I hope you all had a restful and fun winter break. I am excited to see what the second half of the school year has in store for us.

We are starting off January with a new team member. We look forward to the warm energy and experience Ms. Angie brings to our classroom.

January is the time when we start looking ahead to the next school year and what that means for your child. If you have a child preparing for kindergarten or elementary, you will get the opportunity to observe in that classroom. Observation is an amazing way to find out exciting things your child has to look forward to. If your child is looking ahead to his/her kindergarten year, you will be observing in the classroom during the afternoon. If your child already stays for the afternoon, you may be wondering why you need to observe. Although the younger children are working in the classroom alongside the kindergarten year children, the difference can be seen in the work that they are doing and their general attitude towards work and the classroom.

All the work that they have been doing in their first two years of primary comes full circle. Having spent two years preparing their hands and minds for reading and writing, they now explode into total reading using phonograph and sight words. They begin to write stories and do research. They also develop reading comprehension and expressive writing through exploration of parts of speech and the use of nouns, articles, verbs etc. They also move from exploring the decimal system to working with all four operations, abstracting those processes and memorizing math facts.

Their work with practical life activities takes on a whole new meaning as they put their skills towards preparing the classroom environment and helping their classroom community. The sense of pride and accomplishment that follows fosters their self-esteem, allowing them to become responsible leaders in the classroom. They help set the tone in the environment by being role models for the younger children.

It is wonderful to watch the growth and development of each child!

Sincerely,

Archana