Book-It

For families completing the Pizza Hut Book-It Program, please check out www.bookitprogram.com to learn more about "America's Biggest Bedtime Story" on February 17th. You can sign up for a reminder email at this site.

Recipes - Gak, Oobleck, Silly Putty, & Flubber

You & your child(ren) might enjoy trying one of these recipes on a boring weekend. I haven't personally tried them all but the ones I have tried were fun, but messy!!!

Gak Recipe
Ingredients:
· 1 cup Elmer's glue
· food coloring, your choice of color (optional: coloring can stain!)
· 1 cup liquid starch
Pour glue and coloring in plastic container. Stir until color is thoroughly mixed in.
Add starch a little at a time, stirring with a spoon or kneading with your fingers as mixture thickens. Keep stirring until mixture holds together like putty. Test with your fingers: if too sticky, add more starch in small amounts until mass is smooth and rubbery.


Oobleck Recipe
It acts like a liquid until pressure is applied.
Ingredients:
2 parts cornstarch
1 part water
food coloring (optional, as could stain clothing and skin)

Amy's Flubber Recipe
Needs 2 bowls.
Mix thoroughly
1 1/2 cups very warm water
2 cups Elmer's glue
food coloring (optional, as could stain clothing and skin)
In a separate bowl, mix thoroughly:
1 1/3 cups very warm water
2 level teaspoons Borax
Mix the contents of the two bowls together kneading until it is fully combined. Discard any remaining liquid


Borax (Flubber) Recipe
Put 3 T. of water into a ziploc bag.
Add 1 T. of white glue.
Add 2 heaping T. of Borax (laundry detergent). It must be Borax.*
Shape into a ball. If the mixture is too sticky, roll the ball in a little bit of Borax. Enjoy stretching this elastic substance.


Silly Putty Recipe

This will bounce and pick up pictures from the paper just like the name-brand stuff.
Add: 1/2 cup water to 1/2 cup Elmer's glue (Not School Glue!)
Mix and add 3 drops of food coloring (optional)
Make Borax solution: Take 2 tablespoons borax (You can buy this at a grocery store or online) and add to 1 cup of water and stir. Add 1/2 cup of Borax solution to water and glue mixture
Stir and store in a plastic bag - mix well. Add food coloring if you wish. Let it dry about an hour. When ready, it will be smooth and rubber-like. Store in an airtight container.

Literactive

Thanks to Mrs. Witkowski, Keystone's Instructional Technology Specialist, for finding this great website. Literactive is the leading provider of reading materials for pre-school, kindergarten, & grade 1 students available online. http://literactive.com/Home/index.asp The program is comprised of carefully levelled guided readers, comprehensive phonic activities and a wealth of supplemental reading material which gradually develop a child's reading skills in a sequential and enjoyable manner. Developed and approved by teachers and parents across the United States, Literactive is the acknowledged leader in early learning online. All the material is available for free from this site, but you do need to register.

Childtopia

I'm adding a new educational website to the favorite links section on my webpage. Be sure to check out Childtopia, a safe place to learn & play. It features over 1,400 educational games & 500 worksheets in 5 different languages. I'm sure your child will enjoy a visit this website!
http://www.childtopia.com/index.php?newlang=eng

QuietTime Materials

Your child will be bringing his/her QuietTime materials home this weekend to be laundered. Please wash the items & return them to school on Monday. We repeat this process about once a month, so follow the same procedure each time.
Also, I encourage you to discuss with your child what they use during QuietTime. Some children use just their mat while their other items (blanket/pillow) lay in the storage box & some use just a blanket or blanket/pillow & leave their mat in the storage box. If your child doesn't use all the things they have brought for "QT", please send a note to bring their unused items home. We are short on storage space, so this would be a great help.

January Updates

Important dates to remember for the month of January .............

9th - Show-N-Tell - students may bring 1 item that fits inside their backpack to school to share (please help your child prepare some things to tell the class about their Show-N-Tell item)

13th - Scholastic book orders are due & the end of 2nd grading period - we are halfway thru our

school year!!!!

16th - "2 Good 4 Drugs" program presented by Erica Wanninger from Clarion County Drug &

Alcohol Administration - more info about this 10 week program will follow

19th - Act 80 Day - No School for students

20th - Report card # 2

January

We are off to a great start since coming back from the long, long Christmas vacation! Our second grading period ends on the 14th with report cards following on the 21st. We are almost halfway through our Kindergarten school year!!! The K1 children started a new behavior incentive program last week; ask your child to explain how they earn tickets for the daily drawing!!

We are starting a 10 week program titled "2 Good 4 Drugs" presented by the Clarion County Drug & Alcohol Administration this week. Also, early in February, we will celebrate our 100th Day of School ............. more info about the 100th day activities will follow.

Finally, academic skill areas to focus attention on at home for the upcoming 3rd grading period include: reciting the full names (first, middle, & last), the alphabet in sequence, phone number, counting to 50, identifing ordinal numbers first to fifth place, & visually recognizing numbers 0 - 20, ABC letters & sounds taught to date (Aa, Nn, Dd, Ss, Mm, Ii, Tt, Cc, Oo, & Ff upper/lower case) as well as the 12 colored sight word cards (the - a - my - that - and - I - is - said - we - are - you - have) attached to your child's folder. Please continue reading the take-home books over & over & over!! I ask the children to read them 3 times to someone at home, but it shouldn't end there. Save the books & read over a couple of them each evening to help the children review what they know. Be sure they "track" each word with a finger & remember.......... practice makes perfect!!!

Motor skills (Large & Small) to practice include: walking on a balance beam, hopping, galloping, & bounce/catch a ball. zipping, buttoning & improved coloring & cutting skills.