~♥Happy Valentines Day!!♥~
Student of the Month:
Jordan Ward
Important dates:
- Feb 14 – Valentine’s Day Party
- Feb 20 – NO SCHOOL!! Presidents’ Day
Themes:
- Jan 30-Feb 3 – Valentine’s Day
- Feb 6-10 – Valentine’s Day
- Feb 13-17 – Friendship
- Feb 13-17 – Friendship
- Feb 27-Mar 2 – Dental Health
Ooey Gooey Messy Days:
In order to help our parents plan for our messier days, listed below is our
schedule of messy projects, which include using a variety of paints, playing
with shaving cream, and doing messy experiments/cooking projects. F.Y.I: I do
keep oversized shirts here in my room for children to slip over their clothes, but
occasionally the children may still get paint or other materials on their outfits.
Please plan to send them in appropriate attire on these days. Thanks a bunch!
- Jan 30 – Painting/Using wet glue
- Feb 3 – Painting/Using wet glue
- Feb 6 – Using wet glue
- Feb 9 – Sponge painting
- Feb 10 – Making Puppy Chow!!
- Feb 14 – Using wet glue
- Feb 17 – Painting/Using wet glue
- Feb 24 – Painting/Using wet glue
Special Projects:
Here in P2, we do a variety of special projects outside the normal school
curriculum…
-Soldiers’ Angels~
Soldiers’ Angels (www.soldiersangels.org) is a volunteer-led, non-profit organization with the purpose of providing aid and comfort to the men andvwomen of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Veterans.
As we have many families in our school that have loved ones in some form of
service, I feel this is a good way to help our children understand just what our
soldiers do for us and show our gratitude in the process.
We have adopted a wonderful Military soldier named Steven who is currently
stationed in Afghanistan. Together, we write our soldier one letter a week and
send him one care package a month.
How can parents help? By donating small items to send in that monthly care
package. Please help us bless our soldier and send him a little taste of HOME!
A Note from Ms. Rachel: You may have noticed that nothing went out about
the January Care Package for our soldier, Steven. That is because I wanted
to give our families a little recuperating time after the Christmas holiday, so
last month’s Care Package was totally on me! Now, we’ve had some really
fun themes these past several months, so I think for February we’ll get back to
basics and just go with a “Personal Hygiene” theme. Here are some suggestions
of items we would like to send:
-Shampoo/Conditioner
-Moisturizing Lotion (non-scented)
-Razors
-Travel size toilet paper
-Deodorant
-Foot Powder
-Odor eaters
-Sunscreen
-Eye drops
-Soap
-Q-tips
-Travel size mouthwash
-Facial cleansing pads
Any and all donations are immensely appreciated! For details on the Soldier’s
Angels Project, go to www.soldiersangels.org.
-The Flat Stanley Project~
From now until the end of the school year, our class will be participating
in the “Flat Stanley” Project. If you’ve never heard of it, the project is an
international literacy activity that allows children to experience new and
interesting places and share them with their friends…without ever leaving their
classroom!
In preparation for this project, we’ve been reading the Flat Stanley series by
Jeff Brown. The story goes like this: Stanley Lambchop is a normal little boy.
That is, until one night the bulletin board above his bed falls from the wall,
flattening Stanley in his sleep. He isn’t hurt, and in the days to follow, makes
the best of his altered state. Soon he is entering locked rooms by sliding under
doors and playing with his younger brother by being used as a kite. One special
advantage to Stanley being flat is that he can now visit friends by being mailed in
an envelope. This is where you come in!
If you haven’t already, please discuss with your child where you would like
to “send” their Flat Stanley. We want Stanley to explore so if possible, please
send him someplace far away – out of state is encouraged! This is the 3rd year
I have done the Project with my students, and we’ve had Flat Stanley’s go as
far as Jerusalem, Israel, to an army base in Germany, and visit an orphanage in
Kenya, Africa! And for a bit of fun closer to home, each weekend for the rest of
the school year, I will be awarding one lucky student the honor of taking home
the “class” Flat Stanley and documenting his or her adventures together with a
journal entry and photographs.
For more information on the Flat Stanley Project, go to http://
www.flatstanleybooks.com/
Language Arts:
For our Language Arts curriculum, we use the Animated-Literacy program,
created by Jim Stone, to help our children learn reading, letter recognition, and
writing with the use of Alphabet Stories, Songs, Gestures and Coloring pages.
During the month of February, with a little help from our friends Victor Vampire,
Winkie Walrus, Felix Fox/Max the Ox, Yakety Yak and Zackary/Zena Zebra we
will finish up the alphabet with the letters “Vv”, “Ww”, “Xx”, “Yy” and “Zz”, learning
their songs, practicing their sounds, and how to identify and trace their letters.
Working at home: Remember, parents play a vital role in their child’s
education! Working with your child at home is an excellent way to help
them succeed and it’s not too early to start! Every Monday your child will
be sent home with a coloring page of the Letter of the Week’s Animated
Alphabet friend and the words to their song. Please sing these songs at
home with your children!
Math:
We will continue to count to 55 and will also be learning how to identify the
numbers 13, 14 and 15. And don’t forget recognizing and drawing the following
shapes: Heart, Triangle, Square and Circle!
Working at home: Here are this month’s number rhymes:
#13 – 1 and a 3 send 13 up a tree
#14 – 1 and a 4 tell 14 shut the door
#15 – 1 and 5 keep 15 alive
Science/Social Studies:
There’s a lot going on this month! First on the agenda: sensory play makes for
a very fun day! Children learn through sight, sound, taste, touch and… SMELL!!
For Valentine’s week, we’ll get our noses involved in a fun game of match-up. I’ll
be cutting up construction paper hearts and attaching a piece of cotton to each.
Using a variety of fragrances I’ll dab a little on each cotton ball, mix them up, and
have the children try to find the matches by smelling each one.
The following few weeks we will concentrate on how to treat others, focusing
on why it is wrong to fight and being rude to friends. These situations often occur
in school because children like to be the first in line, have the biggest piece
of cake, the pretties color object, or just plain want to be noticed in a group.
We will talk about how to respect and care about others’ feelings, and discuss
the “Golden Rule”!
Finally, we’ll do an experiment that will help the children realize how important
brushing their teeth can be. All it takes is an egg, a tea bag, and a toothbrush!!
After boiling the egg with the tea bag it be stained brown, but giving each child a
chance to “brush” the egg will show them this is what happens on their teeth, too,
when the stains begin to disappear!
Show and Tell:
Show-&-Tell isn’t just for the children at school. Show-and-Tell starts at
home and it is a great opportunity for parents to work with their children and
encourage learning! This opportunity takes place every Friday and will always
(unless otherwise specified) relate to that week’s theme. Please be a part of this
wonderful activity – supervise your children as they make their choice of what
they want to bring to show at school, ask them why they chose that particular
item and how their choice relates to the theme.
- Feb 3 – FREE CHOICE!
- Feb 10 – Something RED or something to do with VALENTINE’S DAY
- Feb 17 – Something a FRIEND GAVE YOU!
- Feb 24 – Something to GIVE to a FRIEND!
- Mar 2 – Something to do with TEETH
