January 9-13

Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays.

This week...

We will continue with our look at "The Mitten" as we did not complete many of the activities before the holidays. Many friends left early, or were sick, and we were busy with our concert prep, etc.! Our focus with this particular book is to work on identifying characters, setting and the problem (the animals and Nikki, the forest, and the lost mitten/tight squeeze). We will also be focusing on retelling the story (summarizing the main events), acting it out and setting a particular scene to music.

Try this game at home...

We will be playing a new game each Monday called "Two Word Weekend". This game helps children develop their retelling/summarizing skills. It helps children focus their ideas into 2 descriptive words. They think about the bast part of their weekend and then tell us about it in 2 WORDS! Not easy, but they quickly get the hang of it. You can try it at home: "2 Word Day". Have your child tell you about the best, or worst, part of his/her day in 2 words. It's fun and it helps develop an important skill. Don't forget to model first!

THANK YOU TO SHERRI KERR!

I heard the presentation was wonderful! Thank you so much for taking the time to put on such a wonderful performance. We are very grateful. I was sorry that the busses were cancelled and that I missed it as well (both of my kids were home sick!). Everyone who was able to attend loved it! Thank you.

SHOW AND SHARE SCHEDULE

January's Show and Share schedule will be coming home this week. Watch for the "Surprise Box" (a small lunchbox). A sample and instructions are inside. This month's Show and Share will help students develop their descriptive language skills, their listening skills, as well as their logic and problem solving skills. Each student chooses a small item from home to place in the box and then writes 3 clues to read to the class. We will also be learning about tallying as we record how many guesses it takes the class to solve the riddle! Thanks for helping!

FOOD DRIVE

Thank you so much for all of your generous donations. This activity helps develop children's awareness of others, as well as strengthening their sense of empathy and sharing. The school raised 23 boxes...close to 900 pounds of food! WOW!

AT HOME READING PROGRAM

We will begin our "At Home Reading" program this month. Each child will receive a folder with a book and a tracking sheet. These books are levelled readers that focus on repetition, pattern and sight words. The purpose of these books is to help children feel successful as readers. Not all children are reading, so we will support them by reading to them and having them repeat back to us. You will notice that children seem to 'memorize' the book rather than 'reading' it. This is an important step towards learning to read and is to be encouraged and praised. This program is designed to build your child's confidence as a reader! Never let your child struggle or get frustrated. Keep it short and fun and offer lots of support. This program is NOT meant to replace the nightly reading of high quality storybooks and non-fiction books that you read with your child. Children need to hear high quality literature, challenging vocabulary and the rhythmn of language that reading aloud provides. More deatils to follow!

Have a fantastic week and please continue to check in regularly!

Warmly,
Ms. Cox