December 8-12

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Tonight is the Winter Concert!  The concert will be at the Middle School.  Kindergarten performs at 6:00, first grade performs at 6:30, and second grade performs at 6:45.  Hope to see you there!

Today the playdate contact list went home with your child.  If you are not on the list and would like to be added to it, please let me know.  I’ll add you to the list and send out a new copy.

This Wednesday is an early release day!  This time, we will be wearing hats to show our school spirit.  Students are dismissed at 1:00.  Please plan accordingly.

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please remind your child to put their homework packet in their backpack on Wednesday evening.  Remember... no homework packet = no free choice Friday!

Please remember send your child to school with their coat, snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens.  They need these things to be able to play at recess and earned time.

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are working with the long /e/ sound with the following spelling patterns:  e, ee, ea, and y.  Here are our focus words:  eat, mean, leaf, queen, need, seek, baby, pony, he, and we.

Spelling:  This week we will work on units 10 and 11.  Here are our words:  made, over, did, down, only, way, find, use, may, and water.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  swung, attached, gasped, breathe, frantically, and delicious.  We will define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we will search for them in a short story called “The Story of the Giant Carrot” by Rosa Manuel.

Comprehension:  This week we will be exploring the world of cause and effect.  The effect is what happens in a story and a cause is why something happens.  When we read, we’ll be asking ourselves:  What happened?  Why did it happen?  We’ll practice this skill while we read Head, Body, Legs, a story retold by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert.

Grammar:  We will work with action verbs this week.  Action verbs are words that tell what someone or something is doing.  Here are some examples:  walks, opens, sits, eats, and sleeps.

Writing:  We will begin writing a persuasive letter.  A persuasive letter is a letter that gives the writer’s opinion.  It has facts, reasons, or examples to support their opinion.  

Read Aloud:  We have begun a new adventure!  Today, we entered into the world of... The Nutcracker!  We are so excited about our classic holiday adventure.

Scholastic News:  With the temperatures we had this morning, we definitely know that winter is upon us!  This week’s issue is about the snowshoe hare, an animal who not only changes it’s habitat when the season changes but also changes itself!  When we finish reading the article, we’ll use a diagram of the inside of a chipmunk burrow to answer questions.

Science:  We will continue to work on our matter unit.  This week, we will have some more practice classifying matter as a solid, liquid, or gas.  

Math:  This week we will continue to work on time, money, and place value.  We’ll practice reading clocks with our class manipulatives and our clock buddies.  We’ll also have some practice on IXL.  To practice money, we’ll play collect 50¢.  It’s a great game that has us identifying coins and their values as well as adding them together.  We also practice trading coins of equal values.  To practice place value, we’ll introduce three new games this week that focus on place value skills and a place value tool... the hundreds chart!  

Have a wonderful week!