingo.

Important Notes:

• BECAUSE IT IS FINALLY GETTING WARM ENOUGH TO GO BACK OUTSIDE, PLEASE BE SURE THEY ARE DRESSED FOR THE WEATHER TO GO OUT.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.  We go outside on TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS, Extended day kids go out EVERY DAY.
• Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
• Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
• Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
• Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays. 

Next Week:
Theme: Dental Health.Teeth
Letter of the Week: Kk
Snack: Steudal

Family