January Newsletter

Welcome back and Happy New Year!!

We hope your time home with your families was a special one.

Thank you so much for your generosity and thoughtfulness this holiday season.  

We have had a wonderful first week back at school. The Practical Life shelves are stocked with exciting new works with colors reflecting the season. The children have been busily engaged with the physical skills of tweezing, pouring, spooning and twisting.  These exercises help to strengthen the fine motor muscles in the hand and the “pincer” grasp a child needs in order in to hold a pencil properly for handwriting 

In January we’ll learn about:

·         Africa

·         Martin Luther King

·         Winter /Snow/Snowflakes/Animal Tracks

·         Hibernating Animals

·         Amphibians

·         Antarctica

·         Penguins

 

Author and Illustrator Study:

Jan Brett- we will get to know this author and illustrator while enjoying some wintry stories. We have already read the ‘The Gingerbread baby’ in December, and last week we read, ‘The Mitten’ and the “The Three Snow Bears”.

 

Sound of the week:

‘O’-Olive the Octopus

 

Reminders:

Scholastic Orders due on Fri, Jan 16^th, 2015

No school on Mon, Jan 19th - MLK Day

A pair of shoes to be worn in the classroom

Change of clothes in the lockers

Water Bottle

Qualistar:

Thank you for completing the online survey. They will be here any day now to observe our classrooms, please remember to send snacks from two food groups.  

Snack Ideas from Each Food Group

Grains	dry cereal, whole grain crackers, mini rice cakes, sliced bread, mini bagels, graham crackers, whole wheat tortillas
Vegetables	veggie "matchsticks" (thin sticks) made from fresh carrots* or zucchini,* bell pepper rings, cherry tomatoes*, steamed broccoli, green beans, sugar peas, avocados
Fruits	apple slices*, tangerine sections, strawberry halves, bananas, pineapple, kiwi, peach, mango, nectarine, melon, grapes*, berries, dried apricots*
Dairy	cheese slices or string cheese, mini yogurt cups, milk, cottage cheese
Protein Foods	egg slices or wedges, bean dip, hummus, slices of lean turkey* or chicken*, shelled pumpkin seeds, sun butter

*If not prepared correctly, these foods could be choking hazards.  

More snack ideas that combine two or more of the food groups:

·         yogurt topped with diced peaches or berries

·         whole grain bread spread with sun butter and sliced bananas

·         graham crackers and yogurt

·         apple slice with cheese

 

 

Happy January!!!

 

Ms. Sheela, Ms. Kelly and Ms. Paula