News for the Week of December 17th

Thank you SO much to our room parent and parent volunteers for all of your hard work to make the winter party a fun time for the Monkeys!  We truly appreciate your time and energy!  It was a fun party!

Also, thank you very much for all of the sweet cards, gift cards, gifts and treats!  I really appreciate you thinking of me during the holiday season.  I am truly blessed to be able to work with such wonderful and cute students each day!  Kids make life a lot more fun!  I am also very lucky to have such supportive and caring parents of students!  I hope all of you have a safe and wonderful holiday break!

In math this week, we made a measurement Christmas tree and ordered the green strips of paper from longest to shortest.  We then decorated our tree with a star and colorful sequins.  We will continue our measurement unit after the break.

In language arts, we read a variety of fun holiday and Christmas stories.  We made a holiday card to go along with the gift we made for parents.  We hope you all love the calendar gift we made for you!  We also read The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg and completed the reading response, "If Santa granted me the first Christmas gift, I would ask for ___________."  We then watched The Polar Express and compared the book to the movie and identified similarities and differences.  We will begin a new language arts unit after the break called Asking Questions, Finding Answers where we will research information and read non-fiction text.

In science, we spent time catching up and will begin our unit on weather after the break.

Reminders

Please donate empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls for our STEAM night project.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

12/20-1/7  Winter Break-No School

1/8            Classes Resume
1/21          MLK, Jr. Holiday-NO SCHOOL
1/24          STEAM Night, 6-7 p.m.

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

None

Morris January Birthdays:

Agastya-1/18

News for the Week of December 10th

It is hard to believe the students only have 3 days left of this semester!  It goes by SO fast!  We will have a lot of holiday fun this week!  Here is a photo of our class's shoe box lid Christmas tree.

In math this week, we began a new unit on measurement.  We started with learning all about length.  We used vocabulary such as "shorter than" and "longer than" to compare the length of various objects.  We drew number cards from a stack and made trains out of unifix cubes.  For instance, if we drew a "7" card, the students built a train that was 7 cubes long.  Then they compared it to a strip of paper they pulled out of a baggie.  They discussed with their group partners if their cube train was longer or shorter than their paper strip.  We will continue working with length next week and will make a "measurement" Christmas tree.

In language arts, we read the poem, Please Do, which focused on the sight word "do."  We wrote the word "do" several times, looked for rhyming words in our poem and then colored the illustrations.  We read Snowmen at Night, by Mark and Caralyn Buehner, and we made a picture of our own snowman and wrote about him.  Our artwork and writing is displayed in the hallway.  We responded in writing to the question, "What does your snowman do at night?"  We also read The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett and discussed why we thought different events happened in the story.  We then created a directed drawing of a reindeer and it is displayed in our hallway now.  Come and see it!  The students enjoyed the book The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats.  We made text-to-self connections to this story by drawing a picture of what the character, Peter, from the story did in the snow and what we have done in the snow.  We also spent a lot of time this week working on a cute gift for all of you parents!  We hope you will LOVE it!  During our word study, we got behind due to the gift we are working on for our parents.  We did begin work on one lesson where we identified colors and read color words.  Then we wrote the color words.  We will catch up on our word study this upcoming week.  We continued our work in our handwriting book by forming the letters q, x and z and wrote a few words and a sentence.

In science, we discussed properties of water and made a list such as clear, wet, clean, dirty, cold, warm, etc.  We then compared two samples of water (tap water and river water).  We observed them and then drew and colored them in our science notebooks and labeled them with property words.  We also made a picture of a way soil is used and wrote about how soil is used.  We then took an assessment on rocks, soil and water.  Our next science unit will be Weather.

The Monkeys were excited to learn all about our superstar student, Agastya!

We were able to learn all about Agastya's life and interests!  We will announce the next superstar student on Friday, January 11th.

Reminders

Please have your child return their book envelope if they have not already.  I will not send out new books this Monday due to the short week and the long winter/Christmas break.

Please donate empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls for our STEAM night project.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

Dec. 19th   Winter Party, 2:00 p.m.
12/20-1/7  Winter Break-No School

1/8            Classes Resume

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

None

Morris December Birthdays:

Victoria-12/7

News for the Week of December 3rd

Thank you parents for helping your child create their holiday traditions shoe box lid!  They are all so creative and look fabulous!  Our tree of shoe box lids is displayed in the hallway!

The Monkeys had a great field trip to the Zach Scott Theatre to watch the play Holiday Heroes.  I think they enjoyed riding the big, yellow school bus as much as the play!

In math this week, we finished our unit on comparing numbers and reviewed all that we have learned.  The students then took an assessment on comparing numbers.  Next week, we will begin a new unit on measurement.

In language arts, we read the poem, Can You See A Rainbow?, which focused on the sight word "you."  We wrote the word "you" several times, looked for rhyming words in our poem and then colored the illustrations.  We read Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and discussed sensory details in the story.  We learned that sensory words and details create pictures of a story in our minds.  I read the book to the students without showing them the pictures.  Then they drew and colored in their reading response journals what they thought the illustrations might look like.  Once they were done, they shared their illustrations with a partner.  Then I read the story again and showed them the pictures the second time.

