Teddy Bear Times
News from Mrs. Gauen’s Kindergarten
Feb. 7, 2020
If your child is in need of Valentine cards please send me a note or email at gauenk@wcsoh.org. We have several generous donors who have given us boxes for students who may not have any cards. There are also many available at the Dollar Store. I will not give Valentines to students unless a parent has requested them because I want to respect your family decisions. If you do not celebrate Valentine's day, please have your child make friendship cards since this is an excellent opportunity for your child to practice writing letters and seeing a purpose for writing.
Attached to the newsletter you’ll find another copy of the class list for valentines. Please do not write the names for your child. He/she should sign and address each card and envelope. They do not need to write last names, first names will be fine. You might want to consider doing 5-6 cards per day, so your child is not overwhelmed by this task. Remember to remind your child to use a capital letter for the first letter of each name and all the other letters should be lowercase. This is an excellent opportunity for the children to understand the purpose for learning to write letters correctly. Please send the completed valentines to school on Feb. 12th so we will have a couple of days to mail them in the correct mailbox in the classroom.
If you signed up to help or bring a treat for the valentine party on Feb.14th I’ve listed it here _________________________________.
Thank you for all the juice cartons. We are still in need of 10 more so please send them in by Monday. We’ll be transforming them into mailboxes next week. Next week each child will tell me their address and we’ll add that to the mailbox. If your child doesn’t know his/her address, please practice this over the weekend. This is an important safety skill for all children.
Next week we will be a special program called Kisses for Character. Students may purchase a hershey kiss for 25 cents to recognize friends who show good character like being kind, helpful or a good friend. If your child wants to purchase kisses please send the money in a baggie with the names of students that your child wants to buy a kiss for. In addition to the treat, students will be given a note from the friend telling them why they bought the candy kiss. (You are nice. You are kind. You share the toys. You are a good friend). This is a week long program and will end on Friday the 14th.
Next week, in addition to Valentine’s Day activities, we will also begin learning about the two presidents who have birthdays in February; Geroge Washington and Abe Lincoln. We will learn about how different life is today compared to when they were alive.
The staff is planning a special Family Engagement Night on March 5th from 6:00 -7:30. This will be an evening to showcase what we have been doing in kindergarten, and other grades. The kindergarten students will be performing some of the songs they have been learning in music class from 6:25-6:35. Please try to attend and have your child here by 6:15 so they are ready to perform. After the performance come to our classroom to see some story retelling activities that will be shared. All students must be accompanied by an adult for the evening. More details will be sent home as the date approaches. I hope you will be able to join us.
Have a great weekend!
Kathy Gauen
Dates to Remember
Feb. 14th Classroom Valentine party (Volunteers welcome!!!)
Feb. 17th No School - President’s Day
Attention Dads/Grandpas/Uncles save Feb. 21st for a special evening with your daughter/grandaughter/niece!!!! Our PTA is sponsoring a special Daddy/Daughter Dance night from 6-8pm
March 5th Family Engagement Night 6-7:30 pm
Next Week’s Centers
ABC Listening Center
Memory game with sight words Tacky the Penguin
1,2,3
graphing practice with candy hearts
Art
decorating mailboxes and adding
addresses
Writing Center
Each child will create a special heart about
someone they love
Science Center
using a pan balance and candy hearts
to weigh objects
Write around the Room
Finding words that begin with the letters in the word Valentine