Winter Break!

Focus on Curriculum            

December 20, 2013       

Jolly Phonics:  This week I introduced the letter combination oo.  Now we know the sounds of the letters: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, j, ai, oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, v, y, x, and oo.  We like to sing songs and do actions for each sound to help us remember them.  Remember to review the sounds we have learned in the letter and sound packet, which shows all the motions and sounds used to make each letter of the alphabet that we will learn this year.  It is for your reference so you can practice with your children as we learn each new letter and the sound of that letter.

Reading:  This week was Gingerbread Week.    We read many books about our new friend the Gingerbread Man, who mysteriously ran away from our classroom.  We read the books The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Pirates, The Gingerbread Cowboy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Man is Loose in the School to try and get clues of where our new friend went.  The Gingerbread Man also left us clues to where he might be.  We even made Gingerbread friends in hopes that he returns.  Along with reading those books and gingerbread activities we did many other fun holiday activities.  We read stories about the Gingerbread Man’s friends, Pete the Cat, Mooseltoe, and The Littlest Elf.  The students created their own Rudolph bag and we put Reindeer food inside to prepare for the upcoming holidays.

Popcorn Words:  This week we cut out the popcorn words go, no and so and glued them in our spirals. We now have thirty one words and they are: I, a, it, in, see, big, my, like, up, run, on, at, we, me, am, did, not, is, can, but, to, too, ran, into, for, little, and, yes, go, no, and so. Our spirals are going home today.  We are going to keep our spirals in the front sleeve of our green folder so we can practice our words at school and at home.  Please remind your child to bring their popcorn word spirals to school everyday.  Please practice the popcorn words with your child at home.

Math: We continued our counting and numbers units.  We continued counting to 100 and counting by tens to 100. We did math activities that included our gingerbread man.  

Writing:  We wrote about our star of the week.  

You would never guess it but our new friend the Gingerbread Man did return on Friday morning just in time for our Holiday Party.

I want to wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday season and best wishes for the New Year!

Remember:

Winter Break is December 23, 2013- January 5, 2014.  School resumes Monday January 6, 2014

Read to your child every night!

Do not forgot to place your Scholastic book orders.

 Remember to read for Six Flags Great America reading program!

Bring Library Books on Mondays and Wednesday * New Library Days

We have gym everyday.  Please remember your gym shoes.

Please check the green folder daily.

Turn in Box Tops to earn money for our school! - The class with the most box tops wins a pizza party at the end of the year.

Brr It's Cold!

Focus on Curriculum            

December 13, 2013

Handwriting Without Tears:  We wrote in our handwriting book.  We started writing our lower case letters c and o                   

Jolly Phonics:  This week I introduced the letters y and x.  For the letter y we pretend we are eating yogurt and the letter x we pretend we are looking through an x-ray camera.  Now we know the sounds of the letters: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, j, ai, oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, v, y and x.  We like to sing songs and do actions for each sound to help us remember them.  Remember to review the sounds we have learned in the letter and sound packet, which shows all the motions and sounds used to make each letter of the alphabet that we will learn this year.  It is for your reference so you can practice with your children as we learn each new letter and the sound of that letter.

Reading:  We read Charlie Needs a Cloak.  We also continued reading some Holiday books such as The Biggest, Best Snowman!   We also read are very own small book Foods I Like.  Please ask your child to read these books to you.

Popcorn Words:  This week we cut out the popcorn words little, and and yes and glued them in our spirals. We now have twenty eight words and they are: I, a, it, in, see, big, my, like, up, run, on, at, we, me, am, did, not, is, can, but, to, too, ran, into, for, little, and, yes. Our spirals are going home today.  We are going to keep our spirals in the front sleeve of our green folder so we can practice our words at school and at home.  Please remind your child to bring their popcorn word spirals to school everyday.  Please practice the popcorn words with your child at home.

Math: We continued our counting and numbers units.  We continued counting to 100 and counting by tens to 100.  We started working with the terms, same, more, and fewer.  We will be starting to use the terms greater than and less than.  We also did a snowflake sequencing activity in which we had to put snowflakes in the correct number order from zero through twenty.  

Writing:  We wrote about our star of the week.  We also wrote in our very own “and” book.

Social Studies: We finished our Junior Achievement program.

Next week we will be doing gingerbread activities.  Some will include reading gingerbread stories and searching for a gingerbread man who ran away inside our school.

Remember:

Tuesday December 17^th is a half-day.  Dismissal is 12 noon.  If you are picking up your child pick-up will be 12:10 P.M.

Friday December 20^th is our Holiday Party. Please do not send treats to school.  The party planners will provide sufficient snacks and entertainment for our party.

Winter Break is December 23, 2013- January 5, 2014.  School resumes Monday January 6, 2014

Read to your child every night!

 Please sign and return report card envelopes.

Do not forgot to place your Scholastic book orders.

 Remember to read for Six Flags Great America reading program!

Bring Library Books on Mondays and Wednesday * New Library Days

We have gym everyday.  Please remember your gym shoes.

Please check the green folder daily.

Turn in Box Tops to earn money for our school! - The class with the most box tops wins a pizza party at the end of the year.

Welcome Winter!

Focus on Curriculum            

December 6, 2013

Handwriting Without Tears:  We wrote in our handwriting book.  We wrote our ABC’s all in capital letters

Jolly Phonics:  This week I introduced the letters w and v.  For the letter w we pretend we are the wind and the letter v we pretend we are driving a car saying “vvvvv”.  Now we know the sounds of the letters: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, j, ai, oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, and v.  We like to sing songs and do actions for each sound to help us remember them.  Remember to review the sounds we have learned in the letter and sound packet, which shows all the motions and sounds used to make each letter of the alphabet that we will learn this year.  It is for your reference so you can practice with your children as we learn each new letter and the sound of that letter.

Reading:  We read Maisy’s Pool based on the childrens TV series.  We also started reading some Holiday books such as Turkey Claus and Snowmen All Year.  We also read are very own small books Family Fun and The Snowman.  Please ask your child to read these books to you.

Popcorn Words:  This week we cut out the popcorn words ran, into and for and glued them in our spirals. We now have twenty five words and they are: I, a, it, in, see, big, my, like, up, run, on, at, we, me, am, did, not, is, can, but, to, too, ran, into and for. Our spirals are going home today.  We are going to keep our spirals in the front sleeve of our green folder so we can practice our words at school and at home.  Please remind your child to bring their popcorn word spirals to school everyday.  Please practice the popcorn words with your child at home. 

 

Math: We continued our counting and numbers units.  We practiced counting to 100 and started counting by tens to 100.  We also focused on missing numbers.  

Writing:  We wrote about our star of the week.

Social Studies: We read and discussed our Weekly Reader that talked about our upcoming holidays and gift giving.

Remember:

Read to your child every night!

 Please sign and return report card envelopes.

Do not forgot to place your Scholastic book orders.

 Remember to read for Six Flags Great America reading program!

Bring Library Books on Mondays and Wednesday * New Library Days

We have gym everyday.  Please remember your gym shoes.

Please check the green folder daily.

Turn in Box Tops to earn money for our school! - The class with the most box tops wins a pizza party at the end of the year.