Week 16
Dear PS2 Families…
Once again, Happy New Year wishes to our families. We cannot believe we are already into the New Year and how quickly this past week flew by. Our theme was “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and even though we did not have so much snow to “walk” in, we spent a great deal of time discussing the season of winter, winter weather, and winter dressing. Did you know that snow begins as rain that freezes as it falls from the sky in winter, and that each snowflake, no matter how many you see, has six sides? Snowflakes come in the shape of a hexagon!!! Winter (letter of the week “W”) is a fabulous season to experience, and we did just that with our process artwork!! Working together, we created a stunning mural using sparkly colored winter white paint, glistening glitter, and applied our media using bath poofs. We printed and glittered “snowflakes” with plastic spools and stamped the most delicate snowflake doily prints with paint daubers and even more glitter. After listening and sharing what we know about “ice”, we performed a science exploration!! We discovered salt melts ice, AND if we drop liquid watercolor onto the ice after the salt has an opportunity to melt it… You can see the patterns made in the ice by the salt as it melts the ice!!! Easy to try at home with a block of ice, table salt, eye droppers, and colored water!!! Many of our PS2 friends were fascinated by and enthralled with this process, spending time observing these changes as they occurred in and on the ice. Our classroom transformed into a palace of glitter and sparkle as we “walked” through our winter wonderland.
Our hot chocolate (cocoa) stand has done a booming business this week as many hot drinks, cookies, and cupcakes have been served to its patrons. The dramatic play center was extra fun for everyone and a very popular place to spend time.
Some changes we have made to our classroom routine have already begun to be old hat for our PS2 learners. We removed the picture icons from our attendance owls and will soon do the same to our circle seating mats to enhance name recognition skills. You may not be aware, but our students are becoming adept at name recognition as we explore and expand upon our skills in this area. We will also continue to draw, write, and have our stories dictated for our journals more frequently as we continue practicing writing and spelling our names!! Soon we will begin writing our names on our process-oriented artwork!!!
Miss Elaine came this week to bring us a Happy New Year musical fest. We all love it when Miss Elaine brings her guitar, music, props, and movement activities for us to learn from, and enjoy.
Thank you to our PS2 families for sending our students prepared with warm hats, mittens, snow pants, boots, and jackets… Please be sure to send in waterproof mittens to keep little hands warm and dry. Outside play is an integral part of our PS2 day together!! Our PS2 children are working hard to become “can-do” kids by managing and keeping track of all of their winter belongings. We are very proud of their efforts!! Even though the temperature might prevent us from venturing outside from time to time, we can always be found playing games in the big room as we run and chase hoops in teams and sing and dance to gross motor activity songs.
And just like that… A new year, a new month, and a new season… We are happy to all be back together once again!!!
Happy Weekend!!
Most Sincerely…
Miss Michelle, Miss Penny, and Miss Kathryn