Happy Holidays!

Have a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends. See you in the new year! 

Writing

This week, the children addressed their envelopes to Mo Willems and we placed their letters in the mail. We hope that Mo Willems writes back to us soon!

The children also learned how to write a thank you letter. They practiced writing their own thank you letters later in the week. They are doing a great job of remembering the five parts of a letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature).  

Math

In math, the children worked with measuring to the nearest inch using their 6 inch ruler. They recorded their measurements using approximation language. The children also worked on writing addition number models using their dominoes. 

On Tuesday, the children worked on measuring with a tape measure. They measured different body parts to the nearest inch. 

On Thursday, the children enjoyed 3 Explorations: measuring and plotting their height, creating shapes on the geoboards, and building structures with base ten blocks. 

*** We are in need of paper towel rolls for an upcoming math lesson. Please save your empty paper towel rolls over break and send them to school in the new year! Thank you!***

Social Studies 

This week, we finished our Holiday Unit. After learning about Kwanzaa the children made Unity Cups and wrote a Harambee paper. They learned that “Harambee” means “let’s pull together.” The children each wrote about how they pull together with their friends and family. 

We concluded the unit by reading, Festival of Lights. The children discussed how all of the holidays we learned about use light to celebrate. The children wrote about how they use light to celebrate at their house. They each created a festival of lights craft to go along with their writing. 

Star Student

Mary was our star student this week. Thanks Mary for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

A special thank you to Mary’s Mom, she joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to the two books that Mrs. Robinson read, The Christmas Santa Claus Had No Beard and It’s a Big World Little Pig. 

We also welcomed Edward’s Mom as our Royal Reader on Friday. The children enjoyed listening to two wonderful stories, Paul Bunyan and Parts. Thank you Mrs. Keating for reading to us!

Happy Birthday

We celebrated Mason's birthday this week. Happy Birthday Mason!

Goodbye Edward!

On Friday, we said goodbye to our friend Edward. We wish Edward luck at his new school and hope to hear from him very soon! 

Our weekly updates will return in the new year. Check back in to see new photos and read about all the wonderful things we are learning! 

News You Can Use!

Literacy

This week, our close reading lessons focused on books about Hanukkah. While reading the books, the children worked with visualizing and sequencing the events of a story. We discussed how when you visualize you make a movie in your mind. The children learned that one event can have many details. The children worked on including all the details in their visualizations. They drew illustrations of their visualizations and discussed what they saw, felt, heard, smelled, or tasted. 

Grammar Notebooks:

The children worked with proper nouns this week. They learned that a noun that names a special person or place is called a proper noun. A proper noun begins with a capital letter. 

On Friday, the children made proper noun pizzas. 

Writing:

This week, we continued working on our letter writing unit. The children each wrote a friendly letter to author Mo Willems. Their letters included titles of their favorite books, their favorite characters, and questions for Mr. Willems. Some of the children even included some ideas for new books that Mr. Willems should write. We will send the letters to Mr. Willems at the beginning of next week. We really hope to hear back from him soon!

Math

This week, we began Unit 4. This unit will focus on measurement. The children worked with measuring temperature using a thermometer. Later in the week, the children worked on measuring objects using non standard units, their personal foot, a standard foot, and a 12 inch ruler. They measured objects to the nearest foot and to the nearest inch. The children recorded their measurements using approximation language. My pencil is about 6 inches. The bookshelf is a little more than 4 feet.

Social Studies

This week, we continued our Winter Holidays unit. The children learned about how people celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas. We read several books, used a holiday powerpoint, and Pebble Go to research each of the holidays. 

On Monday, after learning about Hanukkah, the children enjoyed making a dreidel. While making the dreidel, they listened to and learned Hanukkah songs. The children also learned how to play the dreidel game.  

On Tuesday, after learning about Christmas traditions, the children made christmas trees. They also wrote a paper titled, How To Decorate A Christmas Tree. 

Star Student

Alexandra was our star student this week. Thanks Alexandra for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

A special thank you to Alexandra’s Dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children loved listening to the two stories that Mr. Saknovsky read, Falling For Rapunzel and Don’t Talk to Strangers.

