**Our Annual Gingerbread Making, Baking and Sharing was a smash! We could not have done it with out the last minute effort by Lily and Jeanette's mom to secure volunteers! A HUGE SHOUT OUT to her! Thanks to J. Flannery, C. Horwitz and Jackson's aunt for their super needed help! The students were charged with enthusiasm and creativity. Some students spent lots of time on details. Others, the more sprinkles....the better. Such works of art. We bagged some of our own and shared some with our table friends. Yum! Yum!
**If you have a family tradition or celebration you would like to speak about--email me to set up a day and time. We have speakers for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. Because of the size of our auditorium, there will be 2 performances--the first being at 8:15 am---the second at 9:30 am. There will be a reception in our classroom after each performance. Stop by our classroom for refreshments and conversation.
**Report Cards for the Trimester One are in your child's homework folder. Please email me with any questions you may have. The students portfolios from Mr. Packer's class are also included.
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSESSMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special vocabulary. (It is also at the back of the assignment.) Parents can assist with source info and evidence finding but the STUDENTS will write and illustrate. Parents an assist with helping to sound out words too! The project is due December 22nd.
**The Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair was great! There were many items made and sold by students and lots of great buys!
**Please let me know if your child is traveling during winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for your child to write and draw about their experiences.
**We will be getting together with our Book Buddies on Friday, December 23rd. The 5th graders have planned a project with our kinders! They will be making a getting to know you movie trailer. Stay tuned. We will also be celebrating the beginning of 2017.
**Our Student Council reps, Alec and Julianna reported on their next project--Secret Snowflakes! Each class will get a class to do some special things for during our last week of school before break. Stay tuned!!
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students continued to focus on feelings.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bey Bey conducted a voting session to see what the students wanted to do for their last Friday class before break. Outside recess won!!!
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, the students continued work on using shapes in different ways.
**No School-Winter Break-December 24th-January 8th. School resumes on Monday, January 9th.
This week:
The students ended their study of bears by forming their question for their research project and making and baking Bear Paw Snacks with home made butter. What a treat! The students discussed all things gingerbread. We will be reading a number of gingerbread stories in the next two weeks and examining/comparing/contrasting the characters, setting and main events in the stories. There will be a writing project connected to our gingerbread study. The students also shared a family tradition at holiday time with each other. I recorded their words. Our celebration table is now set up with many artifacts and information on the winter celebrations around the world.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work on Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. We revisited the test,"Duck on a Bike" and the companion book, "Duck on a Tractor." Students identified characters, setting and main events in both stories. They took a closer look at story organization--beginning, middle and end. The students reviewed target sound of short Ii and used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 3-4 sound words. The students worked with partners to create noun/verb sentences using words and pictures. Now that the students are reading simple texts, they are working on how they read. Is it choppy or smooth?? The students were introduced to the Reader's Checklist so they can begin to monitor their own reading fluency. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students continue word work on CVC, consonant blends and digraphs in words and short vowel words. Workstations this week included work on leveled readers on fluency and main ideas, working on a story elements butterfly, creating retelling cards, word work on substituting sounds, CVC beginning and ending sheet, sentence building, using go and see in a sentence with an illustration and writing a sentence about the vehicle of your choice.
Math: The students continue work on Module 2-The Study of Shapes in our Eureka Math series. They classified and compared 2D and 3D shapes and explored creating 2D and 3D shapes using magnetos, straws and pipe cleaners, blocks, string and connexts. The students created a "Shape Museum" to display some of their structures. We continue work in our calendar books including--counting by 10's, hidden partners to 10, counting on from a target number, number writing, work on weather, temperature and comparing numbers. Math workstations this week included reckenrek activities (composing and decomposing numbers) skip counting, addition and subtraction processes and writing 2 digit numbers.
Writing: The students completed work on uppercase letter formation. They practice on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We will begin lowercase formation study next week. In Writer's Workshop this week, the lessons focused on how to make a story better. They can revise their story adding more details--using their question words--adding more to their drawings etc. Each students chose a story they had worked on and looked at it again. We worked on the idea of using scrolls or flaps to add more. The students chatted with their writing partner about their revision ideas. We also had a discussion about the job of a writing partner--making suggestions, helping with sounding out but not writing or spelling it for their partner. Being a writing partner can make both student and their partner better writers.
Science: We have put our last investigation on hold until next week.
Technology: In reading whole group this week, the students worked on the app Oz Phonics to reinforce word order, blends and digraphs and blending and segmenting 3-4 wounds words. In math whole group, students worked on the app Geoboard to work on shape construction.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations," "The Gingerbread Boy," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Man," "Time to Sleep," "Hibernation Station," "Zero Is the Number of Leaves on the Tree."
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