February In the Know

We had another great visit to the library today! One of our themes/topics for February is weather and changing seasons. The kids made this super cute craft today which we brought back to school and put in our classroom window.

This month we will explore the topic of weather and how it effects both small and large decisions (clothes to wear, kind of shelter to build etc.).

I will send out a Sign-up Genius link soon for mid-year optional parent-teacher conferences. This year the conferences will be student led. Think of this more as a student showcase and an opportunity for your child to share with you what they are learning.

Our 100th Day of School was a big success! I want to send a huge thank you out to Tammy Banas for providing the best 100th day of school snack ever! We did several activities that involved strengthening number sense, went to the $1 Tree with our 100 pennies, and even stopped at Baskin Robbins for some ice cream...just because 😋.

Moving forward my expectations for the class will continue increasing, and I have been very proud to see how most of the students have stepped up to the plate with the new homework outline! Keep up the good work!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner; we will learn who St. Valentine was and how holidays change over time. A sheet will be sent home today explaining how Valentine's will be distributed throughout the school. I am encouraging our class to write a little note and make Valentine's for the kids in our class only. I'm discouraging our class from making valentines for the entire student body; however, this is your choice. In the past it has been much less chaotic and easy to manage when our class stayed together; this also solved the problem of going home with mass amounts of sugar😜!

Important Dates: 
2/18- President's Day- no school
2/25- optional MOY conferences start
2/26- Amelia Earhart play (at school)
2/28- library books are due (I noticed many students have a balance on their account)
3/1-Dr. Seuss Day at school for our class only
3/2- Dr. Seuss Day at the HP library (This is not a school trip or function, but something you may want to do with your family. See the flier to the left for details.)

New Homework

The class is super excited about our 100th day of school on Wednesday! We will use this special day as an opportunity to build number sense in the base 10 system. We will also leave campus around 10:00 for a trip to the $1.00 store. Each day since the first day of school we have been adding a penny to a chart and making change for nickels, dimes and quarters all in anticipation of this trip! Stay tuned later this week for pictures from the day.

I have updated the weekly homework. Please encourage your child to respond to what they are reading each night through writing. I have posted suggestions for writing topics on the back of the homework sheet. Also, please feel free to use another sheet of paper and attach it if your child needs more space. Everything else will remain the same. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Happy New Year!

We are back and ready to start 2019 strong! Thank you so much for reading with your children over the break; it's amazing how much momentum kids can lose over two weeks when they have gotten out of the routine of reading and counting. Today was the 83rd day of school which means that the middle of the school year is in a couple of weeks! I will start middle of year assessments next week, and we will have our mid-year conferences in February.

Our theme for this January is house and home. We will look at how topography affects the kinds of structures that are used for shelter. Please continue to work on homework, and I will send home a penmanship packet next week. Please review this with your child.

Below are a few snapshots taken before the break- we sure did have a good time!

Upcoming Dates:

• 1/17 trip to library 
• 1/21 MLK Day - no school
• 1/30 100th day of school- class trip to Dollar Tree 

Field Trip Time Change and Report Cards

I apologize for the change, but I was just told that we will need to leave school AT 7:45, so I would plan on being here by at least 7:30 😧 on Tuesday (12/4).

Also, I sent home report cards today; there was some confusion with formatting, so you will notice that there are no grades for specials. However, I didn't want to keep holding back the report cards from you any longer, so you will receive a separate report card with the specials grades when we get them.

Field Trips Next Week

Next Tuesday (12/4) our class will join the lower school for a trip to Marbles Children's Museum in Durham. We plan on leaving promptly at 8:00, so we encourage you to have your child at school by 7:45. The only thing kids will need to bring is a bagged lunch, even if you ordered lunch for them that day.  If you would like to join us please let me know!

Library books are due tomorrow, so if you haven't renewed or returned them, today is the day to do so. If you renew, we will return the books when we go back to the library on Thursday (12/6).

Our class Christmas party will be on Friday, December 14th. We will start with an unveiling of our class book "Christmas Is" at 1:00. This is also the time you can receive the copies of the class book that you ordered.

In the know- November

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is the week after next! We have a ton of work to get done this month, and not much time to do it; however, everyone has already made significant headway this year. This is such a wonderful class, we have been able to get a lot accomplished and we want to keep that momentum going! Our themes this month are: Native Americans, Pilgrims and barn & forest animals. This month we will be looking at the story of Thanksgiving to tell the things that the same and different between two texts on the same topic. We will also work on both recognizing and using adjectives in our own writing. In math we are using a number line and a hundred chard to explain how to find 10 more or 10 less than a 2 digit number. We will also use strategies to add a 2-digit number to a 1-digit number within 10.

Important Dates: 
11/8- library trip
11/12- school closed
11/20- 11:00 dismissal
11/21-11/23- Thanksgiving break
12/4- Primary and Lower School trip to Marbles Children's Museum (volunteers needed!)
12/6- library trip
12/19- 11:00 dismissal and beginning of Christmas break

A huge thank you goes out to Donna Cumby for planning and executing our Halloween party and Tammy Banas for helping! I know the kids had a ball!

Halloween Party!

We have a lot going on over the next few weeks! This Thursday is a half day, and we will start dismissing at 11:00. Friday there is no school because many of us will be presenting at this year's NCAIS conference at Greensboro Day School. I'm trying to figure out how to share my presentation with you, but PowerPoint and Google Blogger do not play well together! However, if I find a way to do this I will share it with you soon. Halloween is next week, and we are encouraging students to come to school in their costumes (no masks or weapons please). That morning we will go to the library for their harvest celebration, and we will have our class party from 1:30-2:20. We are looking for volunteers to help with this, so if you are interested please email me. A huge thank you to Donna Cumby for planning this fun event for us! Also, library books are due on Thursday, so I would renew them so that there won't be any fines when we return them next week!

Reminders:

• Thursday dismissal is at 11:00
• No school Friday
• Renew library books before Thursday
• email Jon about helping with the Halloween party