Weekly News

IMPORTANT DATES

·  Friday, December 21^st: Winter Vacation begins at 2:20 pm. This is a full school day. Lunch is served.

WELCOME SMARTBOARD

After a whirlwind day on Tuesday, our SmartBoard was installed. We hit the ground running and have used this technology for 2-3 activities a day, including: attendance, math games, viewing presentations, and the ever-exciting “Dino Stomp” dance! We are still learning the ins and outs of this technology so some activities go more smoothly than others. But the children love seeing things on the big screen and it is especially fun to come up to the screen and move things around. Stay tuned for more updates and activities.

FAMILY BREAKFAST

We will celebrate all of the great work in 1MC with a family breakfast in January. The breakfast will be held on a Thursday morning from 8-8:45. This will be an opportunity for your child to show you around the classroom and to share their great work with you. Any important people (parents, grandparents, siblings, babysitters) are invited. If you are unable to attend, please let us know and we will be sure to invite a special teacher for your child to share his or her accomplishments with. (Exact date to be confirmed and a breakfast sign-up sheet will also follow).

COLD WEATHER and SLIPPERS

We will go outside for recess every day, unless it is raining. As the weather gets colder, please be sure to send appropriate outdoor clothing. This currently includes sweatshirts, jackets, and sometimes rain boots. In the winter, this will include heavy winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, boots and snow pants.

Also, during the chilly boot-weather months, it is an option to bring slippers (with rubber, non-slip soles) to school. This will make for easy indoor-outdoor transitions, and give a warm and cozy feeling to the day. Your child is welcome to bring slippers (labeled with his or her name) and leave them in the classroom rather than take them home every day. We will have a place in the classroom to store slippers instead of leaving them in cubbies overnight.

   

If your child is missing a jacket or sweatshirt, please check the school Lost and Found, across the hall from the Main office.

THANK YOU

A big thank you to Roy and his family for sharing Dreidels and Chocolate coins with us. We had such a fun time learning about this Hannukah tradition and playing the game with partners. Many children who were familiar with the game made excellent partners for children just learning the game.

MATH

We continued working with word problems and practicing our addition and subtraction skills this week. We also began to explore U.S. coins, starting with the penny. For projects, we observed pennies closely using a jewelers loupe (a magnifying tool). We notices the details of the coin. We also discussed that a penny is worth 1 cent, so it you have 5 pennies, you have 5 cents, or 3 pennies = 3 cents. We will learn about nickels this week.

WORD WALL WORDS:

Last week’s words:   no  come    kick     black    clock

This week, three of our Word Wall Words have a ck at the end. We learned that these two letters stick together to make the “k” sound.  

This week’s words:   with     that     this      she      he

This week, we will focus on words with CH, SH, TH, and WH. We will talk about how the “h” changes the sound of the letter.            

SCIENCE

During projects last week, we explored the different materials that light can or cannot show through. On Friday, began to learn about shadows by reading MoonBear’s Shadow. We discussed that in order to make a shadow you need a light source (like the sun or a light) and an object to block the light. We also used the SmartBoard and the website: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/light_shadows.swf to explore what happens to the size and shape of a shadow as the light source moves. This week, we will continue to explore shadows and how shadows can change.

COMMUNITY

The Devotion Calendar went off to print on Friday. We should receive finished calendars at the end of this week and they will be distributed at the beginning of next week.

Devotion Calendar order forms went home this week. Order forms can be turned in to the classroom or the main office. If you need additional order forms, just let us know. Calendars for $5 each and all profits will be donated to Heifer International.

Last week, we read Beatrice’s Goat, which illustrates how giving one goat to one family can impact a whole town! During projects, students discussed and illustrated ways that on goat helped Beatrice’s family in big ways! Beatrice’s family got milk to drink from the goat. They sold the extra milk to other families and earned money. The goat also had 2 babies that Beatrice’s family sold to other families in their village. With that money, Beatrice’s family could buy clothes and supplies so that she could go to school. They also made enough money to replace their straw roof with a steel roof to keep the rain out.

VACATIONS and APPOINTMENTS

It is very helpful for us to know ahead of time if your child will be out of school. Please let us know if you will be taking a trip and missing school or if your child will be coming in late due to an appointment. 

ASK YOUR CHILD…

These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.

·  How did the goat help Beatrice’s family?

·  What songs did we sing in Music class this week?

·  What was your favorite activity on the SmartBoard so far?