First Week of December

We began a three week theme called, "Festivals of Light." The first holiday we looked in to was Hanukkah. Hanukkah on this year's calendar is December 1-9th. We read about this Jewish tradition and the menorah. The students really enjoy history related to these traditions. Your child will bring home the packet at the end of the three weeks. You'll have time to look through it over the Christmas break.

In computer we played some Hanukkah games on http://www.primarygames.com/. Your child enjoyed them. Go to the website and find "holidays" and then scroll to Hanukkah. With your help they can show you how to play.

We love our helpers that put up our bulletin boards, cut out a million pieces of construction paper, and put things in cubbies. Our favorite part however, is when we have the helper read a book to the class. They love to hear other adult voices throughout the day. Megan's mom read the ending to our Thanksgiving book right before the break. We also read Greg Mortenson's child version of Three Cups of Tea called Listen to the Wind. I highly recommend the book.

In Math the students are receiving small group, independent practice, and working collaboratively to review and practice previous taught skills. It mirrors what we do in literature block. We are able to observe, provide assistance, and extend students where needed and provide differentiation. This is our shcool wide focus so we can see higher academic achievement. We are moving on to subtraction. If you are looking for a Christmas gift, remember a number line is always great to have at home. One that they can move a marker as they add and subtract.

This week again we talked about commas. As we are learning what makes a good sentence, we need punctuation reminders. We will continue and expand our knowledge of which words are capitalized when writing sentences. During their spelling word excercises they can practice using the correct capitalization.
The spelling tests have been SOOOOOO wonderful. Keep up the good work with your child. We are very proud of their diligence with homework. One child said this week, "it's all great in first but homework."

Spelling words for next Friday's test: girl, good, not, mother, has, two, saw, ran, one, out, Challenge: menorah, Hanukkah, kinara, Kwanzaa

Dates to Remember:

December 8th: Feild Trip Permission slip due

December 9th: Book Orders due on line

December 10th: Paul Messner Puppets: Nativity

December 10th: Books in a bag due again!!!

December 16th: 1st and 2nd grade program

Kathleen Wiedeman and Catina Taylor