HAPPY NEW YEAR! It is really beginning to feel like winter! Just a reminder to please make sure that
you send your child with mittens/gloves, hat, snowpants, and boots every day,
even if you think that they may not go outside. As long as it is not
extremely cold or raining, the children go outside everyday to play. As I
have mentioned before, if you would like your child to keep a pair of snowpants
here at school, just write me a note to let me know. If they carry their
things back and forth to school each day, a reusable grocery bag works great.
Be sure to label all of your child's clothing!
In the area of Math we have picked up right
where we left off with learning about greater #'s, less #'s, and teen numbers. We have been practicing
place value - how many bundles of 10 and how many ones? We have also reviewed ordinals, tally
marks, counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's and reading graphs. Encourage your
child to count to a specified #, such as 30. Tell them to close their
eyes, point to a # on a calendar and then begin counting with that # instead of
#1. This helps them with their # fluency and they love the challenge!
Next week we will begin talking more about counting to 100 (I know that
many of the children can already count that far!) I will be sending a 100 # grid home next week so you and your child can do this
activity with higher #'s as well. Have fun!
In our Writer's Workshop this week we have continued to
concentrate on narratives, true stories. It was quite easy for us to come
up with ideas for our stories since we just returned from our break and had
done so many fun things! We have been focusing on rereading what we have
written using our 'magic pencils', checking to make sure that our stories have
included a Who? What happened? Where? and a reaction (How we felt?).
We also discussed that every word that we write needs to have at least
one vowel in it. We do 'vowel checks' and highlight the vowels in our
words with a yellow crayon. Your children have become quite the
storytellers!
We had fun reading many books about snow this week, both fiction and non-fiction. We read many different versions of The Mitten to go along with this theme. In one of our activities we wore animal picture cards to review the order of the animals as they climbed into the mitten as portrayed in Jan Brett's version. During this activity we also reviewed ordinals and vowel work.
We also read different stories in the Snowmen at Night series. We created our own snowmen and wrote about what we would do with them if they did not melt! They are hanging in our classroom and look wonderful!
We also read different stories in the Snowmen at Night series. We created our own snowmen and wrote about what we would do with them if they did not melt! They are hanging in our classroom and look wonderful!
Thank you to Nicholas' Mom for being our Mystery Reader this week!
If you have not signed up for a parent teacher conference yet, please do so with the link below!
If you have not signed up for a parent teacher conference yet, please do so with the link below!
Conversation Starters:
- Ask your child to tell you the saying that we have been discussing all week in relation to our New Year's Resolutions in our classroom - 'Treat others as you would like to be treated'. Ask them to give you examples of how they would like to be treated, and in turn, how they treat others.
- What did you say your snowman would do with you in your writing activity?
- Ask your child about the school-wide assembly that we attended today. It was all about kindness and how to play it forward. It was wonderful!
How You Can Help:
- Be sure to send a pair of sneakers with your child if he/she wears boots to school.
- PLEASE LABEL YOUR CHILD'S COAT, SNOWPANTS, HAT, BOOTS, ETC. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
- Continue practicing your child's address and phone #'s - birthdates are almost mastered! Thank you!
- On the nights that your child is not doing their Homework Journal, be sure to fill in your child's reading log with the stories that you read together that night. When completed, be sure to send the reading log back to me. What an easy way to get a free pass to the Great Escape!
- Please be sure to send a snack with your child on the day that he/she buys.
Looking Ahead:
- Someone Special Reminder: Jake Feldman
- January 9 - Pete the Cat field trip money is due
