Christmas Candle Tea

We had a great time going to the Moravian Candle Tea last week at Old Salem. We learned about how candles were made and how people celebrated Christmas in the the 18th century. We also go to see the home of "Sister Mouse," a fictional character we read about in class. We are looking forward to our Author's Tea, and we hope to see you there at 1:15 Tuesday!

December Homework

This week we will not assign homework so that families will have more time to celebrate together. However, we strongly encourage students to continue reading for at least 20 minutes at night, and continue working on Xtramath, Reading Eggs and Math Seeds.

December Highlights

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in primary this month! The primary teaching team will attend the last Math Foundations conference this week; we have missed being in the classroom but have gained a wealth of information that we are excited to share with the kids. We will start posting strategies and techniques on this blog to help you, help your child at home. Most importantly we are teaching "outside the algorithm" and helping students deepen their understanding of place value and number manipulation. Of course we have a lot going on with literacy too, and we are constantly assessing and re-evaluating groups and placement. Our themes this month are gift-givers and Christmas. We have planned a trip to attend the Moravian Candle Tea at Old Salem on December 9th; unfortunately, due to limited tickets and reservations we are not be able to invite parents to join us. However, we are encouraging all families to join us at school on December 19th at 1:15 for our author's tea when we will unveil our class book, Christmas Is... Immediately following the tea we will have our class Christmas party. Josiah's mom, Kara Deese is overseeing this party. If you are interested in volunteering to help, please contact her. We hope to see you there!  

Reading Eggs/ Mathseeds trial

Our class is giving a new online reading and math program a trial. The blurb on the site states: " Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities. And it really works! Children love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards which, along with feeling proud of their reading, really motivate children to keep exploring and learning." 

Reading Eggs also has a "sister site" titled Mathseeds. Reading Eggs and Mathseeds can both be accessed from the same login site here and iPad app.

  "Mathseeds teaches kids aged 3-8 the core math and problem solving skills needed to be successful at school with fun, highly interactive and rewarding lessons. Mathseeds combines highly structured lessons with fun motivational elements that keep children engaged and keen to learn."

This is a trail, please send us feedback about the programs, and if you would or would not like to continue using this as part of your child's homework/ computer work. 

We will not have any formal homework assignments next week due to Thanksgiving. However, please encourage your child to work on Reading Eggs and Mathseeds daily as part of their "homework" next week. We will send home logins and passwords this week. 

Our Class book is here!

Be sure to save the date for our Author's Tea and class book unveiling - December 19th @ 1:15. The class worked hard on the book, and I think they have put together something that they should be proud of. We received the books back from the publisher this week, and they look great! I will hold the books until our class party on December 19th. However, if you ordered books as gifts, or need you copy early please let me know, and I will be happy to send it to you ASAP.

This video is a peek at the publishing process- part of what we hope the kids will learn from this experience.

November

This month we are going to build on that concept by deepening our understanding of place value and properties. Our themes this month are forest and farm animals, Native Americans, Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and food!  We have a field trip planned on the 18^th to see Pinkie and Blue, an original play at UNCG, and we will take our monthly trip to the library on the 16^th. We have also sent off the manuscript of our class book to get published.  This year we are combining our Author’s Tea and class Christmas party, so we hope you will be able to attend! Mark your calendars now for December 19^th. 

The following are a few snapshots from our trip to J. Razz & Tazz Farm:

Happy Halloween!

We had a great day Monday! It was so fun to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes! We had a lot of fun, and got some learning in too.

We discussed the history of Hallowe'en, and learned about it's symbols and traditions. We also made predictions, measured, floated, and made arrays with three pumpkins and their seeds. Thank you to the families who donated the pumpkins so that we were able to do all of these fun activities!

The crowning moment of the day was our class Hallowe'en party! I know all of the kids had a blast! A huge thank you to Debbie Koonce for organizing the party, and to Vivian Goff, Chris Dupre, Heather Bowman, Kerrin Jarrell, Kera Deese and Thomas Wear for volunteering to help! The following are some pictures of the holiday fun: