Welcome Back!

My was it heart-warming to see the faces of our kids today! So many wonderful stories about spending time with their families, too.

We celebrated the letter "Z" today by "taking the zebra" back to the "zoo" but not before "zig zaggin" on the floor. The kids held a toy zebra and followed the masking-tape letter z on the floor to the "zoo" (a box of animals). Each child got a turn.

We also celebrated a new sight word ... "IN". Boy these sight words are getting easy for the kiddos!

Since winter is finally here (and it feels that way, too) we thought January would be a super time to discuss hibernation and migration. We asked if the kids knew what these terms meant. Many did ... others had their own definitions (which were pretty darned close). Did you know bats and ladybugs hibernate? We followed up this discussion by reading the book, "Bear Snores On". Then we did some exercises with our sight words thus far. The kiddos picked a card from a pile (sight word cards). We asked them if they could "read" it ... if not, we asked them to identify each letter then try to "sound it out". Afterward, they had to go into our makeshift cave (table with sheet over top) to located letters (plastic magnetic) to formulate the word themselves. While they are a little "rusty" on reading, they did a super, great job sounding out the letters.

Mrs. Erikson didn't make it to art class today as she had a sick child at home. However, she got some supplies ready for us and we did an art project featuring Vincent Van Gogh's sunflowers. The kiddos were very good listeners and did a spectacular job with their artwork.

We had planned to work on a new Scholastic Book featuring penguins but they all complained they were too tired! Course, they did work hard all day and there were only 20 minutes left in our day. So the thinking-on-your-feet kind of teachers we are, we got out some extra-large paper and crayons, turned on some music and asked the kids to color according to the music. Eg., fast music, fast coloring, etc. This proved to be a fun little assignment. They had so many giggles, etc. We had fun watching them.

On Friday, we will do some more celebrating of hibernation ... we will wear our jammies to school! YEAH!

Also, we are running low on a few items. If you are willing to help us out, that'd be much appreciated. Glue sticks (the big Elmer's kind), cotton balls, and Q-Tips are a commodity. We hate to ask but if you could make a donation we'd certainly love it!

On a final note, we thank you all so much for your thoughtfulness during the holidays. Your gifts were so precious and generous and we are very thankful.