Good evening!

It’s very late, but I just wanted to give a quick summary of what we will be doing this week.

First, some background information – which I guess isn’t so quick!

As you know, the children have been talking a lot about dreams and are interested in that subject. When we talked about Martin Luther King, we talked about “awake dreams” – how Martin Luther King had a dream for the world – like wishes. (This is a big concept, but we talk and they are catching on.) We then thought about our wishes for the world. They are hanging on the window above the play table near the science area. There are wishes for everybody to be nice (like Frankenstein!), to be friends and hold hands, for no more sickness, to be brave (like Merrida from Brave!), that everyone has good dreams, that everyone gets to have a unicorn, that everyone has food to eat, etc. Last Friday we talked about how we can make our dreams for the world come true. With the common thread, we decided to have a food drive for the Contra Costa Food Bank. (…… You have to be brave to move forward and help out in the world. It is nice to be a good friend to those in need. Having healthy food in their bellies will help children avoid illness, have good dreams, and play and imagine things that children imagine – like unicorns!) Wow, a food drive could solve a lot of problems!

Our food drive will officially start Thursday, as the bins are being delivered some time tomorrow. Tomorrow in our small groups, we will make posters to hang out by the bins, and later tomorrow I will send an email inviting the whole school to join us in our food drive. Please don’t bring any food tomorrow, as we need to get the posters done and everything ready first. Then they will be excited to bring food on Friday – or any time until the 15th of February, when the bins will be picked up. …… We will also read a really fun book tomorrow – a new one that Sarah brought in after the break. They take part in the story – super fun!

Friday we will read The Mitten Tree, a book about acts of kindness. Then we will make paper mittens with dictation about kind things we can do. We will also do a fun activity with our names!

I hope you all are doing well. We have been blowing get well wishes to all of our sick friends – and our lucky friends on vacation!

See you in the morning!
Tess

Hello Families,

I hope you all stayed warm and dry this weekend!  My family and I had a nice, cozy weekend at home.

Last week we had a lot of fun with “The Little Red Hen!”  We acted it out at least 14 times, as 14 of them wanted to be the Hen!  The children did great in each of their roles, even when they were the audience – paying attention and clapping at the end.  They really love that story!  Each “hen” was able to choose his or her own ending – either sharing the bread or not.  It was great!  Thank you to the parents who took LOTS of pictures!  They are all up on the school picture site.  We did bubble experimenting last week, as well.  We made bubbles with straws, bubbles with baking soda and colored vinegar, and Friday we blew bubbles out into the rain and learned that bubbles don’t pop in the rain!  I think I was more surprised than the kids!  They float down and land without breaking on the wet ground.  They were beautiful!

This week we will read The Gingerbread Man and continue it with sequencing cards, talk about beginning, middle and end, see it as a felt story and cut out and decorate our own gingerbread person.  I will also introduce the children to “Gingy,” our schools own silly gingerbread person who hides in different places each day – the children try to find it!  We will continue experimenting with baking soda and vinegar, as they were definitely not wanting to finish with that.  We will do a science/art activity with glue, salt and water colors.  We will continue with name and letter recognition.  And we will begin working on our holiday gifts – but those are a surprise.

Please let me know what holidays you celebrate this time of year so I can be sure to include them in our lesson plans and festivities.  You can email me or let me know at drop off or pick up.

Also, if the interest in bubbles keeps up, I’d like to make our own bubble wands.  I will need interesting sticks – they can be curved, but strong – not too long, about 12 inches or so.  If you notice any when you are out and about, please bring them in.  I’ll keep them in a special place until we have enough.  I’d like to do it before the winter break.

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow!

Tess