Week of December 7

 
Our Resources for the week are: Tuesday #1-18 MEDIA & #19-30 P.E., Wednesday #1-18 P.E. & #19-30 MEDIA and Thursday ART.
 Friday is Boots Day!!  Mrs. Noah Thomas stops by Friday for another fun Library Lesson and Sydney is bringing Fun Friday Snacks for the class. :)

The Wonderland Gift Shoppe OPENS UP on Monday!! :) Please remember, if you wish for your child to shop they need to bring their money in the Wonderland Gift Shoppe envelope or another envelope/ ziploc baggie labeled with Wonderland Gift Shoppe. We can not just assume money brought into school is meant to be used for shopping. The Shoppe is open from Dec. 7-14, the hours are 9:00 - 2:00.

And we hope everyone is having fun working on the Gingerbread Family Project!! Make sure to send the completed project to school so we can hang them up outside of our classroom. :)

Handwriting/Writing

We will be discussing a Writing Checklist. We will look at different writing pieces and discuss what items are completed from the checklist and what items still need to be work on. Below is a picture of the checklist. If you would like a copy of it to use at home, click on this link. :)

We briefly discussed last week's grammar lesson, so we will review it this week: period (.), questions mark (?) and exclamation mark (!).

Math
The class had a great time measuring and weighing things last week. We continue to practice weight and then move into volume this week. I always forget how much enjoyment students find in using the balance scales in class! We will definitely incorporate those into centers!

Holidays Around the World
We take a break from science the next 2 weeks to learn about different countries and their holiday traditions. We will try to learn a little tidbit from countries spanning 6 continents!

Reading

Sight words for the week are: but, long, you and some. Our Word Family is the -ed family. Practice having your child make words that would belong in the family~ bed, ted, fed, wed, etc.

We are continuing our new Module on Farms. The students have been enjoying the lessons on the animals. :) We learned about chickens, cows and pigs. This week we will learn about sheep.We will also discuss retelling the story The Little Red Hen. (Click the link to read the story with your child.)   Then end with the Seasons of Farming. Discuss this chant with your child.

Cycle of the Seasons
Winter is cold during December, January and February.
Spring warms up during March, April and May.
Summer is hot during June, July and August.
Autumn is cool during September, October and November.
After Autumn we return to Winter, then Spring, then Summer, then Autumn again!
This is the cycle of the seasons.

Wonderland Gift Shoppe

This was formerly known as Santa Shoppe.

The Wonderland Gift Shoppe will be open for purchases December 7-14 from 9:00a.m. - 2:00p.m. 

 We don't want the students to miss out on any Academic Instruction, so the students with money will shop after our lunch time, while we are visiting the "big kid" bathrooms.

Your child brought home a letter with an attached envelope. If you would like your child to participate and do some shopping, :) you will need to fill out the information being asked on the envelope. After you write the names down of who you want your child to shop for, PLEASE write the amount you want your child to spend for the people on each budget line. (This helps the volunteers make sure your child doesn't spend too much money on any particular person.)

Here is a picture of the paper from last year. I forget to take a picture of this year's paper. Sorry!

We aren't sure what they are selling in the Wonderland Shoppe. If we get a chance to get a sneak peak, we'll take some pictures and post them. :)

Holidays Around the World

~~On our December Calendar, these days are noted as Kindergarten Activity Days.~~

 

We will be "traveling" the world, learning about holiday traditions in various countries. In order to help make our travels a success, we are in need of a few items. :) If you are able to donate any of the items, please send them in by Monday, December 14.

The items we need are: EMPTY toilet paper and paper towel rolls, wooden clothespins, individually wrapped chocolate candies, yarn, cotton balls, full size candy canes.

Also, we will be needing Volunteers. :) So we will be sending home a flyer and if you are able to volunteer, fill it out and return it in your child's folder. 

We appreciate all of your support!!

*If you have any questions, please email or write the question in your child's folder.

3 Star Writing Poster

This week we discussed simple sentences and how we could make our sentences better. :)

The students were shown examples about a duck. The first sentence was simple and "uncolorful." This was a 1 Star Sentence. The second sentence just added one word, a color word and it made the sentence better. This was a 2 Star Sentence! The third and last sentence was amazing!! It was a 3 Star Sentence!! (The students cheered for the 3 Star Sentence, it was too cute! )

We had a discussion on how we could make our simple 1 Star Sentence better and better! Here is what we came up with. Our sentence was about a cake.

** Ooh we want to point out the writing in the pictures below is done by the students and by us. In the sentences, you will notice sight words are spelled correctly and other words are written phonetically. The students are learning how to write using the sounds they hear, if they don't hear it... they done write it, and that's okay right now. The students didn't know how to spell cake, but they knew it rhymed with make and all they had to do was change the beginning sound. Also, you may notice in the 3 Star sentence that the word ~for~ is written down as *four*, we are teaching the students to be independent writers and they are using words they know. All of these things are part of the writing process. :)

 Hope you enjoy the amazing work!!

For those that had some trouble, the phonetic word is vanilla. :) They thought it was the best cake ever! haha

We know you can get stressed completing the Writing Home Learning (home work) with your child, but we wanted you to see just how much your child is capable of!! :) They know a lot of sight words and they know their sounds... they just need us to help remind them that they are Writers and they can do it!! :)

Gingerbread Family Craft

Today we sent home our Family Craft Projects. Just in case anyone loses their paper (or wants to see the pictures in color :) we are adding it on here!

 

The students will be reading different Gingerbread Books during Reading Stations and we want them to disguise these little Gingerbread people so that if a “fox” roams the school… he won’t be able to find them.

Some examples we have seen on the internet are Santa Claus, Princesses, Superheroes, even other animals. We saw cats and bears! Use your imaginations and work on making a super disguise!! Materials could include scrapbook paper, felt, yarn, cotton balls, foil, but please do not use any food items. (We don’t want our gingerbread people becoming friends with any ants. ) Ooh don’t forget to include eyes and a mouth on your gingerbread person.

Please return your gingerbread person to school by Wednesday, December 9 so that we can display them in our hallway.

If you have any questions, please contact us. 

Ms. Pitts and Ms. Finocchiaro