Valentine's Day

Hello Parents
I first want to apologize that this is coming out on a Monday.  I had a sick little one Thursday and Friday and then the weekend got away from me.  I do have the blog pretty much written as we go through the week so I could simply send this morning.  Sorry again!


 I wanted to start this week's letter to show you again how our room works.  Although you see many sheets come home I want you to see all the learning that happens at school while your child is playing in the centers.  This playing reinforces the concepts taught at circle time, at small group time, and even what is on those sheets that come home.  If you have any questions about our day, please let me know!

Students are putting magnets up in our writing center and singing our letter song as they do it.  They are also matching capital to lower case. They are also helping each other when one does not know the letter they come up to.  The coolest part: they were not doing the letters in alphabetical order which tells me they genuinely know the letters!

When we have extra papers, we put them in the art center to be used however the students would like to. This student chose to do her color by number (correctly) and then cut it out!  Great job working those fine motor skills and recognizing numbers and colors!

Students are in the technology center (left) working on mouse skills as well as a variety of math games on the computer.  This mat game is working on directional words.  Students in the listening center (right) pick a book, find its cd in the back, put it in the discman and listen to the books on CD.  Students then are responsible for putting CDs away. This helps them learn many skills on top of how a book words, appreciating books, and hearing the actual books.

These students are practicing reading the alphabet chart (that is used district wide) They practice saying the letter names and sound and then something that makes that sound.  They take turns "quizzing" each other and they help each other out when they are stuck!  

As a part of our Valentine theme this week, we made our valentine's day bucket names.  We worked on spelling our names out loud (to tell the letter names) then counted how many letters that was.  We then had that many lines drawn on our papers and we write one letter on each one.  The really helped us with counting, one to one correspondence, letter names and fine motor skills.  Who know a valentine bucket could be so educational!

Students also made their Parent Valentines. They did the gluing (and direction following) and practiced writing "love, ___"  I hope you had a good Valentine's day knowing Thumbody loves you!

Our Valentine's day celebration went well with dropping off valentines in buckets and having fun doing valentine activities!


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 Ff with  Feathers.  On Wednesday (to make room for our valentines celebration on Thursday) our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, F is for Flamingo.

Upcoming Events:

• Conferences  Conferences for HASD families and students who only stay in the AM will be Monday February 16 3:00-5:45.  Families that stay with Mrs. Zajicek will be Thursday Feb 19 3:00-5:45.  
• Swim Night at the YMCA-Look for RSVP that came home.  Family night of no charge swimming at the Fox West YMCA.  Open to all 4k sites in the district. Saturday February 21, 2015.  Please bring the RSVP to me so I can send in a count and make sure to bring the back page with you when you go.
• Sledding at Jennerjon Park.  More information came out this week.  There is also a digital image on the blog (last post)  Open to all 4k Sites in the district. Friday February 27, 2015.  
• Book Order due Feb 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms.

Important Notes:

•  Dress for the weather.  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.
• 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: President's Day
Letter of the Week: Kk
Snack: Dunkleberger