Dressing The Dolphin

The children were excited to learn that I had dressed the dolphin on Friday! The dolphin was dressed as Pete The Cat! As the children cheered at the announcement, I heard things like: “I knew it was you, you like cats!” “I knew it, I just knew it, I saw the cat ears!” “I saw the little shoes and I thought to myself those have to be Brevin’s little shoes. So I knew you had dressed the dolphin!” 

Note:

-We will be taking a break from spelling next week to review the patterns and skills we have learned so far. There will be no spelling test! 

Happy Sunday! 

News You Can Use!

We had a wonderful week back after Thanksgiving break. Enjoy catching up on everything we did!

Literacy

This week, our close reading lessons focused on two books, Night of the Moon and Celebrate Diwali. After listening to Night of the Moon, the children worked on retelling the story including key details. Before, during, and after the reading of, Celebrate Diwali, the children worked with generating questions. They created a long list of questions they had about Diwali. The children answered the questions they had created and were able to support them with evidence from the text. 

Grammar Notebooks:

The children were introduced to nouns this week. They learned that a noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. The children worked with identifying and labeling different types of nouns. 

Writing:

This week, we started our letter writing unit. The children learned the five parts of a friendly letter: heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature. They learned a song to help them remember the parts, ask your child to sing you the song (it’s to the tune of The Adam’s Family). As we read the story, Dear Mr. Blueberry, the children worked together to identify the different parts of a friendly letter. On Wednesday, we wrote a friendly letter to author, Audrey Penn, author of The Kissing Hand. The children came up with lots of great ideas to include in the letter. On Friday, each child wrote their own friendly letter to author Mo Willems. The children will mail their letters at the end of next week. 

Snow Globes:

This week, the children listened to the book, The Snow Globe Family by Jane O’Connor. After, they wrote their own story about what they would do if they lived in a snow globe. The children wrote some very creative stories about life in a snow globe. They also created their own snow globe to attach their writing to. Our room now sparkles with beautiful snow globes hanging from the ceiling. 

Reindeer Application:

After listening to the book, Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight?, the children were very excited to learn that Santa was in need of a new reindeer. Each child applied to the position by filling out a reindeer application. They wrote about why they would make a good reindeer. To go along with their writing the children also turned themselves into a reindeer, complete with antlers and a shiny red nose!

Math 

This week, the children finished up Unit 3. They continued their practice with counting combinations of dimes, nickels, and pennies. On Tuesday, we had a Data Day. We created a tally chart and then turned it into a line plot. The children used the line plot to answer questions. On Wednesday, they worked with dominoes. They began by placing them in order according to their dot patterns. Then the children sorted the dominoes by even and odd numbers. After, they found the total of different dominoes using the parts and total diagram. 

The children enjoyed playing two games this week to help them apply their math skills: Coin-Dice Domino Top-It.

On Thursday, the children enjoyed using Mimio Vote to review all of the concepts they learned in Unit 3. Our room once again turned into the set of a game show as each child answered questions using their very own clicker. 

The children completed their unit 3 test on Friday. I am proud of how hard they worked on their tests. I will send home the tests next week. 

Social Studies

This week, we started our Winter Holidays unit. The children learned about how people celebrate Diwali and Eid. We read several books, and used Pebble Go to research each of the holidays. After learning about the traditions and celebrations for each holiday, the children worked together to fill in a holiday celebrations chart. 

On Tuesday, after learning about Diwali the children decorated Rangoli. We hung them on our classroom door to welcome friends and relatives into our classroom.

Star Student

Nikhil was our star student this week. Thanks Nikhil for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

A special thank you to Nikhil’s Mom, she joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children loved listening to the two stories that Mrs. Naik read, Spike’s Best Nest and Duck on a Bike.

Notes:

-Now that the weather has turned cold be sure to send your child to school each day with a warm jacket, hat, and gloves. On snowy days, please remember to also send snow pants and boots. The children will continue to go outside for recess each day, unless it is to cold. Be sure to label your child’s hat, gloves, and boots. Many children have similar items and labeling them helps to make sure each child keeps their own!

-This Friday, December 12th is Crazy Hair Day. Your child may create a “Crazy” hairstyle to wear to school!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!