Week of January 14-17, 2013

Week of January 14-17, 2013

Theme: Animals & Pets

Letter of the Week: D

Show and Share Jan. 17 Letter D

Last week we began talking about animals especially those that live in cold weather. We especially liked learning about penguins, how they take care of their eggs, how they move and what they eat. 

Next week we will continue to talk about animals that can be pets. We will do a variety of sorting, estimating and graphing activities including sorting animals by type (farm, zoo, jungle, pets) and by animal using animal crackers. We will also work on sequencing pictures and using them to tell a story. The sequencing activity will also relate to retelling stories. We are going to read animal stories and then use the pictures to retell the story. We have been learning that there are three ways to "read" a book: you can read the pictures, read the words and retell the story. We have practiced the first two and this week we will be practicing retelling the story. At home when you are reading books with your children you can also try these strategies, sometimes read the words another time have your child tell the story with you by looking at the pictures and then have them retell a story you have read before. Some books we are planning to read this week include: Harry the Dirty Dog, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Is Your Mama a Llama?, and One Moose, Twenty Mice.
Special Readers this week on Wednesday, Jan 18th: a.m. (8:30-8:30) AnnMarie Kavinsky and p.m. (12:00-12:20) Chris Fishman.

Upcoming activities: The week of Jan. 22nd will be Pirates and Princesses week. The letter of the week if letter P and we will begin talking about how things are built. During that week and into the following week I would like to build with the children possibly a pirate ship or princess castle, so if anyone has or can get a hold of a large appliance box or two and has a way to get it to school I know the kids and I would love it. On Jan. 24th it will be a Pirate and Princess Party the children can dress up as pirates or princesses and wear their outfits to school. We will go on a treasure hunt following a treasure map throughout the school.

At the end of January report cards will come home as well as data for IEP goals for those students who have IEPs. At the beginning of the school year some parents signed up for Parent/Teacher conferences that will be held in February. I will send home reminder notes this week, at that time if there is a conflict with your scheduled conference or you would rather have a phone conference instead of coming in for a conference we can schedule that also.