It has been a while since I’ve written to you.  I hope everyone had a great break!  Since the children have come back, we are once again in full force.  This week, we welcomed our new intern, Miss Smith into our class.  She has spent this week, observing and helping out in the room.  The children have really taken to her and she has fit right into our routine. 

SHARED JOURNAL

This week, we have really focused on our questioning and negotiations.  As a result, I have noticed that their questioning has really improved.  At the beginning of the year, they asked very basic questions like:

“Did you have fun?” 

“What color was it?”

Now, their questions dig for more information.  I am very proud of this.

THEME

We spent a great deal of time this week researching some of the big circuses.  The children brainstormed  and we made a web of all the things related to the circus.  Then, we used the Internet and looked at the web sites for The Big Apple Circus and for Ringling Brothers.  The children are also beginning to generate questions that will guide our research into the different circus acts!

SHARED READING

Even though the weather has been warm outside, we have felt the chill in the classroom.  This week we read books about winter and snow.  With these books, we focused on phoneme segmentation (recognizing the sounds in words), sight words and representing the sounds we hear when we write.  We also looked at the different styles illustrators use when they make the pictures for our books.  As a result, the children have begun to use material and paper scraps to make collage pictures while in the art center.

IMPORTANT DATES AND NOTES

Monday, Jan. 15 – No School!

Thursday, Jan. 18 – Burger King night

Monday, Jan.  22 – 100^th Day of School

Friday, Jan. 26 – Celebration @ 1:15

Tuesday, Jan. 30 – Kindergarten Registration

How high can you make this tower before it falls?  Camryn and Amelia try to find out.