Classroom Christmas party

We'll plan to have our classroom party on the afternoon of Wed. Jan. 2 (unless something else comes up!)  Remember that the children are doing a gift exchange with a $3.00 suggested limit.  Boys will bring in a boy's gift and girls will bring in a girl's gift.

If you signed up to bring something for our party, plan to send it in on Wed.


Happy New Year!

Dec. 5 News

Reading:  The children are learning about characters.  We are finding out how characters feel, what they might be thinking and how they act differently in different parts of the story.  As the children get a better understanding of characters it will help them with writing about their realistic fiction character.

Math:  The children took a test on unit 3 last Friday.  It went home with your child’s papers on Monday.  Please review with your child areas that were not mastered.  We will be reviewing the parts that most of the kids did not do well on (adding with dimes, frames and arrows) but extra help at home is always appreciated!  Our new unit will focus on measuring.  We will measure with non-standard units as well as rulers and tape measures.

Writing: We have started our unit on realistic fiction.  The children have created a character that they want to write about.  Now we are thinking/working on character traits and problems that might happen to their character.  The children are having fun using their imaginations!

Elementary Christmas Concert:  On Monday, Dec. 10 the K-4^th grade students will be performing their Christmas concert.  Your child needs to be “dressed-up” and in the multi-purpose room by 6:45 p.m. to meet with his/her class.  The children will be singing a variety of Christmas songs and are very excited to perform for you!

 

Classroom Christmas Party

Our class Christmas party will be on Thursday, Dec. 20. We will do a gift exchange and play games. Please send in a $3.00 gift with your child. Boys bring in a boys’gift and girls will bring in a girls’ gift. On the tag simply write, “To: a boy (or girl) From: your child’s name.

Christmas Party:  Thanks to all who signed up to provide something for our classroom party.  The parent helpers for the afternoon are:  Mrs. Murphy, Mrs. Cotter and Mrs. Eisenga.  The food donations are as follows:

Gavin – finger jello and a loaf of bread              Leah – veggies and dip

Carson – rice krispy bars                                    Madison – plates

Baylie – juice boxes                                            Trey – juice boxes

Nathan – juices                                                  Brison – napkins

Kassie – a jar of peanut butter                         Maple – a bag of gum drops

Brekken – a bag of M&Ms, a bag of pretzel sticks

Pajama Day:  On Friday, Dec. 21, will have a sing-a-long in the morning and a movie in the afternoon.  The children are welcome to wear their pajamas to school that day and keep them on for the entire day.  We plan to “rest and relax” before Christmas!

November students of the Week:  Caeden, Karissa and Madison:
 

 

News for Nov. 21

Reading:  The children are learning about reading fluently.  Your reader’s voice should be smooth like when you talk.  We’ve learned that some words go together quickly (peanut butter and jelly) and shouldn’t sound like a robot when reading them.  The children are also looking for quotation marks to tell them if a character is talking and what his/her voice might sound like.

Finally, the children started their “word work” groups last week.  The children are in groups based on their phonic needs.  Each of the groups has a different word sort and does a variety of activities with it.

Math:  We’ve added the dime to our coins and will be adding with it.  The children are also learning about time to the half-hour.  We’ve also spent a lot of time on “frames and arrows”.  The children are given a rule (add or subtract) and apply it to figure out the next number.  The children also had fun learning how to program the calculator and we used it count up and back by 2, 5 and 1.

Writing: The past few weeks we’ve spent time on the importance of having spaces between words when writing.  The children have also been reminded to make their “tall” letters tall so we can figure out what it is (for example: an h instead of an n) This past week, we’ve discussed how to add dialog to a story.  

Upcoming Events:

Nov. 22-23 – Thanksgiving holiday:  no school

Nov. 26 – book orders due

Nov. 30 –speed stacking orders due

Nov. 30 – hotdogs should be on the menu

Dec. 10 – elementary Christmas concert

Canned Food Drive:  Our elementary is participating in a canned food drive to benefit area families.  If you would like to help, please send your canned or dry goods to school.  We have a special box placed near the elementary office.  Donations will be received until Friday, Dec. 7.

Welcome Ruby!

Ruby joined our class a few weeks ago.  Her family comes to our area from Florida.  She is a very sweet girl and the children have been so helpful to her!  We now have 12 girls and 14 boys in our class. 

 

Thanks for helping your child decorate a feather for our turkey!  He looks so handsome!

