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FEBRUARY

February 2nd was Groundhogs Day! We read a few stories and made shadows in the classroom.  Of course we had a "prediction" question.

"Will the Groundhog see his shadow?" 

        Yes = 14        No = 11 

Do you know what the outcome was???  Ask your student, they should know. Let's just say, Hooray for an early spring!!!

The week of Feb. 8th-12th we will start our Valentine unit.  Targeted areas will be vocabulary, traditions, speech sounds and reading a few books.

***Of course I have a game with "chocolate"!!****

We will read the book Love, Ruby Valentine by Laurie Friedman.  Ruby is a busy little girl, who realizes she slept through Valentines Day!  Ask your child what the town people thought about it?!!  

We will continue the next week talking about our Presidents and celebrating them with board games, bingo games, and of course talking about money!

**DON'T FORGET WE DON'T HAVE SCHOOL ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH. Teachers will be in Professsional Development that day.  I personally will be attending the the Special Education conference and will be gone on Thursday, Feb. 25th as well.**

Next month we celebrate Reading Month!  It's always a lot of fun, and we do such fun lessons..... Stay Tuned for hints this month about our theme!!

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 JANUARY

WELCOME BACK!!! It certainly was a nice break.  I hope you all came back refreshed and ready to work!

This month we will be talking about WINTER...brrrrrr.  We will be targeting listening, vocabulary, and speech sounds that talk about the season.

The week of Jan 4-8:  Penguins
The week of Jan 11-15: Snowflakes
The week of Jan 18-22: Snowmen
The week of Jan 25-29: Winter/Season

Students will be playing snow games, using creative writing with snowflakes, reading stories, we might even have some hot cocoa and marshmallows!!! All of this fun while working on our goals for speech and language.

SOME OF OUR BOOKS WE ARE READING THIS MONTH!!! 

When we use books in therapy, we transform them into lessons.  We can learn new vocabulary, strengthen our listening and attention skills, and we can work on answering those "wh" questions about what we heard.  There are always ways to get our speech sound practice in also.

If you want to do this at home, and need help, just ask me!  I can help make up the vocabulary list, talk about ways to improve your child's phonemic awareness skills with sounds/rhyme/letters. I can help you develop those "wh" questions. Besides all this, enjoy reading with your children!!  They love to listen to stories and what a great time to spend with them.

It is almost report card time, so I will be collecting progress data to show how your child is making wonderful progress!

***Don't forget!!  There is only a 1/2 day of school on Thurs., Jan. 28th, and no school for kids on Jan. 29th.  

Stay warm this month!

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DECEMBER

     **Christmas break is Dec. 23-Jan.3rd.  Come back to school on Monday, Jan. 4th.  

How did we make it to the Christmas season...again??!!!  Students have been making ornaments to decorate the tree.  We are coloring candy canes, elves, and of course reading some of my favorite books!

   

We have been talking about real vs. fake trees.  Did you know you have to water a real tree, but not a fake one.  Did you know that real trees will drop "needles" on the floor if you don't water them?! LOL  

*Question of the month: 

Do you have a real tree?   
               YES   10        NO  25    

December words we have been talking about: 

Santa, Stocking, Sleigh, Decorations, Ornament, Wreath, Reindeer, Candle, present, glistening, joyous, Elf, poinsettia, holly berries, eve, Traditions, 

The kids have been busy making their own game boards this month.  They will be able to bring them home during the break.  Go ahead, play their game!! I was surprised by how much those kids love to see you "go back to start!" 

                            WEBSITES FOR FUN!!!

**If you have not seen this before just type in your address or any family addresses and Postal Code then look through the window at  the snow falling outside your home.  It's amazing!!!!           Click HERE and follow the directions. 

**Click HERE for some fun activities to do during the holidays!

**and even MORE websites to have Christmas fun!

**I have been talking to my students about a neat website to watch Santa's Reindeer!  Click HERE to see it.  I think Santa shows up at 11am, 6pm and 9pm. We leave it on the computer all day to see the antics those reindeer cause.  This year I saw "The Grinch" steal a stocking and a wreath, while Santa was reading some mail!!   So exciting to share and watch as a family.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my students and their families. Have a great winter break!!