Class News - November 30

CURRICULAR NOTES

In reading this week, we’ve learned about words starting with clusters (gr-, fr-, tr-) and contractions with the word is (he’s, she’s, who’s, that’s). We also worked on categorizing and classifying information as we read to make sure we’re understanding stories. Finally, we’re just wrapping up our author study of Tomie dePaola. We read some of his nonfiction books this week, including The Popcorn Book, The Quicksand Book, and The Cloud Book. Students are continuing to work on a cross-curricular art project with Mrs. Craven based on another dePaola book, The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.
In math this week, we started a chapter on geometry. Students have identified different ways to sort objects and shapes and focused on math terms like geometry, side, corner, and vertex.
During our social studies time this week, we’ve had two Junior Achievement lessons. We discussed the importance of jobs that family members do both inside and outside the home and we created a map showing where to obtain our needs and wants within our community.
In science, we’ve started a new unit on living and non-living things. Students have learned terms like trait, necessity, natural, man-made, living, and non-living. We also began learning about traits specific to mammals and listed different types of mammals.
In writing this week, we started a new writing project called Special Me. Students are planning and drafting their stories about what makes each one of them special and unique.

SPELL-EBRATION
Thanks again so much for all your help with our Spell-ebration fundraiser! I’m happy to report that our class spelled a total of 206 words correctly and raised over $890 for our school. What a huge achievement! Our “Breakfast in Bed…clothes” party was a huge success—especially with the addition of a surprise blizzard! Watching the snow and eating pancakes was a fun way to spend the morning, and a great way to celebrate all our hard work!

REMINDER
I wanted to give everyone a heads-up reminder about the dates that I’m planning to be out of school on maternity leave. I’m planning (let’s cross our fingers!) to be here through December 21^st at 1:00 when we dismiss for Winter Break. I plan on returning the week following Spring Break, starting March 24^th. Our 1^st graders are starting to get very excited about the baby coming, asking me for daily updates on how many days until he or she gets here!