My Newsletter and our Weekly Menu

Dear Families,

February has arrived, and the weather reminds us that winter is not over yet! Our themes for this month include Red, Friendship, Hearts, Senses and Green. Our Valentine’s Day party will be held on Tuesday, February 14th. We will have a pajama day on the same day. Becky will be providing fun finger foods for our breakfast. I will also post a request for donated items for our party on our bulletin board. This month may be short, but busy!

 We will be learning about the color red. We will learn about hearts, and we will make several art projects involving hearts. We will use glue to make pictures with different sizes of hearts, and even explore mixing red and white paints to create different shades of pink. With these paints, we will be making valentine cards for those we love.

We will be learning about our 5 senses this month. Our activities will include tasting something sweet
and sour, touching giant water beads in the sensory table, and smelling our smelly scented play dough. To work on our sense of sight, we will blow bubbles and have a disco light during our music and movement time, and for hearing, we will strum on our mini-guitars and listen to the different music we make. We will also have a sensory box which we will bring out every afternoon to play with; everything in the box will be the color red.

 I want to take a moment to discuss our Zoo phonics. Zoo Phonics is a program which introduces children to letters and sounds. Each letter is represented by a different “zoo animal” whose name matches the letter: for example, Allie Alligator, Bubba Bear, etc. Children first look at pictures of the animal and learn the names of the animal, the letter sound that corresponds to the animal and an action to help the children to remember. The combination engaging animals, and visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning helps children to learn the sounds quickly. Once children learn all the sounds, the lower-case letters which match each animal are introduced. So far, the children have learned the names, sounds, and actions for 11 animals: Allie Alligator, Bubba Bear, Deedee Dear, Francie Fish, Honey Horse, Jerry Jellyfish, Kayo Kangaroo, Lizzie Lizard, Missy Mouse, and Nigel Nightowl, and Willie Weasel.

Some books we will be reading this month include: Clifford’s Valentines, Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse, Jesus Loves Me, and Clean up Time! Some fun music and movement this month will include songs like Friendship Train and Follow the Leader. We will also introduce the Sticky, Sticky Bubblegum fingerplay.
Love,
Miss Becky

Becky’s Blessings Mealtimes	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:15 a.m. Breakfast	Cinnamon and Sugar Toast Peaches Milk	Apple Cinnamon Cheerios Banana Slices Milk	Fruit Assorted Oatmeal Raisins Milk	Apple Cinnamon Cheerios Peaches Milk	(Kids in the Kitchen)  Homemade Cinnamon Donut Holes Milk
11:30 a.m. Lunch	Cheese Pizza Lettuce Salad Pineapple Milk	BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches Baked Beans Pears  Milk	Fish Sticks Cheesy Rice Peaches  Steamed Peas Milk	Scrambled Eggs Sausage Links Tater Tots Applesauce Milk	Turkey and Cheese Sandwich Veggie Straws Gogurt Milk
3:00 p.m. Afternoon Snack	Frozen Gogurt Apple Slices Water	Pop Tarts Milk	Chocolate Pudding with wafers Water	Blueberry Muffins Milk	Trail Mix Cheerios, Raisins, Goldfish, Yogurt Melts, Mini Chocolate Chips Water