December 4, 2009

Upcoming Dates

* Friday, December 18th: ALL KINDERS COME FROM 9:00AM to 12:20PM.
We will be having a Polar Express Day! Please come to school in your pajamas (with a jacket of course) and bring your favorite stuffed animal to school. We will pretend to be the children on the Polar Express Train and we will even get to eat cookies and have hot chocolate!
NOTE: If you are a Friday sharer, please bring your sharing the day before, on Thursday, December 17th to present.

* Monday, December 21st to Friday, January 1st: NO SCHOOL – Winter Vacation
Have a wonderful two week vacation!

* Monday, January 4th: School Resumes
Happy New Year!


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Dear Families,

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately, my father went to the emergency room early Thanksgiving morning for stomach pains, and ended up staying at the hospital for 3 days. The good news is they couldn’t find any cancer or tumor causing the blockage in his stomach, and he was able to go home Saturday night. However, he has to remain on a liquid or soft food diet for a while, and has more outpatient treatments to receive. Although it was not a happy weekend for our family, we are thankful that he is free of any serious diagnosis.

Here are some highlights for the week:
• Language Arts: During the next 3 weeks, we will not be doing our regular language arts activities such as letter of the week or literacy centers. Instead, we are working on our reading and writing through a social studies project. We are learning about the months of the year and special days that occur each month. We are writing a sentence that describes something about each month, and we are making crafts to match our writing. We are remembering to use capitals, spaces, and periods in our sentences.

• Writing: In addition to our social studies project, we read some stories about Santa this week. We wrote a letter to Santa and tried to tell him three reasons why we have been good this year. Then we wrote what our wish was. These letters are always very adorable, and you can read them on our website under “Classwork!”

• Math: This week we continued reviewing our numbers and worked on 8, 9, and 10. We are practicing to identify 10 quickly by using a ten-frame. We are also continuing to write math sentences using the plus and equals sign. Another vocabulary word we use often is “in all.” One area that is difficult for students is to answer “How many more?” in word problems using illustrations. An example is (and I would read this orally): 10 players are needed to play a game. Right now there are only 3 players. How many more players do they need? We practiced this type of word problem this week.

• Social Studies: In addition to our months and special days project, we are learning about holidays around the world. This week we learned a Hanukkah poem and also made a menorah which is the object that holds all the candles. Also, we learned about another holiday called Kwanzaa and made a unity cup that is used to show unity within family members.

• Assembly: We had an assembly today by Kirk Waller who is a storyteller of African American folktales. This was a good opportunity to hear oral storytelling from a culture different than ours.

• Computer Lab: We illustrated a poem this week called, “First Day of Winter.” We learned that December 21st is the first day of winter, and we drew a picture that shows what a snow scene would look like from inside our homes. They drew snow, icicles, and snowflakes!

• Library: We had a discussion this week about picking a book that is right for us. I am encouraging students to look at the amount of words on each page, and make sure that it is an appropriate amount for mom or dad to read. We don’t want to pick books with all words and very little pictures. I understand that sometimes the library book your child chooses is too long or difficult, and it is definitely ok to use another book for the homework journals if necessary. Remember that these library books are primarily for you to read aloud to your child. If you want a book that is at their reading level, you may have to go to the public library and pick books that are simpler to read.

• Music: We saw Ms. Disney last week for our make up class, as well as yesterday during our normal schedule. Last week, we learned songs about turkeys and also played a movement game using skipping. We played a game to the tune of “Skip to My Lou.” This week we started to learn holiday songs. We used bells and sticks to sing and follow the beat to the song, “Jingle Bells.” Some of us even danced during the song!

• Art: We finished our handprint wreaths this week by adding a red bow and “berries.” We used our fingerprints and a red stamp to make the berries. Also, we made a Santa face with a curly beard to illustrate our Dear Santa letters.

• Star of the Week: Matthew C. was our Star last week over Thanksgiving, and this week it will be Colleen! You can still go to “Classwork” to read about the Stars, but now I also added a link under “Curriculum” and “Star of the Week” for you to read about our stars!

Your child is bringing home the turkey feather your family made. Thank you for spending time to decorate the feathers. I was amazed at all the creative ideas and material that was used and our class turkey was truly special! Thank you also for those of you who brought band-aids for our class!

Please remember to follow the traffic rules at Eaton school. There was an accident after school on Wednesday afternoon by Suisun and Blaney. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, however, it could have been very bad. Always use the sidewalk and look before crossing the street. Please keep your child close to you and do not let them run into the parking lot or street! Thank you for keeping everyone at Eaton safe!