December 6-10

Hope you are all having a nice Holiday Season!

Show and Tell this week:  Something that starts with the letter "I" or "J".

Letter of the Week: J
Math:  Recognizing the numerals in our phone number.
Literacy: Recognizing the letter "J" and words that begin with short or long "J."
Art: Garland!
Science: Food Pyramid intro
Social Studies: Kwanzaa Traditions

The December Newsletter:

Dear Parents,                                                                                                                7^th December 2010

It is December!  Wow this year is going fast.  November was fun and we learned a lot … teachers included!

The theme for December is “Staying Well, Staying Safe.”  We will be talking about healthy habits, exercise, and eating smart, along with how to keep ourselves and others safe.  We will begin to help each child learn their phone number and address.  If you have a specific phone number you would like us to teach them, please let us know.  Otherwise we will use the home number we have on record.   We are not sure if we will  be able to have them memorize it fully this month, so we might continue this into the New Year.

Holiday Celebrations – As a multi-cultural school, we will be discussing three December holidays: Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas.  Near the end of January we will also cover the Chinese New Year.  Please feel free to discuss these holidays further with your children.

Staff Changes – We recently had a few more staff changes for our class again.  I, Sarah Sykes, am the lead teacher for the pre-k class.  Lisa Hoggan was very excited that she was able to move to part-time status; she is teaching in the mornings when we have most of our academic sessions.  Ashley Steele has joined us for the afternoons.   We enjoy having her teaching in our class!

Email – My email is:  ssykes@tpaak.org. Please feel free to email me any questions, thoughts, comments, etc.  Also, you can use email to let us know if your child is sick or is going to be absent.

Class Blog – Our class blog is BACK!  I was sick right after I sent out our last newsletter and was slack on making updates.  But I am back on top of it now!  Our Show-and-Tell for the week is posted there.  I also send home a small paper on Tuesdays with the Show-and-Tell for each week.  Please check it out at:  tpaakprek.blogspot.com

Warm Clothes – Thank you all so much for sending warm coats, hats, gloves, and boots for your child!  We love being able to go outside!  We are working hard to keep track of all the warm clothing items.  Please let us know right away if anything is missing.

December Schedule – The preschool will be open through the 23^rd of December.  We will be back on January 3, 2010.  Please note:  There is NO HOT LUNCH on Monday, December 20 through Thursday, December 23 and Monday, January 3.  Preschool will be open but the elementary school is closed those days.  Please send a lunch with your child for those dates.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Sarah Sykes, Lisa Hoggan, and Ashley Steele