November 18th News

Please check your child’s backpack today for some special items that they will want to share with you. This week we wrote acrostic poems based on “Thank You’s” from around the world. This project required a lot of thought and problem solving. The children had to first think of what they were thankful for, then figure out how to make it work with the letters of the word. We found that adding descriptive words let us make the words fit, and also made our writing more interesting. The poems are very special, so be sure to have your child read it to you.
Also coming home today is another project for our family studies. I am sending home a family history packet for you and your child to work on together. This is a great opportunity to share family stories and reflect on those things that make your family special. We will be sharing these books with the class as they are completed and returned. All of the directions are in the book. On some pages the writing may be difficult for your child to do independently, so feel free to help with writing as needed. Thanksgiving break can be a great time to work on them.
Also coming home today (or yesterday for a few of the kids) are place mat projects that were created as part of our Art Docent’s lesson on decorative arts that we find around our homes. We looked at examples of table settings in art and at beautiful place settings from museums. The children really enjoyed creating their own, and can even use the place mats to help with family dinner table setting.
For our next art project we will need some canning or jam jars. Please send in one or two carefully wrapped jars for our art docent lesson on December 16th.
Please let me know if you didn’t receive an information form with attached envelope regarding our grandparent letters. I found a few on the floor after they went home last week, so I know a few families are missing them. We will be writing our grandparent letters right after Thanksgiving break.
If you will be traveling for Thanksgiving, and will be missing any school days, lease let the office know.
Specialist schedule:
This Week:
Monday Art
Tuesday P.E.
Wednesday Music

Next Week:
Monday Art
Tuesday P.E.
Wednesday Library
Thursday Art
Friday P.E.

One of our favorite things to do is read with a partner. We sit elbow to elbow and knee to knee. We take turns reading as we put the book betwen us and point so our friend can follow along. And we get to hear LOTS of stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are a few of class members showing you the hard work they put into that careful drawing.

 

 

 

 

Zoo Photos

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Creative and Scientific Drawings

In order to get us thinking about how to record scientific information we drew creative drawings of plants with no limits to the imagination......

And observational drawings from a nature hunt in our courtyard.

Both types of drawing came out so beautiful, that I wanted to share them with you.

November 14th News

Today in class we read “When I Was Young In The Mountains”, a beautiful book by Cynthia Rylant about family stories. Today in your child’s backpack you should have found some information about our next social studies activity. We will be studying family traditions by writing to a grandparent. Please send the completed envelope and name slip back to school as soon as possible. When the responses come back, we will share them with the class. Please remember to put your return address on the envelope as well. If your child has more than one grandparent that he/she would like to write to, I would be happy to send home a copy of the letter we will be using as a guide. My hope is that this will spark the telling of many family stories.
Also, don’t forget to keep sending in those family photos. We have been enjoying the pictures that have come in so far.
The children wanted to make sure I let you know about another math website we have tried and enjoyed. There are both math and literacy activities at this site. Since it is a BBC site, there are some difficulties with the measurement and coin sections, but the kids still enjoy trying. You can find it at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/numeracy/
Don’t forget to check out the Halloween photos I posted last week.

A digital slideshow by Smilebox

November 3rd News

Thank you all for your help making our Halloween party a success.  We were able to dress up, join the parade, decorate and eat snacks, and play a game while both having fun and keeping our “engines” at a nice, gentle hum.  Perfect!

Please welcome our new student, Clark, who has recently returned from England. We are so excited to have him join us!

          We are beginning our social studies unit in which we learn, write, and share about our families.  To get out thinking started, please send in a family photo to be displayed in the classroom as we talk about our “family trees”.  You can choose one photo, or a compilation of a few to display together.   We will share these photos with the class, and then display them in the room.  The photos will be returned to you at the end of the unit.

If you are looking for some extra math practice to try at home, your child can be practicing rote counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s up to and past 100, as well as counting backwards starting at numbers past 20. It is always a good idea to continue practicing addition and subtraction facts to 12.  There are fun math games available on the following website

          http://www.fun4thebrain.com/

If you are in the building, stop by and check out our animal research posters and books.  The children each picked an animal to focus on at the zoo, and returned to write and draw what they learned.  We also researched animals using classroom books, with follow up research done in the computer lab using “Pebble Go”.  The students did a great job gathering, organizing and presenting their information.

All of our animal research this week gave us an opportunity to learn about nonfiction text features.  We have learned about captions, labels, maps, and glossaries.  We even had an opportunity to apply our knowledge of labels while doing our scientific drawing this yesterday.

Book order forms are coming home today.  I will close the order on the 16^th, in order to be sure to get them home by the holidays.  Also, if you ordered last time, I apparently send home$3.00 coupons with your orders that are only for teacher use.  If you still have it and would like to send it back, I’ll order some more books for the classroom.