Newsletter 12/22

We had so many special activities this week and we were very busy making treats for loved ones!

We attended the school holiday concert on Tuesday and the school-wide sing on Friday morning.  We finished making our gifts for our families, our own wrapping paper, and cards, too!  Our buddies visited to make holiday place mats and then we played with them outside.

We generated ideas on how to celebrate having collected the most pajamas for our PJ drive.  Then we took a vote and EXTRA RECESS won by a small margin!  We'll be having that fun in the new year.

We read our next Peter adventure, A Whistle for Willie and we learned more about Peter's character.  We saw that he shares some of the same character traits from The Snowy Day, but is growing up a bit.

We collected December's weather data and examined the temperature.  We are finally having "blue" days- and SNOW!   Happy winter, Everyone!

Wishing you and yours a blessed holiday and a fun vacation!

News and Notes:

• We will be filling our book sleeves again on FRIDAY 1/5.  Students may keep those books until 1/15.
• Shh... it's a secret, but when we return, the Darien Nature Center will come in to teach us about animals in winter!
• Back to school on Wednesday, 1/3

Buddy fun!

Our Music teacher band rocking out!

Our all school sing!

Newsletter and Polar Express Day!

We are having so much fun in school these days!  Many exciting things are going on!

We graduated from the Super Reader unit this week, and we met Super Reader himself!  We went to the Common Room for a ceremony to celebrate and he gave us certificates!  See photos below.  This week, we learned that partners, AND PARENTS, give reminders to their reader buddy to use their powers.  If a friend is stuck and the picture will help, we can say "Activate Picture Power!", etc.  Helpful partners give hints and prompts when their peer is stuck, and they tell their peer the tricky word only as a last resort.

We also studied "Jingle Bells" this week.  We had a big discussion about the vocabulary.  What is a one-horse open sleigh? What are bobtails?  What's happening in the poem?  Then, we met the King of ING, who taught out about the "ing" sound.  We searched for words that contain "ing" within the poem, and then listed a few more, too!

We began our study of Ezra Jack Keats' character Peter, who is in many of his books.  We will be reading all of the stories that have Peter in them, watching him grow as a character.  We began with Snowy Day and, on the day of the snowy morning, we made a matching craft.

In Writing Workshop this week we reviewed important parts of a narrative story.  We checked our pieces against a checklist: does my story tell the reader who was there, where we were, what we did and how I felt?  We also wrote a class book to give to Luke as a goodbye present.

We continued our unit on patterns in math.  This week, we played a game called "What Comes Next?" and another called "Break the Train".  We made pattern "trains" with cubes and tried to break them up into "cars" (repeating units).  Then, we recorded our work.

We learned about Hanukkah this week and are lighting our classroom menorah each day.

On Polar Express Day, we made our own versions of the book, painted our own silver bells, then we cuddled up and watched the book being read.  We had fun singing "Jingle Bells" and ringing our silver bells!

Great news!  Our class collected the MOST pajamas for our K donation! Thank you again for your generosity.
News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due on Monday.  We will NOT be bringing home new books next week.  We are taking inventory and will start fresh in January.  Please be sure to send all book sleeves in before vacation.
• Please let me know if your child will be leaving for vacation early next week.  I want to make sure everyone gets his/her holiday treats!
• Don't forget to send in sneakers on days when your child wears boots to school.  Students must have sneakers to participate in P.E.

Thank you for the play dough, Mrs. Blair!

Reading new sight words in a holiday book

Guess what comes next!

Breaking the "train" into "cars"

Our Reading Graduation Ceremony

Reader Man gave us certificates!

The Snowy Day

Silver Bells

Trains from Mrs. Henry's house!!!!

Cuddling up for The Polar Express

WOW!

