News from the Jungle

We have been working on text-to-text connections and have been reading all the different versions of the gingerbread man. We have read, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Cowboy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Ninjabread Man, The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, Catch that Cookie, and several versions simply titled The Gingerbread Man. The children learned about Venn diagrams and practiced comparing and contrasting key details from each story. The children also used their retelling skills using prop masks to act out one of the stories for the class.

This afternoon, we had to follow clues around the school to find our gingerbread men because they ran away from us just like in the story “Catch That Cookie.” We followed clues through the school until we caught our gingerbread men! Then we brought our cookies back to class and we decorated them!

We also did an experiment with a gingerbread cookie and asked the question, “What would have happened to the Gingerbread Man if he had tried to cross the river without the fox?” We put a cookie in water and made predictions what we thought was going to happen and then we observed what actually happened and compared the results to our predictions.

The class also had fun sharing their gingerbread in disguise! Thank you for your help with this project!

Enjoy the photos below from all of our gingerbread activities:

Upcoming Events

12/19 PBIS – Movie Theater

12/19 Winter Party (sign-up genius TBD)

12/20 Pajamas, Polar Express, and Pancakes! (sign-up genius TBD)

12/21 – 1/5 NO SCHOOL!!! Winter Break!

A look ahead…

1/10 Spelling Test #1: the, I, a, cat, bat, rat, mat, sat, hat (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – at. Practice extra -at words with your child such as pat, flat, splat)

1/17 Half Day! Dismissal at 11:40am

1/17 Spelling Test #2: to, in, you, can, man, tan, pan, ran, fan (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – an. Practice extra -an words with your child such as van, plan)

1/20 NO SCHOOL!! MLK JR. Day!!

1/21 Half Day! Dismissal at 11:40am

1/23 Timeline Project Due (note coming home 1/13)

1/24 No spelling test because of the short week

1/31 Spelling Test #3: it, am, do, jet, met, pet, set, net, vet (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – et. Practice extra -et words with your child such as vet, , splat)

Agenda for the Week

Reading & Writing:  This week we focused on beginning sounds vs. ending sounds. Many children know these, but are mixing them up. I taught the children how to play many center games which reinforce these skills. We have been working on our independence during Daily 5 so that once work is finished and the children have done their best work, they may go choose to play one of these games independently.

Please continue to have your child practice writing sentences at home by pretending they are holding an imaginary rubberband and stretching it as they slowly say the word they are trying to spell.

List #3 will be assessed on 12/18. As a reminder the words are: find, from, but, this, came, on, will, into, be, your, that.

All children are receiving one-on-one tutor time on the sight words using flash cards, magnetic letters, dry-erase white boards, and much more! If your child already knows the words on the list, we are working on having them write them! They have not truly mastered the word until they can read it and use it in their writing as well!

This week we worked on the letters Mm and Nn as well as the sounds these letters make. We learned how to write each letter and where each letter should be written on the line. All of the letters and sounds have been taught!!!

Please utilize RazKids, Readingeggs, and Mathseeds at home. These are all wonderful resources to progress your child’s skills. When your child first logs onto Readingeggs and Mathseeds, it will ask them to take an assessment. This assesses their skill set and places them at the lesson that is best suited for them. Some of your children may start on lesson one or some may start on lesson nine. I love these programs because they place the kids at their own learning level!

Math: We have been discussing measurement and vocabulary such as shorter, longer, taller, length, width, height, heavier, lighter. The children learned how to play a measurement game on the Promethean board and learned how to use a ruler to measure!

Science: We continued talking about different types of weather and discussing the different seasons. The children have been playing with different puzzles which build scenes of each season.

Social Studies:  We are discussing economic goods and services. We have been talking about places we go where we might buy something (grocery store, toy store, etc) or where we might pay for a service (getting hair cut, snow removal, etc)

Housekeeping Items:

Indoor Lineup

Indoor lineup is now at the 5th grade doors. Remember, even during indoor lineup, no parents are allowed in the building unless you have signed in at the front office.

Winter Apparel

Please practice putting on and taking off coats, boots, shoes, scarves, gloves, etc. As well as buttoning/zipping coats and tying their own shoes. Your child should be able to do all of these things independently!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized