Friday, December 22

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and all the best in the New Year!
Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the wonderful messages, cards and gifts. You are a very thoughtful bunch.


Here are some pics from the last several days.

Monday, December 18

Tomorrow: Be ready for Field Trip to perform Christmas songs. Wear white top and black bottoms. Bring a hearty snack.

Thursday: Wear pajamas (if you want) - I'll be wearing mine!... and any Christmas hats etc. We will have our Christmas party with our buddies. We'll be playing a game, decorating gingerbread cookies, and watching a movie together.

Friday: NO SCHOOL

How good are your listening skills? Today I read a paragraph about my tree (see below). Each student was to draw what they heard. Here are some examples below.

Dear boys and girls,

On the weekend, I decorated my real Christmas tree with my family. We got it from Ikea and it’s about 7 feet tall. We put it up near our big picture window, near our fireplace and television. We decorated it with multicolor lights and both store bought and homemade ornaments. We finished it off with a sprinkling of tinsel and a blue star on top. We have a large snowman- themed skirt around the base of the tree.

Writing : We are writing a card to our buddies as well to give to them on Thursday. 

Here are some pieces of work. 

Monday, December 11

Agenda Message (There was no message written today). Most children brought home their class photo. I will also send home the concert tickets for these families tomorrow: Leuchter(4), Kley (4), Thomson (4), Brenner/SMith (4), Esson(4), Addison (4), Tomei (4), Li (4), Kirkby (4).
Sorry I didn't get them out today.

REMINDER:

- Christmas concerts: 

Tuesday - full dress rehearsal

Wednesday, 7pm - performance

Thursday 9:45am and 7pm performance

FOR TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND THURSDAY, CHILDREN NEED TO BE DRESSED IN DARK BOTTOMS AND WHITE TOP. IF ANYONE WANTS TO LEAVE THESE CLOTHES AT SCHOOL PLEASE SEND IN A BAG WITH YOUR CHILD'S NAME LABELLED ON THE CLOTHES AND I WILL HAVE THEM CHANGE AT SCHOOL.

Math: Today we worked with a partner to make a pattern. Ask your child who there partner was and what color pattern they made together. Ask your child if they can say the pattern in a different way such as 1, 2 or circle, triangle, or clap,snap. You will see their pattern at the concert on our class tree. 

Music: Today we tried our costumes for our concert when we practiced with the whole school. As well, just our class practiced with Mrs. Sorenson in the afternoon. We have improved on decorating our tree in our performance. 

Reading T.W.A.S: Today 4 students read their TWAS aloud. Thank you Catherine, Malia, Millie and Emmett. Great job! Students had the opportunity to ask a question or comment on their work. See if you child can tell the difference between a question or a comment. 

Here are some examples (QUESTION OR COMMENT?)

 1. I went to Disney World last year at March break just like Millie is planning to go to Disneyworld. 

2. I had a playdate yesterday with my friend just like Millie did. 

3. Who was the birthday for Emmett?

4. Catherine, is this the first year you had Elf On The Shelf?

5. Malia, what kind of music did you play?

Language Arts (Reading and Writing): Today we each made a rhyming book with Rudolph in it. We needed to figure out the rhyming color word that was missing in the book. Here are the pages. Practice reading at home. The book will be kept in their book box so they can reread it many times. 

Get a good nights sleep! Wash your hands! Eat well!  

The next few days are busy (and fun!)

Thursday, December 7

AGENDA MESSAGE : T.W.A.S homework. (see note below)

Gym:
Since the gym is filled with Christmas Concert 'stuff' we've been doing our best to keep active. Besides Go Noodle, we've tried Cosmic Kids Yoga. Here is a link to one we tried. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02E1468SdHg

Writing:
We are working on making our writing more 'descriptive'. So I told the students what I had inside a bag... like a banana, a bird, a stapler, a marker and scissors. Each student had a different picture of what they might look like. Then I described them better. For example, I have a small, brown wooden bird. I described the object better so the kids had a clear picture of the item and then revealed the item. TRY THIS AT HOME!

Then the kids walked around to see what their friends were wearing and described it to them. Then we talked about a few kids and wrote it on paper.

Each student was expected to write about something they were wearing. Here is some great work from that activity.

Great job!!!
Yesterday we explored what quotation marks looked like and practiced. We tried using a silly sentence like "Minions like bananas" and say it in different ways. For example, "Minions like bananas", cried Mrs. Maze. Here are some pics of us trying out quotation marks. Ask your child what they wrote. 

T.W.A.S.   This weekend your child's T.W.A.S. book is going home so you can have your child write about an event on the weekend. Next week we I will have each child read their T.W.A.S. aloud to the class. PLEASE RETURN T.W.A.S ON MONDAY. This is the writing process that we do at school: 

1. Child copies (from previous work) or sounds out own words

2. Child reads own work several times before coming to an adult

3. Child underlines words they think they may need help spelling

4. Child goes to adult and reads their work aloud

5. Adult provides spelling of words they were unsure of

6. Child can draw a picture to match what they have written

..... MORE WRITING: Today we 'brainstormed' some ideas of our favorite things. 

We came up with about 24 ideas.  Ask your child which idea they wrote (or started) to write about. 

Here was my sample 

Here are some examples of kid's work 

Here are some great workers! 

..... YES.... MORE Writing.... TODAY I ALSO ASKED THE STUDENTS TO CHOOSE 2 OF THE 6 WORDS WE WERE STUDYING AND WRITE A SENTENCE FOR EACH. HERE IS SOME OF THEIR WORK. GOOD JOB!

Homework Corner: 
I do share and display (on our class whiteboard) work that has been done at home and then it gets glued into our Visual Journals. Thanks Moms and Dads for extending your child's learning at home!

REMINDER:

- Christmas concerts: 

Tuesday - full dress rehearsal

Wednesday, 7pm - performance

Thursday 9:45am and 7pm performance

FOR TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND THURSDAY, CHILDREN NEED TO BE DRESSED IN DARK BOTTOMS AND WHITE TOP. IF ANYONE WANTS TO LEAVE THESE CLOTHES AT SCHOOL PLEASE SEND IN A BAG WITH YOUR CHILD'S NAME LABELLED ON THE CLOTHES AND I WILL HAVE THEM CHANGE AT SCHOOL.

I will be playing this video in the next week or two. Please review. It is regarding 'Tattling Vs. Telling'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6wtozIIm_I&feature=youtu.be