Sunday, January 13, 2013

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 14th


DATES TO REMEMBER:
-Thursday, Jan. 17th—Early dismissal @ 1:45
-Friday, Jan. 18th—Pajama Day, Sledding Party, Early Dismissal @ 1:45
-Friday, Jan 18th—Theme Basket Items Due
-Monday, Jan 21st—Delayed Start
-Friday, Jan. 25th—Report Cards Home

SLEDDING PARTY/PAJAMA DAY: 
We are planning a pajama day for this Friday, January 18th—students are welcome to wear their PJ’s to school in the morning and bring either slippers or shoes for the classroom.  The kindergarten classes are also planning a sledding party for the same day.  PRAY FOR SNOW!!! We will enjoy a time of sledding together from 12:30-1:00 and then come inside and warm up with some hot cocoa and a short movie before heading home.  Parent volunteers can plan to come around 12:15 to help us get dressed or come a little earlier and have lunch with your child.  Please be sure to send your child to school with ALL of their outside gear.  Also, if your child has a roll-up or soft foam sled, they may bring it to school on Friday—no hard sleds are allowed on the playground.  Please be sure to label it with your child’s name.

ASSESSMENTS: 
This week I will finish up assessing the students for report cards.  I will have a sub Tuesday afternoon so that I can meet with each student one-on-one to finalize their assessments.  Students will be assessed this week Wednesday on Aimsweb (math) and next week on Dibels (Reading).  Report cards will be sent home on Friday, January 25th.

LIBRARY: 
We are finally going to the library this morning (Monday)!  So your child should be bringing home a new book to share.  Our next library visit is scheduled for Friday, January 25th so, they should have plenty of time to enjoy their new book.

READING: 
Our focus texts for this week are Ginger & Kitten’s First Full Moon, which we will use to practice determining ’cause and effect’ relationships.  Our focus letter for the week is Ii, and we will introduce the sight words do & not. Since our letter of the week is a vowel, we will be using Chunky Monkey to practice reading and writing words with the ip, in, ig, & it chunks.  We will also learn that ck makes the /k/ sound with short vowels and we will introduce a new Accuracy Beanie Baby—Flippy the Dolphin.  Flippy reminds us that vowels have both a long and short sound and if we come to a tricky word, while we are reading, we can ‘flip’ the vowel sound and try both the long and short sounds and see which one makes sense.

WRITING: 
We will continue to work on our I See . . . Pattern Books as we practice editing and adding to our books this week.  We will also read several mentor texts that require us to make some inferences (predictions).  Students will complete a journal page about hibernating animals and another one on what they wear outside to play in the snow.  We will also work on following directions as we ‘Draw a Rhyme Snowman’ together on Friday.

MATH: 
This week we will practice rolling 2 dice, counting, and graphing our results.  We will continue to work on creating patterns and practice identifying missing pieces to patterns.  We will also be building the teen numbers using base 10 blocks, and practice ‘counting on’ from any given number.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 
We have read several books related to Winter and the different things that people do during Winter. This week we will begin learning about what the animals are doing during the Winter months; we will be reading several informational texts, discussing Author’s Purpose, and then we will create a graph using stuffed animals— sorting the animals into 3 groups—hibernating, active, or migrating.







 PTO Theme Basket Fundraiser

Dear Families,

The PTO is planning a “Theme Basket” fundraiser which will be held during the month of January and we would like your help!  Our PTO plays a very important role in your child’s education.  They help out with many school projects like field trips, playground equipment, family nights, etc.  Now they are asking you to help them raise money for these projects by supporting our “Theme Basket” raffle. 

Our class has been asked to choose a theme and collect items to fill a “Theme Basket”.  The baskets will be on display during home basketball games on 1/25, 1/31, 2/5, 2/7, and 2/8.  Members of the community will be given the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win the “Theme Basket” of their choice. The winners will be drawn on February 11.

Our basket’s theme is “Ice Cream Sundae”.  We are asking you to donate new items that could go into our theme basket.  Feel free to send in any items that you feel would go well in this basket.  Some suggestions are:

§        Ice Cream Toppings/Syrups – Carmel, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Strawberry, etc.
§        Ice Cream Toppings - Maraschino Cherries, Nuts, Candy, Sprinkles, Coconut Shavings, Chocolate chips, Gummy Bears, etc.
§        Cones – Waffle, Sugar, Regular
§        Sundae Bowls/Glasses
§        Spoons
§        Ice Cream Scoops
§        Decorative Bowls for Toppings
§        Ice Cream Décor – Dish Towels, Napkins, etc.

Please send your donations to school on or before January 18.  Then, don’t forget to purchase your raffle tickets.  We thank you in advance for your generosity!

Mrs. Brinks