We also learned about the meaning of folktales this week.  The students learned that folktales are usually passed down orally, they are short enough to read in one sitting, they have animals that talk, they may have trickery and they may teach a lesson.  We read the Ukrainian folktale The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  The students then made a story retelling wheel to help them retell the events in the story.  We also read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola.  This folktale taught us about some of the cultural traditions at Christmas time in Mexico.  We then made a poinsettia out of construction paper and glitter.  We also read The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone and made a prediction of what would happen at the end of the story before we read the ending.  The students also retold the story and put pictures of characters from the story in the order they appeared.  Next week, we will listen to more good stories and focus on connections to text, as well as some fun holiday activities.  The Monkeys favorite part of writing this week was listening to the story of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, and writing about how they would make the Grinch grin.  We made pictures of the Grinch and they are displayed with the writing in our hallway.  During our word study, we worked on learning about where the first word in a sentence is located (the left side) and where the last word is located (on the right side, right before the period).  We discussed how the first word in a sentence has a capital letter and how words in a sentence have spaces in between.  We continued our work in our handwriting book by forming the letters b and f and wrote a few words.

In science, we wrote about where we have seen rocks in or around our school and how those rocks were being used.  Some students noticed rocks on our school building that helped to make our school.  Other students noticed how rocks were on the ground to make the road or the sidewalk, etc.  We also discussed the uses of water.  The students brainstormed that we use water to take showers, to drink, to wash clothes, to wash dishes, to go swimming, to go fishing, to water plants and more.  Next week, we will discuss the properties of water and compare tap water to pond water.  We will also discuss the uses of soil.

The Monkeys were excited to learn all about our superstar student, Alicia!

We were able to learn all about Alicia's life and interests!  We are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Agastya, next week.

Reminders

Please have your child return their book envelope if they have not already.  I will need their book envelope to give them new books on Monday.

Please donate empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls for our STEAM night project.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

Dec. 19th   Winter Party, 2:00 p.m.
12/20-1/7  Winter Break-No School

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

Agastya!

Morris December Birthdays:

Victoria-12/7

Happy Birthday Victoria!

News for the Week of November 26th

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break!  It was nice to see my Monkeys and get back into our regular routine.  We worked hard this week!

In math this week, we worked on comparing sets of objects to see which set had more or less.  We played a game where player one would spin the spinner and write their number.  Then player two spun the spinner and wrote their number.  The student who had the larger number won.  Then we switched it up and the student that had the smaller number won.  We will finish our unit on comparing numbers next week.

In language arts, we read the poem, Can You See Me?, which focused on the sight word "me."  We wrote the word "me" several times, looked for rhyming words in our poem and then colored the illustrations.  We listened to a book on Bookflix called We Are Alike, We Are Different to learn about similarities and differences between people.  This is part of our social studies unit.  We then drew and colored a picture of ourselves and a friend and then discussed how we are similar to our friend and how we are different.  For instance, "We both have hair, but our hair is different colors."  We read the book Two Eyes, A Nose and a Mouth by Roberta Intrater and made face puzzles of ourselves.  We then compared them to other friend's face puzzles.  We watched the video "What Makes a Family?" and discussed how are families are alike and how they are different.  For instance, we all like to have fun, but we may have fun in different ways.  The students then drew and colored a picture of their family.  We then worked on retelling stories on Thursday.  We read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and discussed the events in the story.  We then made a story retelling wheel craft.  The students could then spin their wheel to different pictures as they retold the story.  During our word study, we worked on identifying the middle sounds of words.  We sorted pictures by their middle sound and put them in the appropriate column. We continued our work in our handwriting book by forming the letter m and a few words.

In science, we read more information about rocks and wrote facts that we have learned.  We then made a "rock buddy" to go with our rock writing.  We will hang these up in the hallway this week.  We also went on a walk in and around the school to find rocks, water and soil.  We looked to see how rocks, soil and water were being used.  We will continue discussing the uses of rocks, soil and water next week.

The Monkeys are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Alicia, next week!

Reminders

Please have your child return their book envelope if they have not already.  I will need their book envelope to give them new books on Monday.

Please have your child bring their decorated shoe box lid to school on Monday.  You are decorating the shoe box lid with your family's holiday traditions.  I will form these into the shape of a Christmas tree and display them in the hallway where our turkeys were.

Please donate empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls for our STEAM night project.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

Dec. 5th     Bush's Spirit Night
Dec. 6th     Singing Stars Holiday Concert, 6:30 p.m.
Dec. 7th     Field Trip-Zach Scott Theater
Dec. 7th     Deadline for TAG referrals, 4:00 p.m.
Dec. 19th   Winter Party, 2:00 p.m.
12/20-1/7  Winter Break-No School

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

Alicia!

Morris December Birthdays:

Victoria-12/7