 

November News

Reading:  The children are learning about different reading strategies to use when they come to a word they don’t know.  They include chunky-monkey (breaking a word into chunks), lips the fish (getting our mouth ready to say the sounds), slippery snake (saying all the sounds in the word), eagle eye (studying the picture for a clue) and wise owl (what would make sense?).  We will be revisiting these strategies often and will add more as we go through the school year.  The children are also learning about the short vowel sounds.  This week we add the –ck sound. 

Math:  The children are studying odd/even numbers and number patterns (all the 2 counts are even, all the 5 counts end with 5 or 0, etc.)  Also this month, the children will learn about time to the half hour and add the dime to our money counting.

Writing: Each of the children has chosen a story to revise and we will be finishing that this week.  We’ve talked about having a space between words and when to use a capital letter.  The children are also revising to add details to either the picture or words.  We’ve been writing small moments (a true story about the child) and will move into writing about realistic fiction.
 

Thank you for helping with sending in coins the past few weeks.  Our class came in second place with a total of $287.81 collected.  Overall, our elementary collected $2643.27 for World Hunger Relief!  Amazing!

 

Halloween Party:  The children had fun at our party even though we weren’t able to parade downtown.  We did get to walk through most of the middle school and part of the high school and finished up by walking through the 4^th grade “wax museum.”  When we returned to our classroom, the children changed out of their costumes and enjoyed their snacks and a Franklin Halloween video.  Enjoy the pictures of our class below.  (these will be in color on the class blog.  Go to the school web page – www.mcbain.org, click on elementary staff pages and click on my name)

 

 

 

 

October Students of the Week:

Xavier R., Lydia T. L., Leah T. and Jadyn H.

 

 

News for Oct. 22

Reading: We are discussing metacognition right now – that is thinking about our thinking!  The children will learn a variety of strategies to apply to tricky words.  As they think about the story and the strategy, it will help them figure out the word and comprehend the story.

Math:  We are working on adding coins, specifically the penny and nickel.  Some children are having a very difficult time with this.  Please spend a few minutes with your child everyday adding pennies and nickels.  We do it at math warm-up time and for math games, but extra practice would be beneficial!

Writing: The children are working on writing “small moments”.  This past week we’ve worked on how to revise a story.  The children know that they need to check their work.  They look and see if they need to add details to their picture or to their words. 

Halloween Party:  We will celebrate Halloween the afternoon of Oct. 31. Your child should bring his/her costume in a bag with his/her name on it.  The children will change into costumes after lunch recess (12:15 p.m.)  Then we will join the other 1st-3rd grade students and parade downtown - weather permitting.  We’ll come back to school and walk through the 4^th grade “wax museum” and then return to our classroom for games and treats.  I’m sending home a separate note asking parents to provide something for our party.

Upcoming Events:

Oct. 23 – Family Night Fiesta  5:00-7:00 p.m.

Oct. 25 – Library day

Oct. 31 – Halloween Party

Nov. 1 – No school ISD in-service day

Monday and Tuesday – P.E.

Wednesday – Computer lab

Friday - Music

Newsletter for Oct. 5

Reading: The children will be learning about reading with a partner.  They will learn how to sit with each other, how to talk about their books and plan how to read together.  The children will also learn more about Text-to-Text and Text-to-Self connections and how it helps us comprehend a story better. Finally, the children will learn about metacognition which is thinking about our thinking.

Math:  We are beginning unit 2.  Some of the skills the children will learn this month is adding and subtracting, counting pennies and nickels, telling time to the hour and more number stories.  We are learning some new math strategies for adding.  Ask your child if he/she can tell you what happens when you add 0 to a number or when you add 1 to a number.

Writing: The children are working on writing “small moments”.  A small moment is a true story that happened to your child.  It might be about a fishing trip, a walk in the woods, a birthday party, etc.  The story just has to be about them so they can add the details.  We will also work on revising our writing pieces later this month.

Social Studies:  We are finishing our unit about families.  Look for a paper to fill out with your child about your family.  We will begin a science unit on Sorting by Properties.

Up-Coming Events:

Oct. 15 – delayed start

Oct. 23 – Family Night Fiesta

Oct. 31 – Halloween Party (more info. to follow)

Oct. 11 & 25 – Library days

 

Monday and Tuesday – P.E.

Wednesday – Computer lab

Friday - Music

Book-It started this month!  Have your child read 15-20 min. at least 4 days a week then return the signed calendar and your child earns a coupon for a free personal pan pizza!

Happy Birthday! 

Bret – Oct. 21

 

Leah – Oct. 28