February 2014

We’ve had an interesting winter so far with weather and schedule changes.   Hopefully February will bring a little more pleasant winter weather and we can get outside more often.  Meanwhile, please continue to send in all the winter clothing.  The children are working hard on dressing themselves – practice makes perfect!

Thanks to everyone who brought in socks for Catholic Charities.  We collected 118 pairs to be added to those collected through the Jacksonville Church!  After careful sorting, our children decided we had mostly patterned socks.

February is a very busy month.  We have a lot going on – starting with Pajama Day on February 6^th and 7^th.  Children (and parents) are invited to come to school in their pajamas.  It’s a lot of fun and we put our snow pants on right over our pajamas when we go outside!   

Valentine’s Day:  The beginning of the month we’ll be making tons of valentines to share with friends and family!  To keep things simple at school, we’re asking each child to focus on making one special valentine to share at school.  We put them all into a box and the children will each pick one out to take home.  They really enjoy seeing who gets their special valentine. 

Later this month we’ll begin doing assessments with the children in preparation for parent-teacher conferences next month.   Each teacher will spend time with the children doing “games” to help get a sense of their comfort with different tasks.  The children really enjoy the one-on-one time and often ask if they can have another turn.

There will be no school February 17^th to 21^st for winter break.

Upcoming:   I will be sending out a link for our parent survey this month also.  Please take the time to give us your input.  We really appreciate any feedback – it helps improve our program for your children and future families.  Also, this year we will likely be starting pre-registration earlier since we have so many children graduating to kindergarten. 

February Activities:  February we’ll be talking about penguins, Valentine’s Day, and our classroom.  We’ll read Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers, Penguins Special Delivery by Debi Gliori, Valentine’s Day by Anne Rockwell, Two Eyes, a Nose and a Mouth by Roberta Intrator, and We Are All Alike, We Are All Different .  We’ll talk about animals who live in the arctic and make penguins.  We’ll be making a LOT of valentines over the next two weeks.  At the end of the month we’ll make full-body pictures, do finger-painting and melted crayon. 

Terrific Twos:  As we welcome February we hope for healthy, snowy days!  We hope to get outside if the weather cooperates, but we enjoy our time moving in the big room with the obstacle course and listen and move music when the weather does not cooperate.

We are continuing with our winter snow themes with All You Need For A Snowman by Alice Schertle.  We are looking forward to building our very unique snowmen with a variety of mediums.  We will move onto Mouse’s Valentine by Laura Numeroff to celebrate love for our family and friends. Look for a special valentine coming home!  After a week off for winter fun, we will end February and start March with a classic by Ezra Jack Keats, A Snowy Day. 
Thank you for you continued support in our classroom! 

Wind the bobbin up, wind the bobbin up

Pull, pull, Clap, Clap, Clap

Wind the bobbin up, wind the bobbin up

Pull, pull, Clap, Clap, Clap

Point to the ceiling, Point to the floor

Point to the window and point to the door

Clap your hands together, one, two, three

Put them gently on your knees