December 8, 2013

Dear Parents,

We have had a very busy week. We began a new Social Studies unit called "A Celebration of Light,"
we are learning about the many ways in which the holiday season is celebrated around the world. The children read a passage about the celebration, take notes, and create a craft. We learned about  Hanukkah on Friday, and we will learn about Diwali on Wednesday. The children are very excited about this project.

In reading we continue our work on characters and making inferences. We will complete our interactive read aloud, Edward Tulane. The children have really enjoyed our work with this beautiful story and have come up with many interesting and insightful observations. The children are writing about the characters in their reading and are doing a great job with character traits.

In writing the children are working hard to finish their second personal narrative. We have worked
on finding the "heart" of their stories and their writing has shown great improvement. I am so proud of the hard work and effort the class has demonstrated with their writing pieces. We will begin writing informational pieces on Wednesday.

In math we have begun multiplication. The children are working on the concept of repeated addition, commutative property, and building arrays to represent the multiplication facts. The children have also played multiplication games which help to reinforce the math concepts that are being learned. This week we are learning about the multiples of 10, we will continue our multiplication units for the next several weeks.

Our class has started a new award called "The Star Fish Award." The award is given on a daily basis to the child who has demonstrated terrific citizenship, kindness, and  excellent work habits. The star fish is a small trophy that is placed on the award winner's desk after school and the children are very excited to see who has earned the trophy for the day.

.

We will not have a holiday party, instead we will make gingerbread houses! I sent home a note on Friday with the details of the gingerbread houses. The note also had the candy that your child should bring to share with his/her classmates. The building will begin on  Wednesday and Thursday 12/8 and 12/9, if you would like to volunteer please let our room parents know.

In addition, please remember that the children go outside every day for recess and they must have a hat and mittens!

Thank you so much for  your support,
Sue Fitzpatrick