Snowmen and Penguins

We had a short week last week, but we are back into the swing of the New Year. We've been reading snow stories and creating snowmen and women. 

We've also been learning about penguins and had fun creating some big and small penguins. We wrote about penguins in our journals too. 

In our social skills lessons we have discussed how to look for "clues" to how someone feels by looking at their faces and listening to their words. Most of our students recognize when someone is in the yellow or red zone, and they realize they don't feel comfortable around them. Using coping skills helps us move back into the green zone - we know we feel better and people feel more comfortable around us when we are in the green zone. It is also how we show that we are ready to learn. Your children feel really proud when they are able to name their feeling or zone, use a coping skill, and move on with a good day at school. 

We read two favorite Jan Brett books, "The Mitten" and "The Hat". Both are great stories for re-telling, a skill we work on a lot in our room. We wrote about an animal that could be in our mitten. 

Reminders: No School on Monday, Jan. 15

                  Early 1/2 day on Thursday, Jan 18 for Conferences