February 2009

February 2009

 

We’ve returned from our holiday break and jumped right into the new year!  The children have been very busy – making friends, doing projects, practicing their skills. Both classes have accepted Jackie as if she’s been with us from the beginning.  We have a very welcoming group of children and parents!

 

With winter in full swing, we’ve been talking about germs and working on healthy hygiene. Our cleaning bee parents will be going through the school at the end of January, so hopefully we’ll cut down on some of those germs! We’ll continue to go outside as much as possible. Not only does it help cut down on the germ, but we have the best snow we’ve had in years!

 

Throughout this month and March we’ll also be working on individual assessments of the children.  We have a week set aside for parent-teacher conferences in March. Watch for the sign-up to be posted at the end of February.

 

Jammie Day will be February 4^th & 5^th! The children (and helpers) should wear their pajamas to school!  It’s a fun, cozy day and we put our snow-pants on right over our pj’s when we go out.

 

To celebrate Valentine’s Day we’ll be decorating a box and encouraging children to bring in a special homemade valentine to put in the box. You can address the valentine ‘to my friend’. On the last day of school before break, the children will take turns picking a surprise valentine from the box. 

 

I hope everyone got my email about pick-up time. Please help us try to reduce congestion and confusion in the hallway at the end of the day. Also, remember to check that other children are not following you from the playground or from the building. Thanks for everyone’s help incorporating these new practices.  At the March parent meeting we can talk about how they’re working out.   

 

Soon we’ll start planning fieldtrips for the spring.  Any suggestions (or offers to host a fieldtrip) would be greatly appreciated.

 

Activities:

February is a short month, but we’re going to make the most of it! We’ll start off the month reading Snow on Snow on Snow by Cheryl Chapman. This is a wonderful story about a day out in the snow.  We’ll do finger-painting, a torn paper collage, and a sewing project on pajama day.  Next we’ll read the heartwarming book, A Snowy Surprise by Amy Heist.  This is a perfect story for the week before Valentines and we’ll be baking surprise muffins, making our own valentines and cocoa mix.  After the winter break, we’ll read Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.  This is a great story about empowerment and using your brain to get out of a tough situation.  We’ll end with a paper bag puppet (of course), a toilet paper tube castle, and watercolor dragon.

 

Remember, we don’t have school the week of February 16^th for winter break.