Friday Update January 20

We realized we had a day where all 16 were at school!  We snapped some pictures, and soon rediscovered how hard it is to get everyone smiling and looking at the camera! Oh well, we decided to be silly! WE ARE AWESOME!

It has been a busy week! We had a visit from amazing author and illustrator TODD PARR! We also had a lesson with Ms. Sarah on trying to solve problems. Please let me know if you are interested in taking home Mango and Oreo Cookie for the Chinese New Year holiday. So many of our kiddos have asked! They have their normal big cage, but also their small traveling cage.

This week some of our learning included…

*more animal explorations, discussions and play. Our Cat and Dog project was relaunched. Through play, drawing, and creating, the students have begun talking about the “perfect” home for a pet, and what pets really need to have in their home. One of the kiddos asked about Garfield (the SAS cat) and another asked about all of the animals that don’t have homes to live in.  Our project is off and running again!

*getting ready for Chinese New Year. A few of the students came in and asked if we could make some decorations for the classroom. Many of the students have been making lanterns, as well as cherry blossoms after looking at a book about celebrating Chinese New Year

*spent a lot of time with our 100 chart—we counted by 1’s 5’s and 10’s, used stickers to show different amounts, wrote numbers in order, and patterned on the 100 chart with beads and stones

*practiced writing our letters and coming up with words that started with that letter. (This came from an interest in writing the letters at one of our literacy tables.)

*made books for Todd Parr (he is a hero in our class—feel free to check the side of my blog under favorite authors for the link to his website)

*visited with Todd Parr—he read us some of his books, showed us how he draws, and told us about himself and his dogs! His messages are what the world needs to hear right now!  So amazing!  He is in our classroom with us next week. We are very excited!

*Ms. Sarah told us about how we can solve our own problems (use our words (“Stop-I don’t like that! It makes me feel sad when you…”) ignore, move away) and she read us the book One, which became a fast favorite!

*and much, much, more!

REMINDERS / UPCOMING DATES

*Please send in a family photo if we do not have one here at school yet. Also please send in your Message of Inspiration for your child.

*Please make sure your child’s lunch card is topped up. You should be getting reminders when the balance is low.

*January 25^th: Todd Parr in our classroom

*January 25th: PHOTO MAKE UP DAY! If your child has not had a school photo taken, they will be done this day. This is also an ALTERNATE DRESS DAY for everyone.

*January 26^th: Lion Dance for all ELC students-wear Chinese New Year dress or colors.

*January 27^th: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS—Faculty Inservice Day

*January 30^th, 31^st: NO SCHOOL—Chinese New Year Holiday Week 20 Jan 16 to 20