Hi Parents!
Welcome to 2026! I hope you all had a joyful and restful Christmas break. The kids were excited to tell me all about their adventures and of course what they got for Christmas. This week is a week of readjusting to our classroom routine. Our letter for the week was Ww.
On Monday, circle time was extended slightly to review some of our classroom routines. I kept centers light to try to prevent fatigue. The kids really enjoyed painting snowflakes with Qtips. Its such a great fine motor muscle strengthener and helps with proper pencil grip too. I love them so much that I have hung them in the hallway. They also did a worksheet matching upper and lower case letters which we are still working on and will probably go home next week. They also did some number matching and counting with small puzzles. And of course the favorite was using PlayDoh on a Ww mat. This is one of the best fine motor activities. At the end of the day we read A Loud Winter’s Nap.
Tuesday we started the day with our dry erase name quick kits but with something new. I’ve added their last names which they will be practicing writing and spelling from now on. During center time the kids completed the write, cut and paste The Ww Says worksheet. At another center I had them cut out trees and paste them in order of size. I told them to start with the shortest and end with the tallest, and they did the rest. Since we are working on matching upper and lowercase letters, the kids also used plastic chain links to link upper and lowercase cards together. This has been a challenge for some so we will continue to work on it. The kids were also able to work with Legos for more fine motor work.
We talked about wacky watermelons on Wednesday. Lol! And of course it was art day. During art the kids colored and cut out a watermelon W. It was great cutting practice and the kids are doing great. Back in our classroom the kids counted “seeds” to put on number watermelon cards and worked on rhyming words using picture cards. Rhyming is a tough one for all the kids so we will continue to work on this more often. At the end of the day we read The Watermelon Seed.
On Thursday our theme was Winter Wonderland. During centers I read the kids a very short story about the steps to building a snowman. After the kids were tasked with cutting out four pictures of the steps and pasting them in order. They did pretty good on this activity. At another center the kids worked on counting winter items and coloring in the number of boxes in a 10 frame. This was a challenge since they are relatively new to 10 frames. We’ll keep working on it. I also tasked the kids with building igloos with magnatiles. This was definitely a favorite.
All in all it was a good first week back. Next week is Ii week with lots of fun activities and eating ice cream on Thursday!
Kim