December 8, 2017

Dear Families,

Reminder: The children go outside to play each day if the temperature is above 0. Please remind them each morning to dress accordingly. Also, we try to teach them to put their scarves, hats and gloves either in their coat sleeves or in their backpacks as they hang up their coats, but this doesn't always happen...;)   Please teach them this trick so that we don't have missing items. 

Reminder: We need small cylinder containers (small Pringle sized) for a special project. 

Important dates: 

Wednesday, December 13th Holiday Shop @ 4:30 - 8:00 pm

Thursday, December 21st Grade Level Holiday Parties

Friday, December 22nd            Last Day of School Before Winter Break

Monday, January 8th School Resumes

Here are some highlights from our learning:

Reading- We read several articles this week and worked on Close Reading Strategies. When students are "close reading," we are focusing on finding evidence for our answers. We read an article several times in order to find and prove our answers. Often you'll see tracks of a reader written all over the page as well as highlighted vocabulary words and highlighted sentences. These are often the answers to the comprehension questions. Basically it teaches the child to go back into the text to find the answer to a question and prove it. 

Writing –  This past week, students created a paper blog and and learned about appropriate commenting. The paper blog was just an introduction to blogging as we will move on to online blogging next week. Thanks to Mrs. B. who came into our classroom to help set up our blog and help each child choose an avatar. Next week they will learn about digital citizenship and begin blogging online! After next week, kiddos can begin to blog from home. It's always fun when they begin blogging and commenting from home and great writing practice too! Shhh...don't tell them that!

Math –  We continued learning about time with lesson 4.2 & 4.3, and place value and using place value to compare numbers in lesson 4.4 and 4.5  Next week, we will complete lessons 4.6-4.9. We highly suggest you do the homelinks, practice IXL, and find some fun apps to continue working on TIME at home.  

     
                                      

Social Studies- We continued working on our welcome packets for new students who move to our school. 

Mindfulness- Ms. Carol taught us about how being mindful helps us understand the difference between wants and needs.  She read a book titled "Those Shoes" by Maribeth Boelts which discusses the difference between wanting and needing something. We then talked about the differences. Ask your child to show you how mindfulness can help anyone in a stressful situation!

Reminder:
Please send 2 healthy snacks only! No candy, chocolate bars, cupcakes, or sugary items. Children will be asked to put those items away. Thanks for your cooperation:)

Have a great weekend!