Week of December 9, 2009

This Week’s Happenings:

Monday - Ice Cream Treat (Celebrating St. Nicholas Day)

Tuesday – Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (No school for students)

Friday – Spelling test - Guest Reader: Mrs. Aug

Future Dates:

December 21 – January 2 Christmas Break

January 15 – End of Second Quarter

January 18 – No school (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Dear Parents:

Officer Lillis spoke about safety last Monday. She taught different scenarios if your child were ever separated from you. She reinforced how important it is for the children to not only know phone numbers and addresses but to be able to spell his/her street names. The students promised to practice.

Last Wednesday the children took home their Advent calendars for the night. They were to share the information with you. We have been talking about the small things each one can do to get ready for Christmas. When these go home, please help your child fulfill the daily suggestion. Enjoy the season, Linda S.

Language Arts

Students will review the sounds of ‘ed’ at the end of words. They should recognize that ‘ed’ means something happened in the past. The sounds for ‘ed’ are: ‘d’ as in closed; ‘t’ as in jumped; and ‘ed’ as in handed. We will also drill long ‘a’ spellings (ay, ai, a-e) and introduce long ‘o’.

When reading our stories, “The Red Stone Game” and “The Gingerbread Man”, children will discuss realism and fantasy. They will review and practice identifying and understanding pronouns in written work.

Math

We continue our geometry chapter. We will be discussing the attributes of shapes. The children should become familiar with the vocabulary of space and plane shapes (cube, rectangular prism, cylinder, sphere, cone, circle, triangle, square, rectangle), sides, and corners. They will explore shapes and practice identifying patterns that use various shapes and colors.

Please begin spending a few minutes each night memorizing math facts. We have been drilling double facts (addition and subtraction) and are practicing sums and differences through five. It is important to study a few minutes each night and add new facts in small amounts.

Religion

We continue discussions on Advent and finish our chapter on the Eucharist.