The month of January was a very busy one! We've covered a few different topics this month.

When we first came back from the break we talked about fairy tales. This is always a fun unit for the kids because we read a lot of books that they love and are familiar with. Fairy tales such as The Three Bears or Three Billy Goats Gruff also aide in learning about concepts such as small, medium, large and grouping with the number 3. It is also a unit that incorporates a lot of dramatic play and the children enjoy dressing up and recreating stories, such as The Princess and the Pea. We even made a castle for them to play in!

We then put our fairy tales on hold so we could learn about Chinese New Year! We had a great time learning about the Chinese traditions. The children were very excited about it, since their friend Lex celebrates it. At the end of our week of learning about it, Lex's mom made us some homemade dumplings and rice cakes! We had a feast and the children really enjoyed trying the new foods..they even used chopsticks! Thank you Xue for making all of that delicious food for the class!

This week we thought a nice transition from learning about China would be to talk about panda bears, and then move into learning about bears in general. In our bear unit, we will be learning about the different types of bears, hibernation, their habitats and what they eat. We will be focusing on this topic for about the next two weeks.

Later in the month of February we will move into a "feelings" unit which we will tie in with Valentines Day and friendship. For Valentines Day we will be having some fun activities in the classroom for the children on that Monday and Tuesday. We are not going to exchange valentines this year as we feel that can be a lot of work for parents and the children as well!

We have started a new science unit and will be exploring change. In doing this we will be working a lot with water to see how liquids change or how they change things.

Some of the concepts we will explore are dissolving, freezing/melting, and rusting.

•  We are working on fostering independence at lunchtime. We have noticed that it is a time when many of the children need assistance. One way we are working on this is by encouraging the children to try to open things on their own. We would love if parents could help with this by encouraging it at home and also thinking about ease of opening when packing lunch!
• Please pack shoes/slippers for your child to wear once we come inside. Also, feel free to leave a pair of shoes/slippers here for the rest of the winter. A change of clothes especially socks is also helpful! Also, it tends to get very warm in our classroom, so it may be best to dress your child in layers so they can shed a layer or two if it gets too hot.
• We will be starting "Book in a Bag" this week. Each child can choose a book to take home and keep for a week to read with their family.
• The local United Way is starting a reading program in daycares and preschools and we will be participating. Volunteers will be coming into our classroom Thursdays and Fridays to read to small groups. We are very excited about it and think it is a great program!
• Community School will be closed Monday February 20 for President's Day.
• Community School will also be closed the week of February 27 for February vacation.