February 2006

OFFICIAL GROUNDHOG NEWS
Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow at the
120th annual Groundhog Day celebration in
Pennsylvania, February 2^nd.
Looks like we will have six more weeks of winter ...
no surprise there!!!
The good news is it will go fast and the
warm weather will return.
Lucky for us, Woodstock Wil, at the Brookfield Zoo,
did not see his shadow and we will have an early spring.
Remember: Valentine's Day breaks the heart of winter!

You've got six more weeks of boots, hats,
mittens, scarves and snow pants.

DON'T FORGET!

VALENTINE'S NEWS...

We will have our Valentine parties on Tuesday, February 14^th. Your child's teacher will be sending home specific information for your classroom. If you want to get started early, we ask for a valentine card for each child in his/her classroom. PLEASE do not put names on the envelope. You or your child can sign the back.

The teachers and I will be attending
Insights 2005 on February 25^th.
Insights is a conference sponsored
by the Illinois Childcare Association.
We will be attending workshops
during the day as part of our
in-service training.

On Tuesday, January 31,
the teachers and I
renewed
our CPR certification.

FEBRUARY IS DENTAL HEALTH MONTH!

*How do you keep your teeth healthy?*

1.	Brush your teeth at least twice a day.
2.	Limit sugary foods and drink.
3.	Eat crunchy foods such as raw carrots, apples and celery. These foods help scale tartar from teeth.
4.	Eat calcium rich foods such as cheese, milk, and dark green vegetables. Calcium builds strong bones and teeth.
	February TLC

Early Years
is newsletter to provide busy parents with practical ways
to promote school readiness, parent
involvement, and more effective parenting.
Click here to read the February Edition.
(You must have Adobe Acrobat to open this newsletter)

As a little mid winter treat,
the four and five year old classes
are going bowling on Friday, February 10^th.
We are gong to Brunswick Bowel
for bowling, pizza and fun.
More information to follow.

	February Birthday List Ubochi O. February 9^thLexi C. February 16^th Anne B. February 20^th Sean L. February 22^ndNicholas R February 22^nd^{HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!}

WHAT'S HAPPENING...

Our Teddy Bears, the two's ... during Polar Bear Week, the children used a mixture of shaving cream, glue and grey paint to decorate these cute baby seals. During Winter Wonderland Week the children did Drop and Folding painting, dropping blue and white paint onto their papers and folded them to create these beautiful blizzard scenes. Also during Winter Week, the children worked on strengthening their fine motor abilities while making snowmen.



The Bunny Bunch, the threes ... during the month of January talked about winter activities. We made iceberg pictures with bears ice fishing. We also made frosted windows, snowflake pictures and snowmen. We had a fun snack in which we built a snowmen out of marshmallows. We also talked about Nursery Rhymes. We made clocks and reviewed numbers. We made our own Humpty Dumpty wall, itsy bitsy spiders and twinkle stars.



Our 4's, our Junior Kindergarten ... painted a snow scene with cotton balls and white paint. We took the cotton balls saturated them with white paints and dropped them off on the paper. The Junior Kindergarten made these wintry snow people that later the children said, "look like snow penguins." Here you will see Spring mittens decorated with spring things. We cut out and glued to practice our fine motor skills. One of our very unique students drew us a picture of his Mommy with a baby in her tummy. We all drew pictures of what we though it would look like. How Exciting! We had a n indoor winter picnic in our Junior Kindergarten. We made our own table setting and drew pictures of our families.

Our play is our work and we sure do work hard in Junior Kindergarten!

Our 5's, our Kindergartener's... while talking about the five senses we made 5 senses portraits using wiggly eyes, cotton balls sprayed with perfume for the nose, Jungle bells for the ears, licorice for the mouth and sand paper hands. For Valentine's Day we made Heart sun catchers. During Dental Health Week we a did a picture graph, We colored toothbrush pictures the same color on our toothbrushes at home.



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