Week of January 28 -February 1

Dear families,

Brrr! What a snowy and cold week this has been! Perfect for talking about "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats and for learning about snow!!

The sight words of this week were IT and WHY. The letter sound of the week was Jj. Every few weeks I send the SKs home with a big list of many words that can be made using the letter sounds we have learned so far. Please encourage your child to sound these words out at home. Even if s/he already knows how to read them, you can extend their learning by asking them to spell them, which will improve their writing skills.

SNOW!! What is it, how is is made, how can we describe it, how can we draw it, how many flat sides and points does each ice crystal have, why and when does it fall, and why do some parts of the Earth have snow and others don't? These are some of the things we learned about this week. With their reading buddies, the children enjoyed making 3-D snowflakes, which are on display in our classroom.

We also continued our study of "The Snowy Day." The children are doing a good job re-telling this lovely story using picture clues. They also read and coloured a mini "Snowy Day" book, and are making connections between the main character in the story called Peter, and themselves.

In numeracy, the children are practicing their tally skills and measuring skills.

For art, the children are painting baby and adult penguins.

On Monday, we welcomed a Scientist in our classroom who taught the children all about Marvelous Machines! Thank you so much to our parent volunteers! Casey's dad, Shay's mom, Ella's mom, and Elise's mom helped our Scientist with the lessons.

The children are completing their "This is me in January" monthly writing and drawing, as well as their January calendar.

The new list of February words went home on Friday. You will also find a purple note in your child's mailbag about the fast-approaching 100th Day of School, which is on February 11th. Each child should count and bring in 100 items that can fit in a clear, plastic bag. The children will present their 100 items to the class and then put them in our display area. Please ensure that your child's 100 items are brought in by February 8th.

Valentine's Day is also coming so, and this is a good opportunity for your child to practice writing his/her friends' names on Valentines. Please send in your child's Valentines before February 14th so that s/he can have time to sort them in the bags I will provide. Thank you!

A big Thank You as well to Ella's dad who read two terrific books that the children loved - "The Book With No Pictures" and a pop-up book about dinosaurs!

Since Saturday is Groundhog day, the children learned a lot about groundhogs, what Groundhog Day is all about, and had fun doing a maze, some artwork, and learning a groundhog song.

That's the news for this week! Next week we'll finish our Book Look about The Snowy Day, do lots of counting to get ready for the 100th Day of School, and learn about Chinese New Year!

Stay warm and have a wonderful weekend!