What's Happening in December?

Theme - Christmas

Personal and Social Responsibility
- continue to work on following classroom routines and behaviour expectations. Review Kindness Counts lessons and Superflex with the Unthinkables.

Early Literacy
- continue name printing practice, Jolly Phonics program to learn letters (Nov: L; Dec: F, E, H, T, I. We use center activities to practice letter formation, sounds and begin to hear these sounds at the beginning of words)

- During Morning Messages, we track print with fingers, we count the words in the sentences, your children are now looking for sounds we have practiced (listed above) in the message. We review the sound, action and songs that come from the Jolly Phonics Program.
A link to a video of the Jolly Phonics Songs can be found in the 'Ways to Help at Home'.
- We continue to work on rhyming by distinguishing between words that rhyme and don't rhyme.
- We are reading the story called Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. We will only read a couple of pages every few days so we can focus on interpretation of the pictures and  improve our prediction skills. Your child has drawn a lot of pictures to show their understanding of the story and dictated sentences to go with them. 

Library
- Remember it is very important to keep the library books and bag together. Our library bags have our name and bar codes to sign out books. Unfortunately, no library bag then no new book. Please return the book as soon as you are done reading it.
Library day is on December 6th. All Library books are due back the week before Winter Break

Early Numeracy
- begin ABC patterns,
- recognizing 3D shapes in the environment, folding, sorting, describing and tracing shapes.
- During calendar, we are dressing for the weather, understanding weekdays and weekends, practicing ABC patterns, sorting concepts as well as counting forwards to 10. 

Physical Skills and Well Being in the classroom
- encouraging and strengthening pincer hand grasp (using large tweezers, placing marbles on tees, placing buttons/gems in a line formation), and scissor use
- identifying healthy choices for morning snack.

Creative Expression
- We are making many Christmas themed crafts and practicing for our Christmas Video.

Environment and Community Awareness
- We participate in a variety of centers that not only encourage fine motor control but also help us to learn the objects, make plans about how to use the material without wasting and sharing the objects or learning to working along side others.
-  The materials available to your child: many types of building tools (such as blocks, magnetic shapes, lego, Makedo (usable screws/screw drivers and saws for cardboard - donations of cardboard are welcome :), playdough, water play, fake snow, pretend play (house, kitchen, and tools)

Citizenship and Identity
- We will start our Star of the Week projects. Your child's turn will happen when the Seesaw activities are all completed.

Thank for your support with this!
The overview note for this project is found in the ways to help at home.

What's Happening in January?

Theme- New Years, Community and Winter

Personal and Social Responsibility
- continue to work on following classroom routines and behaviour expectations. We will be looking into more about what makes a Community great, working together and helping each other, and creating classroom jobs.

We will develop a Classroom Mission Statement when we are back together in class.

Early Literacy
- continue name printing practice, Jolly Phonics program to learn letters 
(Nov: L; Dec: F, E, H, T, I.
Our January Goal is: N, Y, U, C, S, O, Q, G, J)

A link to a video of the the Songs can be found in the 'Ways to Help at Home'.
- We will work on generating rhyming words.
- We will read the story called The Mitten by Jan Brett. We will read a page or 2 a day using pictures to help us with predicting the story then reading to see if we are right and noticing patterns.
- We will continue work with our morning message circling the beginning sounds we know and practicing the sounds and the Jolly Phonics song.

Early Numeracy
- We will focus more on numbers 1-5, understanding the numerals and representing them in different ways.
- We continue to talk about sorting, patterning, 3D shapes in the environment, folding, and describing and tracing shapes.
- During calendar: we are dressing for the weather; understanding weekdays, weekends and passage of time; practicing ABC patterns; counting backwards and forwards to 10; and reviewing sorting concepts.  

Physical Skills and Well Being in the classroom
- encouraging and strengthening pincer hand grasp (using large tweezers, placing marbles on tees, placing buttons/gems in a line formation), and scissor use.
- identifying healthy choices for morning snack.

Creative Expression
-We listen and chant songs to welcome everyone, learn our letters, and transition through our day.
 - We have pair dramatic play centers within our Community and Winter themed items.
- Art is accomplished through letter, community and winter themed crafts. 

Environment and Community Awareness
- participating in a variety of centers to explore properties of materials (such as water, playdough, building items, etc.) and using a them safely and properly. 
- During our Community Unit, we'll discuss important jobs in our community. We will build our town and added streets, signs and cars while we played.

Citizenship and Identity
- During our community Unit, we will discuss what a community needs to have.
- I assigned the Star of the Week/All about Me Seesaw activities in December but didn't bring it to your attention because no one needs extra stress at Christmas. When all 3 assigned Seesaw activities are complete, we will enjoy your child's pictures, videos and/or recordings. They will need your help to complete these assigned tasks.
I can't wait to share Cullen's work next week!
It is great finding out how we are similar and unique. Thank you for helping your child talk to us!
The note is saved "Ways to help at home" if you would like to refer to it.

Link to the
Class Monthly Calendar