Newsletter12/7

We activated Book Talk Power in Reading Workshop this week!  Super Readers don't just read books, they talk about books, too!  We learned how to examine how the pages of a book go together.  Then, we can introduce the book to others before we read it!  Try this with your child at home.  A good model is: "This book is called_____, and on every page ____."   BUT, don't give away the ending!  We also practiced retelling stories across our fingers after we've read them.

We are working so hard to make our writing readable!  Super Reader himself can read our pieces (he comes to school in the evening sometimes and visits Mrs. Henry).  This week, we focused on using capitals to begin a sentence and using punctuation to end a sentence.

In math this week we worked with pairs.  What is a pair?  What pairs do we see in our lives?  Then, we turned a ten-frame on its side and used it "pair wise".  This helps us count by pairs.  We heard various stories about pairs and tried to figure out the total (i.e. "If Mrs. Henry has 3 pairs of mittens, how many mittens does she have?").  This was tough work!  

We read an amazing book this week called Nana in the City.  Check it out at the library if you can.  We noticed more and more as we re-read the story and it lead to very interesting conversations!

News and Notes:

• Scholastic orders for this month must be placed by 3:45 on Friday 12/8
• Book sleeves are due on Monday.
• Pajama Drive ends 12/15
• Please let me know if you would like another copy of our tradition candle to do with your child.
• Next Friday is POLAR EXPRESS DAY!  Celebrate this beloved book (and the end of the PJ drive) by wearing your favorite winter pajamas to school!  No slippers, please.  Also, bring in a small blankie or towel to curl up with as the book is read.
• Please let me know if your child will be leaving for the holiday vacation early

Hour of Code

We celebrated Hour of Code with our buddies today!  Everyone coded in the Library.  Check out Mrs. Tabaka's amazing library website for coding activities for your child.  Everyone enjoyed themselves.  Click this link to find the fun:
Mrs. Tabaka's Coding Resources

Newsletter 12/1

Happy December!

We set up our new calendar today and discussed all the exciting events to come this month.

In Reading Workshop, we "shopped" for Just Right books for the first time this week.  We learned new reading routines: sitting back-to-back for private reading and then hip-to-hip for partner reading.  We also learned the difference between a Just Right book and a "Look Book" (that is too hard to read independently, but a good book just the same).  We also learned that Super Readers pay attention to punctuation while reading.  We hunted for punctuation marks and had fun adjusting our voices to reflect the marks. 

We read two versions of The Gingerbread Boy, compared them, and then gingerbread kids of our own!

In Writing Workshop, we went through our old writing to see what we could re-read and what we couldn't.  Then, we made a chart listing what makes our writing readable.  We are using this chart to guide us every day.  We also learned that authors are constantly rereading their sentences and a pencil can be like a magic wand!  An eraser helps be a pointer for rereading and then we flip the pencil to write the next word!

In math, we continued to examine, form and extend patterns using various tools.  We played a game with a partner called "What comes next?" and we made pattern snakes to display.  We also played many math games with our Gaming volunteers on Wednesday.  THANK YOU so much for coming in!

We had an amazing assembly this week by a group called Infinite Roots.  Ask your child about the drumming! 

In our science lessons, we gathered November's weather data and discussed what "unseasonable" weather is.  We had an "unseasonably warm" November!

We did a Second Steps lesson in social studies this week and we learned how looking at a friend's facial expression AND paying attention to the situation, can help you understand how another is feeling.  We played a game called "What's My Feeling?" to work on these skills. 

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due Monday.  All students who return their book sleeves will receive new books.
• Our pajama drive continues through the 15th.  Please consider sending in new pjs for local children in need.
• Please pack a snack every day next week.  The cafeteria will not be selling snack.

Math games

Building and extending patterns

Our current anchor chart for Writing Workshop

Infinite Roots assembly

Sitting back-to-back and reading Just Right books

Rereading with a pointer finger

November's most popular pies!  Collecting and organizing data

sight word practice

Different ways to make a sum of five

Letter story puzzles

Some of our pattern snakes!