What a delight it was to see the smiling faces of your little ones this Tuesday, our first day back together. They all had a fantastic winter break with loads of fun! 

Our first week back went well – we’ve reviewed and reinforced our classroom expectations, emphasizing why it’s essential to make good choices in school and how to display the traits of a Coronado Explorer by being safe, respectful, and responsible. You should reinforce these traits at home and talk about what it means to be (both physically and emotionally) safe, respectful, and accountable. What does respect look like and sound like? What would be the effects of not being respectful? How can we show responsibility to the people around us?  

We’ve also begun our Buildings unit – thank you so much for creating jumbo-sized building blocks for us and supporting children’s learning by providing materials that enrich this unit and make it personally meaningful to them. We’ve walked around the school and explored how it was made and why. We’ve discussed how buildings have specific components (windows, doors) and why we have buildings. We’ve compared and contrasted what houses look like and described them using targeted vocabulary (door, window, roof, walls, feature, building, stairs, ramp, hallway, shelter, weather). You can support your child’s learning by conversing with them about what your home looks like. Study the features and the rooms. What materials were used to build it? How many floors does it have? How many rooms, windows, and doors does it have? Does it have a basement, a garage, or both? What are these components for? How old is your home? Who built it? 

Next week, we’ll continue exploring Buildings and investigating the different types of buildings. We will look at buildings in our neighborhood by studying pictures and participating in an observational walk. Students will compare and contrast buildings and explore their differences based on their purpose. 

We are still looking for donations for the Buildings/Wheels unit. These include foam blocks, safe building material components, and protective clothing equipment, such as wood samples, tubes, wires, helmets, wheels, and tires. Also, check out our Amazon Wish List for items we could use, such as a peg board. You can find the list at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3YQM5P9UYWVC?ref_=wl_share.

We also ran out of wet wipes (such as the ones you use for wiping hands or diapering). We’d love it if you could send some in, please. 

Children will have tons of fun as we continue our learning next week. Thank you for your ongoing support!

Enjoy the snowy January weekend,

Annie