February 16, 2018

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Thank you for sending in all the Valentine's cards and treats for the children! They were so excited to receive them! Thank you so much for remembering the teachers as well! We also talked about the importance of giving to others and how good that can make both the giver and the receiver feel. Since it is Random Acts of Kindness Week, we also discussed being kind to one another in all we say and do.

We are all in the Olympic spirit here at HCA! Last Friday, we had our own torch lighting ceremony. The Pre-K students started off with the torch and passed it to our 4th grade buddy class.

The torch was then passed from class to class around the school and we all gathered together in the gym for the torch's arrival.

It was a great event for all the students and teachers. The boys and girls love learning about the Olympics in school. Go U.S.A.!

In the STEAM lab, we watched some Olympic videos about luge and skiing. We were challenged to build a sled or skis to send a Lego person down a long tube. The children worked in pairs to build their creations. They developed their problem solving skills when they had to plan and re-engineer what they built to fit inside the tube.

In music class, we are continuing to learn about jazz music. We listened to a story called Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat. We watched some videos showing Louis Armstrong singing and playing his trumpet, then we even got a turn to scat!

We are working on our gross motor skills in gym class!

In the Pre-K classroom, the boys and girls are hard at work on their lessons! We are filling in missing sounds in words, spelling words, and reading. We are counting and showing number quantities for numbers up to 100 and beyond. We are learning the continents of the world. We are comparing and contrasting shapes and colors. Pre-K is an amazing place to learn and grow!

Big news from the land of Pre-K! Congratulations to Addie - she is the first student in our class to finish her world map and name all seven continents! Stay tuned next week to see all the steps involved in making a world map.

Can you believe we have been in school for 97 days? Next Thursday will be our 100th Day of school and we have so many fun activities planned to celebrate!

Reminders:

• NO SCHOOL on Monday, February 19, because of Presidents' Day.
• Show and Tell on Wednesday, February 21, will be something that begins with "A."
• Hope to see you at the auction next Saturday, February 24! It will be a wonderful night celebrating the HCA Community!

Enjoy the long weekend!