Welcome to winter! When it starts to snow or becomes very cold, students should wear snow pants, boots, gloves, and hats.  Students are welcomed to leave their snow pants at school, so they do not have to transfer them back and forth every day.   Every family has a different opinion about this policy; I think it is easier than transferring and losing an expensive pair of snow pants.  Please inform your child if they should leave their snow gear at school or if they should take it home every day.   I cannot stress enough the importance of putting your child’s  first and last name on EVERYTHING.  All snow gear looks the same.  There are times when students accidentally take another person’s gloves home or lose gear in the Anchors Away line or on the bus.   It will cut down on lost gear if you put your child’s last name on everything, including boots and coats.

 

Please check the extra emergency clothes in your child’s backpack.  Many students have grown, and now we are in a different season.  Even if your child does not have accidents, there will be times when his/her socks or pants become wet because of the snow.  It is strongly advised that you put a full set of winter clothes, including extra socks in your child’s backpack.

Reading:

  We are doing a unit study on the story of the Gingerbread Man We are listening, comparing, and finding story elements in many different versions of this classic book.  When we come back from the winter vacation, we will study fairy tales, then compare versions of the Three Little Pigs.  Also as a whole class, we are working on decoding words.  Students are placed in reading/center groups.  In these groups, I can give individualized instruction to best help your child grow as a reader, writer, and mathematician.

We have also been acting out some of the stories we read.  This way we can see that fiction stories have a setting, characters, problem, and solution.  This is the foundation for retelling and comprehending stories.

Social Studies

We are learning about the similarities and differences in families.

Science

We are going to wrap up our five sense science unit. In January we will start a new science unit about movement and push and pull.

Math

Last week we worked on number lines, counting on and graphing. This week we will continue to build the foundation of adding and subtracting.

I look forward to seeing you at conferences on December 14!