It’s officially Winter and we are taking advantage of the snow! The children have been measuring and recording the snow on the ground, painting it with eyedroppers and watercolor paints, measuring the temperature outside, and of course, playing in it!!! We have yet to go sledding though. We need all of the children to bring in labeled snow pants, boots, waterproof gloves, hats, and warm coats. If the wind chill and the temperature are above 20 degrees, we go outside.

Mathematics
The children have been using standard and non-standard items to measure a variety of items: a ruler to measure the snow, measuring items with cubes, and weighing stones with a scale. Mathematics over the past month has focused on the different ways we can measure things. Try measuring everyone in your family with a silly object. How many cereal boxes tall is your child? We are also learning about patterning. Our calendar helper now has the job of predicting the next card in our calendar pattern. The children have also created their own patterns using colored shapes, bears, and boys and girls in the class.

Journaling
We have started journaling again, but this time, we have a new twist. We have added a line on each journaling page. We are asking the children to draw something meaningful or important to them above the line. Then, we are working with each child to write scribbles, letter-like forms, the beginning letters, or the sounds they hear when they say the word slowly. Children are working at his/her own level to add some kind of writing to their journal page. They are all really eager to add their own words!

Sign-in
The children sign-in every morning and place their names in the job jar. We use our job jar to randomly draw names for our meeting helpers. This is a great motivator for the children. Everyone wants a job! Over the last two weeks, the children have been stamping their names with lowercase letters. Though it is often hard for them to write lowercase letters, it is important for beginning readers to be familiar with both uppercase and lowercase letters. Because a child’s name is the most meaningful written word to them, we started by identifying those lowercase letters. Try drawing upper- or lowercase letters on pieces of paper. Have your child hop to the D, gallop to the N, or spin to the A! How many letters can he/she find?

Upcoming Themes
Dinosaurs
Be My Valentine
Space

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