Next Tuesday, February 12th, the school will be celebrating I Love To Read Month.  We will begin the  day reading from 7:40-8:05ish.  Parents are welcome to join us to read a book to a small group of children.  In conjunction with this we will also have a school-wide pajama day the same day!  Children are welcome to wear the pajamas for all or part of the day.

Next Thursday is Valentine's Day.  We will be making large personal envelopes to collect valentines.  Today I am sending home a class list.  If your child brings valentines, please make sure there is one for each child in the calss.  Also, please refrain from seiding in sugary treats/ candy.  We have several children with dietary restrictions and my experiecne has been that consuming vast amounts of sugar is disruptive to the rhythm  of our day!

I hope everyone is surviving the crazy weather!  We did have some really nice outside time on Tuesday and Wednesday before it got warm.  We have started a unit on the five senses.  Thus far we have focused on the senses of sight and hearing.  As part of this we have played some games that test our sense of sight or hearing and  read several books about Helen Keller, imagining what it would be like to live without the ability to see or hear.

 During snack we have been listening to a CD of Shel Silverstein reading poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends.  The children love this CD and are particularly drawn to the poem "18 Flavors", which we have been reciting.  Many children have even chosen to copy the poem during Writers Workshop.  I think most of us know the first part at least (I find myself saying it as I am falling asleep at night!)

So far we have 8 collections of 100.  Our 100th day will be Monday and we will take some time to share the collections then as part of our day long celebration.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in money for our Flynn show.  Please remember to send $3.00 before the vacation.

I hope everyone has managed to stay warm this week!  We have been reading the book Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen, to coincide with the full moon on Saturday.  Although I think it will be too cold to actually go out, your child can probably tell you some things about owling.  In conjunction with this we have been working on an owl felting project.  Using roving wool and warm, soapy water, so far we have created bodies and heads.  We will put these together when they are dry and add distinguishing features.

Today was our 93rd day of school.  Provided there are no cancellations in the next several days our 100th day will fall on Monday, February 4th.  In honor of this I have invited everyone to create a 100 project to share with the class.  This can be as simple as putting 100 somethings in a jar and bringing them in, or using 100 things to create something.  We brainstormed a list of possibilities in class today:  pennies, paper clips, toothpicks and mini- marshmallows, stickers, beads, words, numbers etc.   This could come in anytime between now and February 4th!

FLYNN TRIP MARCH 26
On March 26th, we will be going to the Flynn Theater to see a show based on the book If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.  The PTA generously funds most of the cost, but children are asked to contribute $3.00 each for the tickets.  This money can be given to me or directly to Kathi any time in the next few weeks.

It has been a bit of a crazy week as my family has battled the stomach bug!  Thank you to everyone for coming to the concert on Tuesday evening.  The kindergarteners did a fantastic job.  It is not easy to stand up in front of such a large audience, nor is it easy to be part of the audience for such a long time after performing.

I have a meeting about the math assessments at the beginning of the day tomorrow, but should be back mid-morning.

Finally, tomorrow's lunch WILL NOT BE PIZZA.  It will be a smorgas-board of left overs instead.  I have told the children, but given that pizza is often a high preference lunch choice thought it best to let everyone know!

A reminder that our winter concert is tomorrow evening, January 15th, at 6:00 p.m.  Children should meet their classes on the mats in the gym between 5:50 and 6:00 so we can begin the concert at 6:00.

This week I have been plugging away at the PNOA (Primary Number and Operations Assessment), the math assessment that is used in kindergarten through second grade throughout the district.  This is giving me valuable information about each child's sense of number and areas that may need a little more focused instruction.  In addition to being asked to count forward starting from various places between 1 and 100 and count down from 20, children are asked to do things like tell what number comes just before or after a given number, read and write numbers, show numbers with their fingers (including teen numbers!), sequence numbers, and estimate.   I will have these completed by next Friday, when I will spend the morning at a workshop talking about strategies for moving children forward in areas of difficulty.

Yesterday we began talking about animal tracks.  We learned that different animals use different gaits in the snow, related to their shape and size.  We tried out each of the four gaits, walking, hopping, waddling, and bounding, and decided that none of them was very easy!  We then sorted animals into groups based on their gaits.  Today we looked at a winter scene that included various animal tracks and used it to tell a story about what had happened.  Asked your child to share some of this.

We also took advantage of the snow this week and tried snowshoeing and cross country skiing.  Everyone went snowshoeing on Tuesday and about half of the class chose to try skiing today.  Everyone will get a chance at some point as long as there is snow!  We discovered numerous deer tracks while we were out.

Crossing the field.

Skiing on the soccer field.

Following deer tracks.

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  I am really appreciating all of the new snow!  We have read several non-fiction books about snow and learned how it is helpful for plants and animals.  We also did an experiment that involved putting one thermometer under the snow and leaving another one hanging out in the air.  Ask you child which place was warmer.

In our first few days back we have also been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and his message of peace.  We have spent a lot of time talking about how what it means to be a peace maker and how we can be peace makers throughout our days at school.  We have generated an ever expanding list of things peace makers do:  listen, use words to solve problems, make people feel good, use teamwork, work well with any partner, use good manners, think about the feelings of others, clean up, help others, use self-control, clean up after themselves, respect materials, use good sportsmanship, and follow directions.  We will continue our discussions of peace and what it means to be a peace maker in the coming weeks.