News From Ms. Terri's Class: 01/29/10

Hi Moms, Dads and Special Grown-ups,

We've had a busy two weeks! We began talking about letter G just after the Martin Luther King Holiday. We read Ed Emberly's Go Away Big Green Monster. We had lots of fun reading the story front to back and back to front, making the monster disappear and reappear. We discovered that no one in our class had squiggly ears or purple hair! After the story, we made our very own monster masks.

The children learned lots of letter G words and, as usual, we changed the first letter of our names to letter G to see what they sounded like. We got super silly and changed the words of the Wiloughby-Wallaby-Woo song to letter G and sang "giloughby-gollaby-goo!" We read Denise Flemmings's In the Tall, Tall Grass. After our story time we made "Green-Grassy-Garden G's,"
and started talking about growing things for Tu B'Shevat. We learned that two of our Puppy Class friends have names that start with letter G. So...we hid pictures of Gemma and Giacomo in the grass on our G's!

We've been talking allot about the weather lately. We are patiently waiting for some more snow!
We read Alice Shertle's All you need for a Snowman. We made snow friends out of our snow storm mural from a few weeks ago. We were remembering the Lois Ehlert book, Snowballs, and can't wait for a big storm so we can make snow dogs and cats!



This week we have been getting ready for Tu B'Shevat, the Birthday of the Trees!!! We read Sammy Spider's First Tu B'Shevat by Sylvia Rouss. The children love Sammy! They know a special Holiday is coming every time we read a story about him. This story talked about the seasons. We observed how different the trees looked as the seasons changed and what animals lived there and the different kinds of food the trees provided. We talked allot about all of the things that trees give to us. Our chairs, paper, snack foods, even toilet paper come from trees. We discussed how you should only use "just enough" of things like toilet paper and other disposable products. We don't want to waste our trees! We made letter T trees for Tu B'Shevat and made a beautiful forest on our wall.


This coming week we are looking forward to beginning our "Grover Garden" on our windowsill.
Even though we are excited about the possibility of a really big snow, we are getting ready for Spring time and starting to plant seeds.


SOME REMINDERS:
* Please bring in a new supply of diapers if you have not already.
* The Playschool will be closed on Monday, February 15 for President's Day.
* Our annual Purim Carnival will be held on Sunday, February 21 from 11 AM -1 PM. Games, prizes, face-painting, food, music, and more!
* On Thursday, February 25 and Friday, February 26 we will have our classroom Purim Parade from 11:oo - 12:00. Parents should plan to attend. Please pack a costume for your child to wear and let us know what you will be bringing for the luncheon. Sign-up sheets are above our classroom coat hooks. There will be NO Afterschool Arts following our Thursday Purim Parade and Luncheon.
*When the Philadelphia Schools are closed because of inclement weather, the Playschool will also be closed. This information can be found on the TV, radio, or on the School District of Philadelphia's website.

Shabbat Shalom and have a restful weekend!

Ms. Terri and Ms. Julia