Week of November 12, 2012

Dear Parents:

What a  fabulous day Poetry in the Park was on Thursday! The weather was perfect! Such a beautiful day to be outside! I was so proud of the children. Even though we had a little glitch, they continued on and finished with a bang! True performers! The show must go on! If anyone has any pictures to share, please send them to me or post them on our shutterfly site! Here are a few from my camera.

On Wednesday, we will be going to the SPCA for a tour and to take our bins full of donated items for the animals. The children are so excited and so are the teachers! There are also farm animals so the children are allowed to bring carrots and apples to feed them if they like. We will eat lunch at the SPCA. Sage will provide a sack lunch for the children who returned the green form marked that they needed a lunch. Those bringing lunch from home need to bring a COMPLETELY DISPOSABLE lunch. No lunchboxes, please. We would love to have parents join us, but you will need to either meet us at the SPCA or follow the bus from school. We will leave school promptly at 10:45.

I am so thankful for my wonderful class this year AND you wonderful parents! That is my "thankful thought" for this season. Now, it is your child's turn to come up with a "thankful thought" to bring to our Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday afternoon. We will begin our celebration at 1:45 on Thursday. A letter went home last week asking your child to bring in a specific ingredient to add to our cornucopia snack mix. Please be sure to send it in by tomorrow. At the party, each child will tell us their thankful thought when they add their ingredient to our snack mix. You may have your child write the thought down if it will help in remembering what he/she wants to say. It is so sweet to hear what the children are thankful for. As always, everyone is welcome to join us for our Thanksgiving celebration. We will also be making a fun and useful Thanksgiving decoration so parent helpers are especially appreciated!

Now, for what is going on in our class this week:

Reading Workshop/Word Work: This week we are reviewing all of the short vowels and all of the word families that we have covered so far this year. Please continue to review these with your child at home.  We'll practice blends and the digraph sounds ch, th, sh, and wh. We will also do some work with compound words. We'll continue to practice reading fluency. When you read with your child at home, model appropriate voice inflection and fluency. Read a page and have your child echo back the way you read. Engage in conversation with your child about the books they are reading at home. Talk about the sequence or order of events in the story, the setting, and the characters. Ask your child about his/her favorite parts of the story and why. The children know that my favorite word is because. That is my favorite word because I love for them to tell me the "why" of things. Encourage "thinking" in response to  your child's reading to help deepen comprehension. This will help the children learn the power of talking and thinking in response to the stories they read.

Using iPads during word work is fun!

Writing Workshop: We will finish up our poetry unit and work on several birthday books for our classmates!

Math: We are working on nonstandard and standard units of measure. The children will be having fun measuring with different parts of their bodies, rulers, tape measures, and even candy corn! M-m-m-m!

Ben and Phoebe measure the length of the classroom using a non-standard unit of measure...
arm-spans.

Sydney and Natalie work together to measure the length of the classroom using arm-spans, too.

Please send in an empty paper towel tube and an empty, CLEAN Pringles can (large - not snack size). Please send them in this WEEK if possible. If you have any extras, we would appreciate them, too! We will begin using them in a special on-going math activity right after Thanksgiving break.

Kaja and Leni work together to record their findings while measuring many different things in and outside of  the classroom using various non-standard units of measure.

Science: We are working on our Human Body voice thread this week. I hope to have it posted for you soon! The human body "pocket books" containing the work of your children during our human body unit came home today. Please go through it with your child and celebrate all of their hard work and learning! We will begin a new unit on the solar system when we return from Thanksgiving break. I know the children will enjoy it, too!

Things to remember:

• Word card rings are due every Thursday! This is considered part of the homework responsibility for your child.
• Thanksgiving celebration will be at 1:45 Thursday. All are welcome to join us!
• Thanksgiving break next week - November 19 - 23.
• Holiday Gift Drive begins December 3 and ends December 14. Information regarding the family our class will be providing gifts for will come home soon. A container will be placed in our classroom by December 3rd to collect the gifts for the family. On Friday, December 14, the children will carry the gifts to the gym to be sorted. Then, they will be taken to the family so they may enjoy a happy holiday! 

Volunteers this week:

• Wednesday - Library Check-out - 2:10- David Nguyen and 
• Thursday - Math Game - 10:30 - Kim Gross
• Friday - Art - 9:15 - Lorraine Thorpe
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Twila Davis

I hope you all have a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING with your loved ones!
Susan