Festivals of Light! The week of ...... KWANZAA!

Welcome to the week of Kwanzaa! We have had so much fun as we explored the holiday tradition of Kwanzaa. Miss Fate has lead the children in Social Studies this week as the learned about the seven principles of Kwanzaa. This is hard to understand. In TNT this week the students weaved their very own Kwanzaa Mat during which time they honed up on their weaving skills. As Mrs. Waller approached Gibbs to help, he stated, "It has been a long time since I have weaved!" Later, Miss Fate had the students make a Kwanzaa Quilt which illustrated the seven principles in greater detail and related these principles to the students, themselves. With this quilt Miss Fate "sewed" up their knowledge and deepened their understanding of this celebration.

In centers this week Mrs. Waller started the children in new reading books. We focused a lot on "What GREAT Readers Do!" We had a blast as we recorded the pictures that formed in our heads as we read the authors words. We also talked about making connection linking the text to ourselves, other books we have read and the world around us. It is so much fun working with your children. They are all such amazing readers!

Miss Fate introduced Mountain Language which reviews all concepts of grammar and language. The Mountain Language problems change daily but the answer sheet stays the same, as a result different skills are practiced from day to day. Eventually the students will complete Mountain Language independently.

The children continue to work on their spelling, handwriting, grammar skills and creativity daily in centers. The children illustrated their own face which has been posted on our bulletin board which will complete our holiday choir scene. Spelling words were written in a Kwanzaa unity cup as well as on dry erase white boards. The students made their own Memory Book cover using symbols from each of our various themes. They are learning and growing every day! It is so fun to watch.

In Math, Miss Fate continued her work with Cuisenaire Rods as the children played a game of rod war! The child with the most rods and longest train won the game!

Mrs. Waller continued her work with the missing addend. As a part of her lessons, she introduced the abacus to everyone! This provides the children with another tool to help them discover the missing addend. She presented a PowerPoint which included two other strategies to help with this concept. The children used their frog number lines to help with this. On the final day, the students created their own missing addend booklet, coming up with a sum on their own which they placed on the cover of the book, then they used colored dot stickers to represent the equation on the inside of the booklet. The students shared their book with the class, showing only one part of the equation. The audience had to come up with the missing addend. We had a blast! The children now have several strategies to use when trying to discover missing addends and they have a great understanding of this concept.

Miss Fate and Miss Waller want you to know that we work really hard to not only teach your children the basic concepts that need to be learned in the first grade, but to deepen their understanding of these concepts as well. It is important that we go further than the surface of these concepts so that your children truly understand why the reasons for learning what they are learning and that they can apply their knowledge in many different ways!

In computer lab the children visited Primarygames.com to play Kwanzaa games and other activities.

Hand-On Science was a hit, yet again. The children were shown 3 white pipe cleaners, borax, a string, a pencil, a jar, and water. They were then asked to illustrate what they thought they could use these items to make. Their ideas were fabulous! Mrs. Waller then created a star with the pipe cleaners, tied it to the pencil, hung the star in the jar full of hot water and added borax and blue food coloring. The children have predicted what they think is going to happen.......it is now the afternoon, we are still waiting. Stay tuned!

Quote of the week from all of your children: "It wasn't me." (found on Davis' shirt) We thought this was hilarious, yet appropriate at the same time! Thanks for making us laugh!

Our new theme next week is Hanukkah!!!! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Miss Fate & Mrs. Waller

The spelling words for next week:

Word List: girl, good, not, mother, has, two, saw, ran, one, out

Challenge Words: menorah, kinara, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah

Reminders:

Shoebox Christmas: Bring in Shampoo

Next spelling packet and test: December 10th

Permission Slips for Paul Messner Puppets due December 8th

Book Orders Online due December 9th

Field Trip to the Paul Mesner Puppets: December 10th

Books in a Bag due: December 17th or if they want to bring them in earlier that is fine

Music Program: December: 16th

Talent show TBA: December 16th