Happy Almost Thanksgiving

Greetings!  Oh my goodness, the disguised turkeys turned out SO CUTE!!  The kids and I love looking at them! :)  Such creativity in the classroom!  

Some things to know/remember:

• Please, please, please try to return class books the day after you get them.  It takes a long time for them to go through the entire class and the longer you keep them home the longer it takes for the book to make the rounds.  There is a new "I am Thankful for..." book that will be coming around. :)

• I would like to remind you to please initial the behavior calendar that is in your child's take-home folder each night.  

• Tuesday, November 26th is an early dismissal at 11:25.  There is no school Wednesday, November 27th through Friday, November 29th.

• There will be NO TROJAN TRIUMPH next week (11/25 and 11/26). 

• We are still collecting boxtops!  The competition isn't over until April.... so keep sending them in! :)

• I am going to be sending home some scholastic book club fliers as soon as they come in, as well as directions on how to order online. :)  I also got some coupons I am going to attach where you can get one book free with an order of at least $10.  These will make GREAT stocking stuffers and presents for your kids (can you tell I'm trying to push reading?!) ;)  We also get books for our classroom when you make an order.  Look for them to come home soon!

• Thanks for all of your support with Guided Reading.  I just want to clarify, you may not see the baggie come home every single day, so just keep your eye out for it when it does.  Tuesdays, for example, are really hectic in the morning because we go to the library and computer lab.  Those days I try to do other literacy enriching activities.  Fridays we usually read, but I don't send it home.  In addition, there are some groups that I do different activities with during guided reading time, so they won't get their book baggie brought home as often.  I am sorry to make this confusing.  Just always ask your child if they have it.... and I really, really appreciate your help and support with giving your child extra reading practice! :)  Also, I am going to be putting sight word flashcards and/or ABC flashcards in their guided reading book baggie.  I expect these to be practiced each night as well.... and left inside the baggie and returned to school each day. :)

Here are the sight words:

I, a, go, big, at, the, can, to, am, we, my, like, make, yes, on, out, get, by, have, not, do, so, see, have, you, all

Math  

We have started learning the "tricky teens" of 11-19.  :)  There is a cute song we've been learning to help us.  Prompt your child with, "Come on everybody let's get this done....."  We have also been working on addition!

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy. :)

Vowel bat!!!  The kids LOVE watching this!!!  :)

VOWEL BAT! :)

A great center for practicing our 3D shapes.  Kids had to sort pictures of real-life objects and place them on the right shape mat.  

We used this text for non-narrative predicting.  Then the kids had to "butter" sight words and chunks they knew. :)

How many ways can you make 5? :)

We are learning about using 10-Frames!  In these pictures we are using our 10-Frames mat. 

Have a safe and WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Pumpkin.... and Halloween too...

It was so nice to talk with all of you at conferences.  Please remember that I am always available to talk about your child's progress.  

Some things to know/remember:

• We have started to take home library books.  We go to library each Tuesday, so please have your library book brought back to school by each Monday at the latest. :)  

• Earlier this week I sent home a new November and December snack schedule.  If, for some reason, you did not receive yours please let me know. 

• I would like to remind you to please initial the behavior calendar that is in your child's take-home folder each night.  

• There is no school on Monday, November 11th in honor of Veteran's Day.  Thank you to those of you who have served!

• Don't forget about Donuts for Dads coming up on November 8th!

• The Booster Club Fundraiser orders are due on November 15th.  

• Family Reading Night is November 21st at 6:00.

• GUIDED READING is starting this upcoming week!!  Here is how guided reading works: 1. Your child will be coming back to me for a guided reading lesson.    2.  They will be putting the book we read in a plastic bag.  Included in the bag is their guided reading log as well as some helpful hints you can use as they read.  3.  They will take their bag home and they are to read the book to you TWO times.  You will then fill out the guided reading log and place the log and the book back in the plastic bag.  4.  It is very important that they return their bag to school EVERY DAY.  5.  I do not send home guided reading bags on Friday. :)  Thank you so much for your support as your child begins this reading adventure!  

WHAT WE'VE BEEN LEARNING:

We are officially done learning the letters of the alphabet.... now all we have to do is practice, practice, practice to make them automatic!  As always we are continuing reinforcing our phonemic awareness skills with the two programs we use:  Heggerty Phonics and Road to the Code.  In our balanced literacy we are going to begin SUMMARIZING a narrative text! The past week we learned a lot about pumpkins and next week we are going to start a unit entitled, "I'm Special," where we will celebrate all of the things that make us unique and wonderful!  <3 

Keep practicing the first quarter sight words!

I, a, go, big, at, the, can, to, am, we, my, like, make

Here are our second quarter sight words so far:

yes, on, out, get, by, have, not

Math  

We are currently in the middle of Chapter 4 where we continue to learn about numbers 1-10.  We are working on ordinal numbers 1st-5th.  Learning how to use the number line is an incredibly important skill for addition and subtraction so we are going to be doing that next week as well.  :)

Our pumpkin FLOATED!  We had a great conversation about density.... and even watched a video where people had boat races in boats they made out of giant pumpkins!  So cool!

Here is the video I was talking about with the "Roar" song!  TOOOO CUTE!!!!!! These kiddos crack me up!!! :) :) :)

I would like to thank every parent and grandparent that made our Halloween Party so much fun!!!  We had awesome treats and goodie bags (as well as an awesome snack at snack time), played two awesome games, danced until we couldn't dance anymore, and even had time for *most* of a story!  It was GREAT and the kids LOVED it!!!!!  Thank you so so so much!!!!!!!

TWO Spidermen!!!! <3

Lastly, thank you so much for bringing in awesome things to help protect our pumpkin for the Pumpkin Drop!  We worked really hard packing our box to keep our pumpkin safe!  The coolest part was WE SUCCEEDED!!!!!!  Unfortunately, my phone died (of course!!) right before the drop, so I couldn't get a video!!  BUT, I asked Mrs. Parker to take a video and she got the tail end of the box getting dropped and then one of it getting opened.  It was so neat!

This is a picture I took when my phone was still working.  This was the firetruck getting ready to turn the ladder and basket around to get into position.

This was us waiting patiently and watching the firetruck get ready.