Weekly News

IMPORTANT DATES
•    Friday, December 23rd: Winter Vacation begins at 2:20 pm. This is a full school day. Lunch is served. See you in 2012!
•    Tuesday, January 3rd: School resumes. Full day.
•    Thursday, January 12th: 1MC family breakfast, 8-8:45 am,

THANK YOU!!!
Thank you all so much for your extremely generous gift to the class. We are thrilled to have these new supplies and are excited to begin using the magnetic letters and magnet boards! We are also quite excited to choose some new books and puzzles for the classroom from the Booksmith. Thank you so much for all of the support and smiles you share with us daily. We are truly honored to work with your children and your families. We love coming to school everyday!

MARBLE JAR CELEBRATION!
We are so proud of everyone in the class and the community we’ve built (and continue to develop). We filled our marble jar and celebrated with an extra special party today. We have emptied the marble jar and are beginning to fill it again. We are continuing to work on helping our community, but this time around, we are placing a special focus on transition times. We will work to follow directions and rules as we line up, move to different areas in the classroom or different parts of the school.

ANOTHER THANK YOU
This has been quite a celebratory week! Thank you to the families of Dor, Lior, and Yonaton for coming in to share with us some stories about Hanukkah. We learned about the holiday, some traditions, and even got to try some delicious home-made jelly-filled doughnuts! It was great for the class to have that personal connection with our community and the holiday.

We love having parents come in and share with the class. If your family celebrates a particular holiday, or if you have experience with a particular topic that relates to the curriculum, please let me know. It’s wonderful to have a different perspective and fresh face in the classroom. And the children are so excited and proud to have their families in the class.

FAMILY BREAKFAST
We are planning a family breakfast for Thursday, January 12, 2012 from 8-8:45 am. Parents, grandparents, siblings, and other important family members or friends are invited. This will be an opportunity for your child to show you around our classroom room, read to you, and share their portfolios and journals with you.  The children are so proud of their work and our community. Hopefully, you’ll be able to join us. Please let us know if you plan to be out of town or have an appointment already scheduled. After winter break, we will post a list for families to sign-up to brings items or food for the breakfast.


CRYSTAL Recipe
We had so much fun making crystals this week. Many families were interested in the recipe.  I tripled this recipe for each child to make sure we fully submerged the pipe cleaners.
    * 1 cup boiling water
    * 3 tablespoons Borax powder (sold in the laundry detergent aisle of most grocery stores)
    * Glass Jar (with a mouth wide enough to fit your pipe cleaner shape)
    * Pipe cleaners
    * String
    * Pencil (or popsicle stick)

1. Mix 3 tablespoons (one at a time, making sure each tablespoon is dissolved before adding the next) of borax to 1 cup of boiling water and stir until dissolved. (Some Borax will settle at the bottom of the jar, but solution should appear cloudy at first)
2.Bend a pipe cleaner into the desired shape, then tie a string to the pipe cleaner and tie the other end to the middle of a pencil.
3. Immerse the pipe cleaner in the borax solution and then place the pencil across the top of the glass or cup. Remove any slack from the string by twisting the pencil. The pipe cleaner should be suspended in the middle of the cup without touching the sides or bottom.
4. Allow the solution to sit overnight. Within 24 hours, a thick layer of "snow" crystals will have formed on the pipe cleaner.

Variations~ use colored pipe cleaners or add food coloring to Borax/ water solution

ASK YOUR CHILD…
These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.
•    What was your favorite part of our Marble Jar party?
•    What are some of the Caldecott Contender books we have read?
•    Did you know any of the songs that were sung in the Holiday concert on Friday morning?


We wish you and your family a safe, relaxing and enjoyable winter vacation. We are very excited for the new milestones, learning, and adventures that await us in 2012!
Happy Holidays.
                        ---- Katrina and Stephanie