News from the Jungle

PTA did not accept any popcorn money today. If you sent in popcorn money it is coming back in your child’s green folder. There will be more popcorn sales in the future.

The school store was supposed to be open yesterday. Due to the snow day, this did not happen. There will be another opportunity for school store next month.

It is a long morning from 8:35 when the children arrive until 12:40 when we go to lunch. Those little tummies get hungry! Please remember to send a snack to school with your child, even on days when they are buying a lunch.

Please make sure that your child has their green book pouches with them each and every day. These are an important part to our Daily five learning. Thank you for your support in making sure the children are prepared with all of their learning materials each day!

PLEASE PUT YOUR CHILD ON READING EGGS AND MATH SEEDS EACH NIGHT!!!!

If you misplaced your child’s login and need the information again, please email me at dimitrm@dearbornschools.org

Upcoming Events

12/18 – 12/20 Candy Gram Sales

12/20 Late Start

12/20 Polar Express and Pajama Day (more information coming home soon)

12/22 PBIS Celebration – Movie Theater (at Haigh)

12/25 – 1/5 Winter Break – No School!!!!

Agenda for the Week

Spelling Words for our next spelling test on 12/22: 

to, am, you, can, man, tan, pan, ran, fan

Plus a bonus word which will be one of the following words: van, plan, Dan, Jan, ran

The purpose of the bonus word is to assess whether the children understand the word family pattern of each word ending in the same two letters -an.

These words will be in the homework which will come home on Monday.

The children did well with taking their first spelling test and are learning good test taking strategies and skills for the future. The spelling tests are taken in a spelling booklet. This booklet will come home on Monday and will be expected to be reviewed, signed, and returned to school on Tuesday. This will be the protocol for the test booklets each week. At the end of the year, the test booklets will be sent home for you to keep.

Reading and Writing: We are all done with the letters of the alphabet! Please be sure to still keep your child accountable for writing the letters correctly and on the line.

This week we continued working on text connections. We reviewed text-to-text connections, and text-to-self connections. We really focused on text-to-text when we read many different versions of the gingerbread man, The children loved comparing the stories and identifying things that were the same from story to story and things that were different. We read versions of The Gingerbread Man that were very similar to the story we all know, we also read stories about ninjabread men, gingerbread girls, gingerbread babies, gingerbread men lose in the school, and so many more!

The children worked on retelling and used character prop masks to act out the characters in the original version of The Gingerbread Man. We thought about how we could be actors just like the actors that we saw on our field trip at Pete the Cat.

At the end of the day today, one of our gingerbread stories came to life! In the story Catch that Cookie, a class makes gingerbread men cookies and they run away. The cookies leave clues for the boys and girls in the class and if they are able to find them, they can eat them. I hid clues around the school and hid gingerbread cookies. The class was very excited to run around and try to find the cookies. The children just couldn’t believe that the cookies had run away just like they did in the story!

Pictures of this event will be posted soon!

Math: The children took their first math test today! These tests will come home on Monday. This was a good experience and the children are learning test taking skills for the future!

Next week we will focus on learning +1. Our test will be on Friday. Here is an example of equations which will be on the test: 0+1, 1+1, 2+1, 3+1 or it may be written 1+3.

We talk in class about how it can be written either way when adding numbers together. 1+4 OR 4+1 — the answer is still the same!

Remember, the flashcards sent home last week were just an example of how you could help support your child’s learning. Please have your child practice the answers on paper. You could give them a practice test! This will help them get used to writing the answer by themselves and prepare them for the test.

Here are some addition videos to support your child’s learning:

Here are some addition videos:

Science: We continue learning about weather and the four seasons. We learned about thermometers and how they measure how hot or cold it is outside. The children all did well on their science test today!

Social Studies: We are learning about economic goods and services. This concept is a little difficult for the children to understand as most of them do not go out and pay for things themselves! We have discussed many places you could go and pay for a service such as a restaurant, nail salon, hair salon, etc. We have also discussed buying goods, which is a little easier for the children to understand paying for something and taking it home such as food from the grocery store, toys from the store, etc.

Housekeeping Items:

Parents need to sign in at the office if you want to enter the building with your child. This is for the safety of all children at Haigh Elementary and is a district policy.

Cold Weather:

The cold weather is upon us and so comes the days of hats, mittens, scarves, boots, and maybe even snow pants. Many of these items can easily become lost throughout the day with them being taken on and off for arrival, recess, lunch, dismissal, etc. Please label your child’s belongings in order to help these items find their way back home in the event that any should be misplaced.

Also, it would be a huge help if you could practice zipping and unzipping coats, putting on and taking off hats, scarves, mittens/gloves, snow boots, shoes, and snow pants. Please consider the time it takes you to get one child ready for the cold weather and multiply that by 24!!!! Help me foster independence in your children by practicing all these skills at home in order to make them self-sufficient at school.

Additionally, Mr. Short has asked that no parents enter the building unless they have signed in at the office. This means that your child will need to enter the building without you and independently unpack and take off their winter accessories by themselves. This will help your child get ready for First grade! We want to send big, independent children to First grade!

Thank you for all of your help and assistance in helping the children become more independent!

Snack Time

**** Due to a peanut allergy in our room, please do not send in any snacks that contain nuts.*****

Folders

Please make sure to empty the green folders 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. Remember to initial the communication log and feel free to add any notes to me!