Hi Everyone! I hope you are all surviving the cold. Remember, the colder it is now, the nicer it will feel when it gets warm again! We love playing outside, but inside active play has its attractions, too. We ride tricycles in the small gym, play with our parachute, tumble on the mats (even wrestle!), play jump rope, and even get the scooters out now when we can. We have a short basketball hoop and other ball games. We also make use of the lobby outside our classroom for running games. So please know that even when it's too cold to go outside, we still get active!

We are finishing our Gingerbread Girl bulletin board (it will be a work in progress since it needs more decoration). Please check it out when you get a chance. Here's a picture of it for now:

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In case you can't read microscopic writing, here's the story:
<p align="center"><strong><em>The Gingerbread Girl</em></strong></p>
<p align="center"><strong><em>Written and Illustrated by the Students in Room 413</em></strong></p>
<p align="left"><em>     Once upon a time there was a gingerbread girl that was baked by a boy. When he opened the oven, the gingerbread girl ran out. The boy ran after the gingerbread girl. Then the cow ran after the gingerbread girl. The gingerbread girl said, "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread girl!" Then the horse ran after her. The cat ran after her. The cat tried to eat the gingerbread girl. Then the lion ran after her. Then the fox. Then the bear ran after her. The sow ran after the gingerbread girl. Then the gingerbread boy ran after the gingerbread girl. </em></p>
<p align="left"><em>      The gingerbread girl ran into a dragon. The dragon put fire on her. He chopped her up. Then he ate her. And then the fox was sad. And everyone else was sad, too.   The End.</em></p>
<p align="left">      While we were creating the story, we were learning about patterns (algebraic thinking), ordinal numbers, symmetry (puppet making), and counting. We learned a lot about measurement when we baked gingerbread cookies. We have lots more to explore: <em>The Runaway Pancake</em> and <em>The Runaway Rice Cake</em> are two new stories that we'll have fun with. We've already read <em>The Runaway Pancake</em> and can start learning about wheel movement and why the pig at the end of the book could float when the pancake couldn't.</p>
     This week Ms. Diane did a color mixing project in art class. The children mixed yellow and cyan to make green (magenta and cyan make purple). We extended this project with a color-mixing experiment of our own. We also added oil in our test tubes to see what would happen. The children were fascinated!

We have also been talking about feelings in school. Last week we read "A Pocket for Corduroy." He's such a feeling guy, that Corduroy, considering he's a teddy bear. Our goal is for the children to learn new words to describe feelings, so we move beyond sad, mad and glad. This week we'll be introducing the "Feelings Wheel" to help us further define how we feel and why.

DEAD FISH: One of our fish died. Luckily, it died close to the front of the tank so the children could watch it. Sadly, I forgot to take it out before I left on Thursday. So the other fish decided to dispose of it themselves. This is fascinating science for the children to see, gross as it may be to us adults. So if they talk about it at home, you'll know what's going on.

<strong>What's Coming:</strong>

<strong>Parent Conferences: </strong>This Wednesday (Jan. 30). If you haven't signed up for a conference and you'd like one, please sign up at the back door. I'll find out for sure where we'll be on Monday. When you come for the conference, please do not come through the classroom. It's very upsetting for your children to see you and then have you disappear again. You can go through the main door. We will most likely be on the 2nd floor of the new building (just above us) in the small conference room.

<strong>Lunar New Year (Feb. 7):</strong> Sean's mom is planning to come in and make Chinese dumplings with us. If you'd like to help her, please let her know. We'll post information about the New Year (Year of the Rat) on our blog.

<strong>City Study: </strong>We'll be teaming up with Mr. Jeff's class to learn about cities (they've already started). This is a huge area that will encompass learning about our community, community helpers like fire fighters and police and sanitation workers, construction activities, services necessary in cities (shopping, banking, post offices, restaurants, etc.), and on and on. Much will depend on what the children are interested in. We'll keep you informed...

<strong>Faces:</strong> As part of our feelings study, we'll be looking at each other's and our own faces this next week. We'll be tracing, looking at mirrors, matching expression to feelings, etc.

<strong>Light:</strong> Many children have brought in flashlights. We'll continue to find ways to use them to explore the properties of light. Please send one in with your child's name on it if you haven't already. If you would like to donate batteries and extra flashlights, they would be welcome.

<strong>Wire: </strong>We'll be starting to use wire in art, hopefully this week. Children will be given different kinds of wire and tools to work with it with the hope they'll make interesting sculptures.  If you have any wire you'd like to donate, I'm sure we can use it. We especially can use telephone wire.

<strong>Kindergarten:</strong> We are starting to talk about kindergarten in the classroom. I want to warn you that sometimes children become fearful when we do this. They are anxious about whether they'll be ready, whether they'll have fun, whether they'll have friends. I know many of you have anxieties about it, too. It is better to talk about these anxieties than to dismiss them because they come out in sometimes destructive ways. We tell the children that <strong>we will not let them go to kindergarten until they are ready</strong>. They don't understand time yet, so telling them September or next year won't reassure them. Over the next 6 months we hope to have more contact with the kindergarten classes so they can see what it's like. We'll keep you informed... In the meantime, we'll continue to talk about it in preschool, especially as we try to cement the skills they will need to do well there.

PLEASE REMEMBER EXTRA CLOTHING AND OUTDOOR CLOTHING!  We will be going outside this week since it is supposed to get warmer! It is likely to be wet, so don't forget the boots and snowpants!

See you all soon!

Jane