Dear Black bear parents, 

Well, the holidays have flown by and before we know it will spring. Maria and I would like to thank all of you who brought us gifts and goodies. 

January will start with the letters G, D, M, O. as well as continuing with our numbers 6-10. This month we will also begin a short story book Journey. We will be visiting the mitten, The hat and the City and Country Mouse. All three of these stories are written by Jan Brett.

The mitten is about a boy named Nicki who drops his white mitten in the snow, he goes on without realizing it is missing. One by one, woodland animals find the mitten and crawl in.  The children will be matching rhymes as well as matching beginning sounds. We will be able to sequence the story in order as the animal enters the mitten. Math will be graphing, roll and tracing numbers. 

The hat,when Lisa woolen stocking flies off the clothes line, Hedgie  finds it and pokes his nose in. He tries to pull it out, the stocking gets stuck on his prickles—and the fun begins. This story will help us talk to our friends about how we are feeling. How to help a friend, how to tell a friend when you do not like something. If you look at our circle time you should notice faces of different emotions. We have incorporated a social circle as a part of a large group time to share how we are feeling. The children will begin writing in a new journal this month.

City and Country mouse, The classic tale of town and a country mouse takes on a new dimension. We will look at different types of houses that we live in. How people or mice eat different foods depending on where you live.

Our last focus will be arcticnimals, we will look at the globe to find the arctic. What animals live there? We will look at the temperature in Colorado versus the arctic. Playing and experimenting with Ice!