Grace Garden Preschool

Dear Caterpillar Families,

It has been an awesome week in our room! Not only have we continued our dinosaur
unit, but weʼve been very busy making enormous strides in sounding words out! The
Caterpillars are becoming experts in sounding out “cvc” words (consonant-vowel-consonant).

On Tuesday, we created a flip-book with -ip words (hip, ship, zip, rip), and on Wednesday, a flip book with -ot words (hot, pot, dot, cot). Not only did these easy and fun flip books help the Caterpillars do “what good readers do” by matching the word
to the picture, but it also helped reinforce the idea that itʼs the ending sounds of words
that create rhymes. Now, with so many more words under their belts, the Caterpillars
are surely off and running with literacy! I never get over how exciting it is to learn to
read!

In dinosaur news, the class worked together, doing a little bit each day, to create an
awesome landscape for dinosaurs, The first step was to paint the sky. When that was
dry, a couple of friends added some rolling hills. Next came the trees, and then some
volcanoes! The most fun came when it was time to paint the lava exploding out of the
volcanoes. The caterpillars had to use a bit of restraint with this process so that our
entire landscape wouldnʼt be swallowed up by lava! The final step will be for each
student to add his or her own dinosaur to the landscape. This will be a really cool mural
to display in our room for some time.

Volcanoes just seem to go hand in hand with our dinosaur unit. And who doesnʼt love to
do the old favorite baking soda and vinegar volcano experiment??  So, on Thursday, the
Caterpillars all helped to create a volcano using flour and salt dough. Then we had a
ball causing our volcano to erupt again and again. We even experimented by adding
different colors to the ingredients to change the color of the lava. What a blast!

We spent a little bit of time talking about Groundhog Day on Thursday. The kids
had a nice little debate on whether or not the groundhog is a reliable meteorologist or
not. Regardless of whether that little guy saw his shadow or not, Iʼm pretty sure we
here in Austin will be enjoying Spring very shortly, especially if our weather this week is
any indication!

Over the next couple of weeks, we will shift our attention to Friendship, Love, and
Valentineʼs Day. We will have a little Valentineʼs Day party in our class on Tuesday,
February 14th, during which weʼll eat a “Red Lunch” and have a valentine exchange.
Look for more information about signing up for a red or pink item to bring to our lunch.

Donʼt forget the Daddy Daughter Dance next Thursday!

Iʼm hoping that all of our friends whoʼve been under the weather are feeling better soon!
Stay healthy and have a wonderful weekend!

Love,
Ms. Katie