Happy February!

It's hard to believe we are already in the month of February and have almost reached the 100th day of school!  February is filled with many exciting events!   Here is a quick recap if you did not see the note in your child's Friday Folder:

February 3rd: Book Fair Preview Day
Just to look and see what is for sale...not a purchase day!

February 5th: Book Fair Purchase Day
Your child does not need to purchase books that day. The book fair is open a couple of evenings and you and your child can purchase then.

February 10th: 100th Day of School
We will be celebrating with a special Hiyaku (100th Day trail mix) snack. Your child can bring in 100 small food items to add to our trail mix: pretzels, goldfish, raisins, etc.  Please make sure everything is chocolate free.

February 13th: Field Trip to the Flynn Theatre to see Rainbow Fish

February 14th: Valentine's Day
If your child is making Valentine's, please make sure there is one for each child.

February 19th 3:15-3:45pm:  Kindergarten Sea Creature Open House in our classroom OR
February 20th 7:30-8:00am: Kindergarten Sea Creature Open House in our classroom  (Just come to one Open House time that fits your schedule!)
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We had a wonderful week in Kindergarten with lots of learning about sea creatures! We had seven  shares this week and learned about the snail fish, seahorses, dolphins, angel fish, puffer fish, angler fish, and jelly fish.  Can your child tell you any interesting facts about these creatures or tell you which zone the creatures live in?  The children also had a chance to draw and paint some sea creatures for our hallway mural. They did a great job!  Be sure to ask your child about his or her contribution to our mural.

In Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop, we have been reading about Polar Bears and collecting information as we read.  Each child has a sea creature research journal to use to take "notes" about some sea creatures.  We started with Polar Bears and each child finished the following sentence starters:
Polar Bears can..
Polar Bears have...
Polar Bears live...
Polar Bears eat...
Polar Bears need...
Polar Bears look...
Next week, we are going to study stingrays and whales.  As we study these animals, we are working on writing predictable sentences to share facts about each of these creatures which will then help us write a report (or informational writing) later on in February.  What can your child teach you about polar bears?

We also learned that nonfiction books have special features that help a reader learn more.  We call these nonfiction text features.  The first feature we explored was labels.  We found that many books had labels, explaining about parts of the subject of our book.  We worked on adding labels to our photograph of a polar bear in our research journals!

In math, we continued with our geometry unit.  This week we have been sorting shapes. We are recognizing their attributes and using those attributes to sort.  We were sorting by color, shape, and size.  We even began to look at the sides and the corners and sorted by curved sides and straight sides and the number of corners a shape has.  Look for shapes at home with your child and ask him or her to tell you the shapes' attributes!

There is lots of information in the Friday Folder this week!  Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great weekend!