THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 30TH:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH:
Advent began on Sunday, November 29th. We began our Advent Booklets. We
read about the seasons of the church year and about the season of Advent in
our religion book. We began a book called THE TWENTY FOUR DAYS BEFORE
CHRISTMAS by Madeleine L'Engle. It is about a family who do something
special each of the days leading up to Christmas. We worked on our new
spelling lesson which contains long a words spelled AY, AI, and A,Silent E.
We also did the next Marta story, language, and a math minute. We began the
next unit in our phonics book. Today we worked on contractions. We read a
story in our Journeys reader about a Native American Indian girl and her
grandmother called ANNIE AND THE OLD ONE. It is an accelerated reader. We
had art with Mrs. Zueck. We watched a special video about First
Reconciliation. Father Reszel visited with our class. After talking with us
and asking us if we had any questions about tonight's First Reconciliation,
he blessed us. We used our ORFF time with Mrs. Cantagallo to practice for
our musical. We began our next chapter book (class set) called THE BEST
CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER by Barbara Robinson. It is about six kids, Ralph,
Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman, who just may be the worst
kids in the history of the world!!! We began working on a regrouping with
subtraction page in our math book.
This evening was FIRST RECONCILIATION. We thank Father Trout for being our
celebrant, Mrs. Pawula for all her work organizing this special service, all
the priests who listened to our first confessions, and Mr. Campione for his
support. We thank our readers, Caroline and her sister, Emily, Julia, Logan,
and Alexa who all did an awesome job representing our class. We also thank
Father Reszel for visiting with us today and helping to prepare us for our
first reception of Reconciliation. I hope all our 256 Kids gave their parents
a great, big hug and a thank you for their help in our weeks of preparation
and for their unending love.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST:
It's another busy day for 256 Kids. We finished our math from yesterday.
We're starting to get the hang of regrouping with subtraction when we
remember BIGGER BOTTOM, BETTER BORROW. We wrote in our journals about our
First Reconciliation. We worked in our spellers, on phonics, language, and
the next story about Marta. We shared our postcard from Utah of Bryce Canyon
and two more tongue twisters. We continued reading our Advent story about
the Austin family who celebrate by doing something special together each day
of the Advent season. We are bringing home our special family Advent trees.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if every family could think of something special to
do each day until the Savior's birth as they complete their tree??? There is
a note with directions and ideas. We talked about the project. Mr. Wojnar
came in for Spanish. We sang a couple of Christmas carols in Spanish. We
read Chapter Three and Four of THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER. We ended our
morning with gym with Mrs. Olson. In the afternoon, the sixth graders and
Mrs. Campobasso have prepared a special spelling lesson for us in the
computer lab. They shared powerpoints and more...very impressive! We read
the next selection in our Delights Reader. It was about a park ranger named
Officer Dockett who works in Central Park in New York City. After going over
our new vocabulary via a powerpoint, we shared the story which was written
and photographed by two sisters from Chicago. We then did a vocabulary and
comprehension check which we checked together. Tomorrow we will listen to
the CD of the selection and take the test. Most of us spent some time
working on our tree mobiles that we're making for the Christmas Bazaar and in
our Advent Booklets.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2ND:
We began our morning with math. We worked on rounding and regrouping with
subtraction. We completed our story, THE TWENTY-FOUR DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS.
We read TOO MANY TAMALES in small groups with Mrs. Kolz and worked on some
questions about the story which we checked together. We also got to read over
our part for the Advent-Christmas musical. We took our pretest and practice
dictation. We had lots of wonderful checkers today. We worked in our Advent
Booklets...everyone wrote about a trip they've taken to a special place,
local or faraway. Half of us are still working on our Christmas trees for the
Bazaar. We had a great computer class with Mrs. Campobasso. We got to use
the paint program. In the afternoon, we listened to the CD of EXPLORING
PARKS WITH RANGER DOCKETT. We took a test on fact and opinion, story
vocabulary, and comprehension. We went to the library to get new books. We
shared THE LEGEND OF ST. NICHOLAS and THE BAKER'S DOZEN. Did you know that a
baker's dozen is thirteen? When we returned to the classroom, we read
Chapter Five and part of Chapter Six in our book about the Herdmans. We plan
to complete the book tomorrow, work on story activities, and take the
accelerated reading test on the book. We watched two segments of a special
video about following the church year...Advent Roads and Christmas Roads.
All the teachers and staff enjoyed a wonderful lunch from LaRoma this noon
which was provided by our Family School Organization...so thank you!!!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3RD:
We began our morning by sharing a beautiful story by Kate DiCamillo, the
author of BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE, called GREAT JOY. We worked on an ABC order
page and on a letter to someone sharing our good news in our Advent
Booklets. We completed THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER and worked together
on story problems about donuts, on matching characters to what they did, and
on three practice tests for our accelerated reading test. We worked on
completing out Christmas trees or on our not so bare anymore "Bare" Books on
a special project called HOW TO SPOT SANTA. Father John stopped in to say
hello and congratulate us on our First Reconciliation. Some of us shared our
journals about that special night with him. We ended our morning with
music. We began a book called MARY'S STORY. We also began our next Alex
book, HOT CHOCOLATE FRIENDSHIP. We had Social Studies with Mrs. Barr. We
talked about Christmas and how it is celebrated all around the
world. We also learned about a couple winter holidays.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4TH:
We began our morning with our spelling and dictation test. They were
excellent! We went to First Friday Mass. Father John was the celebrant.
We colored a clog with straw and more to leave out for St. Nick whose
feast day is on Sunday. We read another story about St. Nicholas and together
we completed two papers about him. We worked on a puzzle and on a short
writing activity in our Advent Booklet. We completed our "Bare" Books about
HOW TO SPOT SANTA! Those who finished began copying and illustrating a poem
about Advent in their Poetry Book. My "I'm done" boys are now working on an
Advent Banner. Those who are behind will go to Mrs. Barr's class for catch up
on your work time (then homework). Those who have finished Advent booklets
and "Bare" books will watch a video about St. Nicholas. After our early lunch
and recess, we had gym with Mrs. Olson. After that, we got together with
Mrs. Barr's class to practice reading our parts for the musical.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Parents, you are welcome to join us for
shopping at the Bazaar on Tuesday morning at 10:30. Our beautiful Christmas
tree mobiles are hanging from the ceiling of the Main Hall. Family and
friends are all invited to join us on Friday at one o'clock in church for our
Advent-Christmas Musical. It will be a busy week with lots of practice times
for us.
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