Three Year Old Class News: January was a wonderful month. The children were very excited to be back in school after their Christmas vacation. The Audubon Society of RI came to our school and presented a program called, "The Mitten," written by Jan Brett, to the 3 year old classes. The children had the opportunity to participate in the program a well as learn a wealth of information about owls and various animals.

We made our winter feeders for the birds and hung them outside of our classroom in the garden. We have enjoyed seeing the different kinds of birds at the feeders and it has made us happy to be able to feed some of the birds this winter.

We enjoyed a special day called "Hat Day". We were able to wear our favorite hat to school and share with our friends why our hat was special to us. We also had an "All About Bears" week. We learned about the different kinds of bears, where they live, what they like to eat and why bears hibernate. We celebrated this week by having a Teddy Bear Day. We brought our favorite bears to school and had a picnic with our teddy bears.

We finished up January with our unit on snow and ice and penguins. We were able to experiment with some snow in our sensory containers. We watched the snow melt throughout the day as the classroom got warmer. We painted with ice and learned some new penguin songs and finger plays. January was a busy and fun filled month!

Margaret Fonseca, Teacher 3's

Four Year Old Class News: In January the 4 year olds learned about "The Signs of Winter". They used their 5 senses to see, touch, taste, hear and smell the changes that take place during this season. They learned how animals adapt to living in the winter. We continued our number unit and started our alphabet unit. The children explored letters and letter sounds as they participated in multisensory activities using their 5 senses. We ended the month by learning about shadows and of course groundhogs.

On January 22, 28, 29 and 30, our children participated in free screenings at our school for speech development, hearing and vision through Child Outreach. The results of these screenings are very valuable for classroom planning for the remainder of the school year.

Linda Taraborelli, Director