Great Day Today!

Hi,

We had a great day today! Everyone worked hard and had some fun. I was impressed with the way people thought before speaking and acting and helped each other. Thank you for talking to your child at home and reminding them of the importance of respectful, hard working behavior.

Our Pen Pals are coming to school on Friday for a visit. We will also have a visit from the author and illustrator, David Crosby. Friday will also include a concert from the Ridgeview band, choir, and orchestra. It will be a fun and busy day!

Service Club! Members from the FCE Service Club had a busy weekend. We went to the Round Rock Serving Center on Saturday and volunteered. We took some book donations (keep those book donations coming), organized food in the pantry, made holiday crafts with kids in the waiting area, sorted and hung up clothes in the Thrift Shop, and helped in the compost garden. On Sunday, we took fleece blankets made by the Service Club to the Emergency Shelter in Starry. We played with the children there, ate snacks, did crafts, and played a crocodile video game. We had a lot of fun helping members of our community this weekend. The Service Club is meeting on Tuesday afternoon (12/6) from 2:45-4:00. We will be going to Mrs. Arnold's room and making clay bowls for Round Rock's Empty Bowl project which raises money for the Round Rock Serving Center. We will make the bowls on Tuesday then Mrs. Arnold will fire them. We will then glaze them at another meeting. The Empty Bowl Project will be in April. All 4th and 5th graders are welcome to come and join the Service Club. Helping others is a great way to spend our time! Thanks to all the parents and kids for their work this weekend and throughout the year in Service Club.

Here's what we did this week:


Reading/Social Studies-We integrated some more social studies into our reading by reading about missions and empresarios. A mission simulation was very fun during which the children pretended to be Native Americans at a mission. They had to silently pick beans, sleep on the floor, learn some Spanish words, draw tools that were made, and go to the chapel to listen to chants. It helped them realize that although the missions protected the Native Americans from attacks from other tribes and helped provide food, that the Native Americans lost their language, their religion, and their freedom. We also pretended to be Empresarios like Stephen F. Austin. Reading from the translated version of the laws about the settlers (had to be Catholic, had to speak Spanish, had to be hard-working, and of good moral conduct). We then read letters from prospective settlers and decided whether we would let them into our new colonies. Then we made posters to advertise for settlers to come to Texas. Reading book club books and writing reading responses were also a part of our week.

Reading Logs-Many children did not turn in a completed reading log today. Be sure that your child is reading and writing down their reading. The logs do count as a grade. We will be having a Holiday Reading Contest. Who can read the most minutes over the winter holiday? Everyone is still required to read during the break. For the holidays, the class is required to read a total of 200 minutes. The readers with the highest numbers will be receiving prizes. Have fun over the break but keep reading and keep working on Firstinmath.com.

Writing-Essays are continuing to be our focus. We learned about outlining an essay by determining a central idea (box) and supporting details or examples. (bullets) We made several plans using boxes and bullets and then are deciding on which idea we have enough information about to expand into an essay. We started writing rough drafts then will revise our leads and conclusions, work on word choice, voice, and sentence fluency. Then we will edit for spelling, punctuation, grammar, complete sentences, paragraphing, and capitalization. Copying and/or typing our essays will be part of our publishing and then we will share! Our plan is to finish writing these essays before the holidays.

Math-We will continue to work on multiplication facts and problem solving but have begun working on division. We are doing a lot with fact families and what to do with remainders in a division problem. We are using lots of manipulatives and drawing to help us all understand the concept of division. Fractions are coming next.

Science-Electricity and forms of energy was fun and now we are working on forces (gravity, friction, etc...) We did a demonstration using a pendulum made from yarn, a paper clip, a washer, and a pencil taped and hanging off the edge of the table. We worked on the web surfing for forces today and will be continuing this concept this week. Information about Science Projects will be coming soon.

Holiday Party-look for information from Michelle Geyer about our holiday party. It will be on Friday, December 16 from 1:45-2:45. We will also be decorating gingerbread houses with our first grade reading buddies in the morning on Dec. 16. We will need lots of donations for the party and the gingerbread houses. You will be getting an email soon. Supplies for the gingerbread houses need to be in school by Tuesday, December 13.

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, December 6-Choir Tour 8:30-2:00, Service Club 2:45-4:00pm
Wednesday, December 7-Early Release-12:45 (lunch choices are-tray one=cheese pizza strips, tray three=spicy chicken wrap, tray four=hummus bowl, no tray two)
Friday, December 9-Ridgeview concerts, Pen Pal Visit, Author Visit
Monday, December 12-Running Club
Tuesday, December 13-Math Club
Thursday, December 15-Writing Club
Friday, December 16-Gingerbread Houses with 1st graders, Holiday Party at 1:45
Saturday, December 17-Monday, January 2-Winter Break

Thanks for sharing your child with me. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew