January 31st, 2011
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. 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 Activeboard 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.

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 to remember is Psalm 16:1 “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.”

On Friday, Feb. 18th, school and aftercare end at 11:15AM for Parent Teacher Conferences. The form for either requesting or being requested is in the Monday folder this week. Please fill it out and return it ASAP to start putting the schedule together. 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, President Bush, 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 decorated their bags last week so they’re ready for deliveries! Let them do as much of the writing as possible. They are ready! I put the name list on the back of this letter and the last.

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. We do interactive writing often and that will increase. In Writer’s Workshop we will be learning to revise our stories now. They aren’t writing as many stories now, but they are getting longer and more “readable.” I find it just amazing how well they are able to put down their thoughts! Literacy centers will involve more and more opportunities to learn spelling patterns and strategies. Their little 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. Each student will bring home a big tooth chart to keep track of brushing. It’s a fun way to remind them.

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!” Keep those binders another week as I will not be adding a new game this week. I have noticed in the Math binder log that these games are only being played once or twice by almost everyone. I will stress that these games benefit them most when they are played many times. The last two games I put in are important for their number identification and knowing what’s one more and one less, two standards we need to meet by the end of the year. Your help with this gets them to that point faster.

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!

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! There are also two Book Orders in the folder. You can order from both or either. Please send them back by next Friday the 11th!


God’s blessings on your week!
Natalie Graumann