Hi Everyone!

It seems the holidays are just speeding up on us. My hope for all of us is that we take the time to stop and remember what/who is really important and appreciate them and all we  have in our lives!

We'll be having a holiday celebration on Dec. 21 from 3-4:30. You are all welcome to come and join us. If you would like to help us celebrate, please let me know. If your family has a particular tradition that you would like to share with us, we would love to do that.

Each year we try and learn about the three major holidays of December: Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. What ties them all together is also what makes December so special - it is the darkest month of the year and all three holidays celebrate with candles. As we've been watching the days get shorter, we've been talking about dark and light. We've read some creation stories about how the sun came to the people (Gerald McDermott). We've been looking at objects with our light table. And we'll continue to learn about the 3 sources of light: the sun, electricity and fire, and how important light is to people. You can support this at home as you find ways to make light during these dark days by hanging up holiday lights, lighting candles, conserve electricity by turning off lights, noticing what you're doing when the sun goes down, etc.

**When we return after the winter break, we'll be asking you to send in flashlights so we can further explore the properties of light in our classroom.

<strong>Families.  </strong>We've been thinking a lot about families in preschool. We had our family potluck dinner where we shared what we are learning about literacy as well as having great food and company. I don't know how many families were there, but we filled up the cafeteria! The children had a great time sharing their school with you. If you didn't make it, I hope you'll be able to come to our next one. And of course, there's the famous "Teddy Bear Picnic" in April.

What we try to teach the children is that there are many different kinds of families. Some children live with two parents, some live with one. Sometimes parents don't live together, but they are both part of a child's family. Sometimes grandparents raise children. Sometimes children are adopted. What makes a family is that they love and take care of each other. We will continue to read stories about families and talk about our own families, especially through our family boxes.

<strong>Math. </strong>We spent a long time learning about shapes this year. Most of the children know most of their shapes and have had experiences learning the properties of shapes. We've also been learning about counting and we will continue. We are also learning about patterns.

Did you know that patterning and sorting are foundations of algebra? Can you find ways to practice finding and making patterns and sorting things at home? Look for some math activities in your mailbox for you to do with your child to support their math learning.

<strong>Literacy.</strong> This week we'll be starting our "word wall." Children who are interested will be able to choose a word they would like to learn. When they have mastered reading and writing that word, they can choose a new word. We'll also be putting up some everyday words. <em>Note: some children, especially the younger ones, are not ready for words yet. We'll be continuing to focus on vocabulary-building and letter identification with these children.  </em>

We are also starting to read chapter books with some of the children. Some of the books we'll be reading are the Magic Treehouse series, "My Father's Dragon," and "Pippi Longstocking." PLEASE READ TO YOUR CHILD EVERY NIGHT!

<strong>Parent Conferences.</strong> Generally we have parent conferences twice a year in early November and again in March. We were unable to do it in November because of the NAEYC Conference and I have not be able to reschedule a day. If you would like an individual conference, please let me know and we'll set one up. Otherwise, I'll set up a day in early January. These conferences are generally short, about 15 minutes or so, and mostly give us a chance to talk about your child's progress and any issues you may have. If you think we'll need more time, by all means set up a separate time.

Reminders:

<strong>Clothing:  </strong>make sure your child has WARM CLOTHING so we can play outside. They need:  snowpants, boots, warm mittens, hats/scarves, a sweater and slippers for the classroom. PLEASE MARK YOUR CHILD'S NAME OR INITIALS ON EACH PIECE OF CLOTHING!!! We have permanent markers in the room and you can write it on the size tag.

Some children have water or bathroom accidents. You must have extra clothing in your child's box. We had a large store of underwear and pants that are now gone. If your child comes home in someone else's clothing, please wash it and return it.

<strong>Recycling:</strong> We are looking for tubing, especially paper towel, gift wrap and toilet paper tubing for making projects. We can also use empty food boxes for our house play and for constructions. We need empty soda/water bottles with the labels removed for science experiments.