Week of January 5-9

NEW NIGHTLY HOMEWORK LOGS!

Beginning this week you will notice a new nightly reading log in your child’s Nightly Notebook. Reading is being downsized from 4 nights to 3. Please sit with your child and listen to them read Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday. After your child has orally read, please place one check mark under each of the following headings: phrasing, accuracy, pace, retell/comprehension, & reading strategies. Please list the name of the story & sign it. You will notice a comment section. Feel free to “jot down” comments, questions, praise, or concerns you may have about your child’s reading. Hopefully the new reading log will serve several purposes: “points of interest” to be focusing in on, two-way communication with me concerning your child’s independent reading level, greater insight for implementation of new strategies for you & me. Our school district is also implementing a new "Champs" timed math facts program. Our district is requiring 4 minute timed homework practice twice a week. Each student will move up on their facts as they master each timed sheet. You will notice that your child has completed one timed side in class. Their homework will be on the reverse side. Please time your child (4 minutes), allow them to finish any unfinished problems if they run out of time, & then sign initial their paper. Thank You!

Mon: Read both books in your reading bag & log one.
Tues: Timed “Champs” math facts, read 1 hardback story & log it.
Wed: Reread your stories in your reading bag & log one.
Thur: Timed “Champs” math facts & reread hardback reader stories.
Fri: No Homework!

YEA! MRS. JONES PASSED HER NATIONAL BOARDS!
To learn more about the National Boards for Professional Teaching Standards check out their website...

http://www.nbpts.org/index.cfm

A Letter From The North Pole!!

Today we received a letter from Santa, postmarked the NORTH POLE! The letter still felt very cold when it was delivered. We passed it around so everyone could feel how cold it was. Santa told us that he was very proud of our behavior and that he would be visiting us very soon.

Christmas Party!!

Today we had our Christmas party! We wore our pajamas and played games. We ate pancakes, bacon, bananas, & cinnamon rolls. It was a lot of fun begin together & celebrating!

It's pajama day today!

We played bingo!

We also played pass the present to music.
I am full!

Thank You Parents!!!

We wanted to send out a BIG thank you to our parents for sending all of the items needed for our Christmas party! We appreciated all the food you sent! We also appreciated all of the parents who came to our party and volunteered their time!! We also wanted to thank Lisa Calico (Bright Briar's mom) for making all of our pancakes. They were so yummy!!!

Christmas Card Exchange

Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards from across the United States! We loved getting them and reading about your classrooms & schools. We plan on visiting your classroom websites/blogs soon! This activity gave us information about different states & classrooms. We learned that even though you are far away from us...we have many things in common.

Dust Pan Award!

Yea! We won the Dust Pan Award during Gorilla Pride December 16th!!!

CHRISTMAS PARTY DATE CHANGED!!

Parents, the date of our classroom Christmas party has changed from Thursday to FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19TH 9:00-10:00 AM. My mother will be going into the hospital for a medical procedure on Thursday & I will need to be with her. We will wear our pajamas to the party on Friday. I apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

NO SCHOOL TODAY!

There's no day like a snow day!

December 15th!

Holiday Classroom Card Exchange

We are so excited! We will be participating in another online project. It is a classroom Christmas card exchange. We will be sending out Christmas cards to 23 different classrooms in the US. We will also be getting 23 cards from the same classrooms. The students are really looking forward to this project. Today we set up one of our bulletin boards with a US map. When we receive a card, we plan on hanging it up then connecting a piece of yarn from the card to the state where it was mailed. We will keep you posted as we receive the cards. I will be asking each child to bring one stamp. Each student will get to put their stamp on one of the out going cards.
http://sites.google.com/site/holidaycardexchange2008/

We have recieved cards from the following classrooms/schools:

St. Dorothy School - Chicago, Illinois

Bonlee School - Bonlee, North Carolina

Frisbie Elementary - Wolcott, Connecticut

Anthony Elementary - Anthony, Kansas

Mrs. Hopwood's - Riverside, California

Painted Sky Elementary - Tucson, Arizona

Prosperity-Rikard Elementary School - Prosperity, South Carolina

21st Century Preparatory School - Racine, Wisconsin

McCleary School - McCleary, Washington

Neptune Beach Elementary - Neptune Beach, Florida

Team 4 Shaker Heights - Cleveland, Ohio

LaFayette Regional School - Franconia, New Hampshire

Paine Intermediate - Trussville, Alabama

St. Joseph Catholic School - Athens, Georgia

Blue Springs Elementary - Cleveland, Tennessee

Aquebogue Elementary School - Aquebogue, New York

St. Augustine of Canterbury School - Kendall Park, New Jersey

St. Joseph School - Muskogee, Oklahoma

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School - Houston, Texas

Christmas Around The World - Germany & Mexico

Today "Oma" (grandma) Dunn came to our classroom to share Christmas traditions from Germany. She told us about growing up in Germany & their Christmas traditions. She also shared what Christmas was like during the end of WWII. She brought several things to show us from her childhood: handmade table clothes made by her mother, tree candle holders, craft books, & much more. Children clean & polish their shoes then leave them out for Santa Clause (Chris Kringle). Santa leaves small gifts, sweets, chocolates, & nuts for the children in their polished shoes. She brought us sweets & chocolates. They were so yummy!!!! She also told us that Christmas trees are the first gift of Christmas from parents to their children. They put them up on Christmas. Oma also brought us an advent calendar. The students enjoyed looking through the holiday craft & cooking books. She shared a fable with us about the "Golden Coin Child." The moral of the story, giving...not recieving is important. We want to thank our dear Oma for sharing everything with us!

A Peek At Our Week Dec 8-12th

This week will be discussing long vowel patterns of a, e, & o. We will be making words & attempting to increase our fluency with several neat activities. We will be working on our “hush, hush” Christmas gifts for our parents. During math this week we will focus on doubles & missing addends in fact families. We will travel to Mexico & Germany with a special guest (Oma Dunn) who was raised in Germany. I will be gone this Friday to Oklahoma City, to cheer on my daughter Lauren & the TMS pom squad. They will be competing in the State Dance Finals. They are defending champions (proud mom can you tell). I have spoken to the students about following the classroom/school procedures while I am away. I know they will try their best for me!

ACR - Accelerated Reader

We have started taking ACR (Accelerated Reading) computer tests over library books in our classroom. Mrs. Jones checks our individual ACR scores each Friday. Individually we earn a free Braum's ice cream ticket for every 6 passed tests. ACR is a way to measure our comprehension. We love ACR!

Christmas Is Coming!

To kick off our Christmas Around the World we put up our tree.