|
December Newsletter
The holidays are upon us! We’ve taken a break from our author studies to
enjoy stories of the season. We’re exploring light as a universal symbol of
celebration as we study holiday traditions of Hanukkah, Christmas, and
Kwanza. Please feel free to send in a favorite holiday book from home for
us to read in class!
In Language Arts we have been continuing to build our word wall and add to
our poetry journals. The students read in their small groups and work in
centers. In writing we are using capitals and punctuation more and more, and
we have even introduced transitional words, such as first, next, then, and
last. Our phonics program has introduced the digraphs sh, th, wh and ch.
We’ve also been learning about the sound of “ar” as well as “er”, “ir”,
and “ur”.
We’ve begun the 4th chapter in our Everyday Math program. The students have
started measuring as we’ve explored measurement with both non standard and
standard units. We will be introducing quarter to and quarter past on the
clock, and we are about to look at fact power. Fact power is knowing the
answers to number facts without having to use counters or a number grid.
We’ll start by developing fact power for facts adding 0 and 1, and then
we’ll work on the double facts 2+2, 3+3…8+8. The more students play math
games like domino top it, the more fact power they’ll develop.
The children have enjoyed our Thursday Mystery Readers! If you haven't had a
chance to sign up as a reader, send me an email. We still have a couple of
dates available toward the spring. It's a great way to get to know your
child's class and a good way to share one of your child's favorite books.
Have a wonderful holiday season!
| |
