January 31, 2011 Knowing Jesus, Growing in Faith, Serving God’s Children
Dear Parents,

Everyone is so excited about the 100th Day of School next Monday! We have a few fun things to keep us busy that day. Next Monday, please send 100 of some type of snack food that can be put together for a fun afternoon snack. Send it in a baggie. We will be making a flipchart book on our Activboard titled ”I Spy 100.” We’ll watch a movie showing how the I Spy authors make their sets for their books and then we’ll try it, too. There are math and language arts skills involved as we have fun making our own “book.”
Our Bible lessons emphasize Jesus healing a lame man from Mark 2, but we’ll talk about how all of Jesus’ miracles involved helping others. Our Bible verse is Psalm 16:1 “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.”
Our Pennies for Patients campaign will end this Friday. Please get your banks in by Friday. We’ve raised over $40 in our room already!
On Friday, Feb. 18th, school and aftercare end at 11:15AM for Parent Teacher Conferences. Today there is a conference slip in the folder. Please get the slip back right away so we can schedule everyone. I put down if I need to visit with you. Otherwise it is up to you! President’s Day is also coming up on Monday, February 21st. We’ll have no school that day, but we’re learning that one thing we can do on this holiday is to pray for our President and our country’s leaders. We’ll learn about Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and the White House, and Washington D.C., all during story time and God’s World time. I discovered several videos and flip charts that explain our national holidays in terms young children can understand!
Valentines can be brought any day. The children will put them in each other’s sacks as soon as they arrive in the morning. They created their bags last week so they’re ready for deliveries! Let them do as much of the writing as possible. They are ready! The name list came home late last week so I’m putting another one on the back of this note. We’ll make valentines for nursing home residents this week, too!
This week we will work with “Ww” and “Xx.” Everyone wants to be done so we can really concentrate on using them, and most have no problems with these last few letters. This is a good time to check and see how well your child is remembering and using the letters and sounds. Writing notes or that one little sentence a night are great ways to use their new skills. Literacy centers will involve more and more opportunities to learn spelling patterns and strategies. Their fast word lists are working wonders in their writing, too, as I now see many of these words popping up in their stories spelled correctly and effortlessly! Be sure you are still having them read their little books to you in the evening. Talk first about what the book is about. Who are the characters, where does it take place, was there a problem that needed solving¸ etc.
This week we’ll begin our tooth studies. We’ll watch a video about caring for our teeth. Today we made a big tooth chart to keep track of brushing. It’s a fun way to remind them. Jake’s mom will be coming this month to teach us about our teeth and their care!
We are doing lots of counting again. We’re using larger numbers now, and using many of our other skills to practice them - patterning, counting forwards and backwards, being able to start with any number and count on, graphs, addition and subtraction, etc. Try asking problems in the car and see if they can figure them out “in their heads” and tell you how they did it. Just use numbers between 0 to 12 right now. They internalize many things by using that small controlled group. The larger numbers can be learned through our folder games. I’m not sending a new game home this week. I noticed the games aren’t being played regularly. There are plenty to choose from and they benefit them most when they are played many times. The ladder game is really a great one that takes some time to learn. We’ll collect them again next week.
A new Book It calendar for February is in the folder. Please get the January calendar in this week and I’ll send a pizza certificate home!
Use the website below if you want to see the note before Monday. I’ll send you an email copy if you’d like.
God’s blessings,

Roxi