1MC WEEKLY NEWS ~

IMPORTANT DATES
•    Friday, December 23rd: Winter Vacation begins at 2:20 pm. This is a full school day. Lunch is served. See you in 2012!
•    Tuesday, January 3rd: School resumes. Full day.
•    Thursday, January 12th: (tentative) 1MC family breakfast, 8-8:45 am,

MARBLE JAR CELEBRATION!
We are very close to filling our Community Marble Jar. Children have been able to put marbles in the jar following smooth transitions, positive group work, and group teamwork. This is a huge accomplishment that we have been working towards since October. The class has really worked hard at building a caring community. In celebration of this, we will have a celebration, likely on Tuesday or Thursday. We will talk about ideas for this celebration once we fill the jar. Celebrations in the past have included pajama days, movies, pizza party, extra choice time or recess…. We will talk as a class about these options and vote on 2-3 ways to celebrate. More information to follow. We will start fresh filling a new marble jar after vacation.

MATH
This week wrapped up chapter 4 of the Think Math curriculum and we began chapter 5. In chapter 5 his chapter, we will explore the concept of “tens and some ones,” so we will use manipulatives to explore the actual amount that numbers represent and so make numbers in a variety of ways. We will also practice using and counting dimes, and we will learn about telling time to the half hour.

FAMILY BREAKFAST
We are tentatively planning a family breakfast for Thursday, January 12, 2012 from 8-8:45 am. Parents, grandparents, siblings, and other important family members or friends are invited. This will be an opportunity for your child to show you around our classroom room, read to you, and share their portfolios and journals with you.  The children are so proud of their work and our community. Hopefully, you’ll be able to join us. Please let us know if you plan to be out of town or have an appointment already scheduled. After winter break, we will post a list for families to sign-up to bring items or food for the breakfast.

WRITING
This week, we finished out Gingerbread stories. We also continued our Weekly Writing and journal writing. We began using a 10 minute sand timer to have a visual for our writing time. During writing, we focus on writing for the full time. We try our best with spelling, and if we think we finish before the 10 minutes is up, we go back and find places to add details to our writing or illustration.


COMMUNITY
This week we looked at map of Coolidge Corner. We searched for stores, restaurants, and streets.  We also looked at a map of Coolidge Corner in 1888 and compared it to a present day map of Coolidge Corner. We noticed streets that we’re the same and streets that have changed. We speculated reasons why Coolidge Corned has changed over time. Some ideas included: more people moved here, we needed more ways to get around, we needed more space to build houses and stores, and more people use cars now.

We will talk a lot our Winter Holidays next week. We will begin our China and Chinese New Year unit following winter break!

ASK YOUR CHILD…
These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.
•    What was one of the places you found on the Brookline Map?
•    What are some things the class has done to earn marbles?
•    What are some of the rules for Writing Time?