We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed your time with family and friends!  You and your children helped make our holiday more special, thank-you very much!  Conference time is quickly approaching and the sign up sheets are outside our classroom door, please make sure you sign up for a time to meet with us.  If these times are not convenient please stop in and talk to us or send us an e-mail.  Several parents asked about bringing children to the conference.  The children are not required to be there, but if you need to bring them they are welcome to play quietly on the carpet.  We are looking forward to seeing you to discuss your child’s progress.

The children were so enthusiastic about our Polar Express train they made, that even before our holiday break they started discussing what other vehicles we could make!  This led to our unit on transportation.  The class worked hard as they discussed, painted, drew, taped, and glued the boxes. They worked on listening to their friends’ ideas, sharing the classroom materials, taking turns, and helping each other.  We now have an airplane and a police car that they are very busy “working” in.  During our unit on transportation we have also been busy working on our fine motor skills.  We have peeled lots of car and train stickers, used tweezers to pick up pompom hubcaps, drove cars on number roads, and cut and taped sticks together to make airplanes.  On Friday, to end our unit on transportation, we will have a pilot come in and talk to the class.

This week we have started small group time.  Small group time is when a small group of children work with one of the teachers and a group of peers to work on a specific skill.  We will be playing games to work on fine motor, alphabet, number, sorting, classifying, patterning, recall, and retelling skills.  Children will have a chance to share, help each other and take turns as they work together in the small group.