I hope you are staying warm and enjoying some family time this weekend.We have a busy, fun week, but will still be working hard and learning a lot.
Gingerbread Houses with 1st Grade Reading Buddies
We will make gingerbread houses (graham crackers on milk cartons) with our first grade buddies on Monday morning. We love reading with our buddies each week and are looking forward to making houses together.
Mentor Visit
Our mentors from The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility will come on Tuesday from 9:15-10:30. We will interview them about traditions and their celebrations in December and will play games together. We learn a lot about the past from our mentors and enjoy spending time with them.
Biography December Monthly Challenge Lunch Treat
On Wednesday we will have lunch in the classroom and have a treat to celebrate those students who read and wrote a notecard about a biography in December. We will talk about biographies and discuss our books with each other as we eat and enjoy a little treat. The biography notecards are due on Tuesday.
Holiday Party
Our holiday party will be on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 1:00 in our classroom. Thank you to Mrs. Alexander who is organizing our party and all families who donated items or signed up to donate. Here is the link to sign up.
https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/
Literacy Night-Passport for Adventure
Thank you to all the families who were able to attend our Literacy Night. There were amazing projects from each continent and tables with displays from different countries. Our fourth graders did a great job on projects from Asia. Our Fun Friday play group performed some folk tales from Asian countries and our Fun Friday Japanese Art group created some wonderful drawings and writing. The reading classes read folktales and/or researched countries in Asia and created slide shows, Prezi presentations, and posters. These projects help us understand different cultural practices and help us appreciate and celebrate our similarities and differences. We learned a lot and they did a super job.
Libraries of Love-Book Drive for Africa
Our Libraries of Love Book Drive is on! We will collect donations of new or gently used HARD COVER books that will go to Africa for the children. This year, we are helping Libraries of Love build 7 new libraries in the Maasai Country in Kenya. We are so excited to be part of this project. Our school will have a Walk to Read Event on Friday, Jan. 13 at 1:15 and will collect more books and donations until that day. Learn more at https://librariesoflove.org/.
Winter Break Reading Log
All students should be excited and motivated to read everyday. Be sure to talk to your child about what they are reading. Read together and share your thoughts and analysis about the book. Talk to them about books and articles that you read and encourage him/her to discuss their reading with you. Each student needs to read at least 200 minutes over the winter holiday. We will be out of school for 18 days, so that makes about 11 minutes a day. (Ideally, they should read about 30 minutes a day). The students that read 200 minutes and bring in a signed reading log (or piece of paper with minutes read and a parent's signature) will get to pick a prize. However, the prize is not important. Here are some articles about reading at home. http://www.scilearn.com/sites/default/files/imported/alldocs/rsrch/30388RAExtra10min.pdf , http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/opinion/patterson-kids-reading/, https://phoenixacademyomaha.org/read-for-20-minutes-each-day/, http://www.pennykittle.net/uploads/images/PDFs/Reports/why-cant-I-skip-reading.pdf
My goal is for the students to read a lot at their level (a little challenging but still able to be done independently), and discuss books and their reading with family and friends. We will set up Google Classroom on Monday, so the kids can write about their reading online and share their thinking with classmates. My ultimate goal is for all the students to love to read and to be motivated to read independently. Thank you for modeling and encouraging reading at home. Thank you for taking time to talk to your child about books and reading and to make reading a focus in your family. I am so excited to read about their reading and share my own reading as well. Happy Reading!
Here is a link to the Coyote Call Newsletter from this week. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y4kI3Jci1Tg7wO1PzUd2uKaEUwRfr3kkFCscJUmkFh0/edit
Read about our week:
Reading-We are finishing up our study of biography and will take a reading DCA on biography on Wednesday. Reading Response letters are due on Thursday this week.
Writing-We will continue to write expository pieces this week and work on organization and elaborating. We are working on our own individual writing goals to improve the effectiveness of our writing.
Spelling-We won't have a spelling test this week, but will continue to review homophones, plurals, possessives, contractions, and words with silent letters.
Grammar-Run on sentences will be a focus this week (and most weeks). We will work on ways to correct and stop the run on.
Social Studies-We will learn more about missions and analyze the impact (positive and negative) that missions in Texas had on Native Americans and on the settling of Texas. We will also share our Asia projects.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, Dec. 12-College Shirt Day, Gingerbread Houses with Reading Buddies, Service Club 2:50-3:50 pm
Tuesday, Dec. 13-Mentors will visit from 9:15-10:35. Turn in cards for Biography Monthly Challenge
Wednesday, Dec. 14-Monthly Challenge Treat at lunch time-Biography
Thursday, Dec. 15-Winter Party for fourth grade at 1:00 pm in classrooms, Homework packets due. Reading Response Letters due, NO SPELLING TEST
Friday, Dec. 16-Winter Break begins-Winter Break Reading Contest!
Tuesday, Jan. 3-Welcome back to school! Be safe, enjoy time with family and friends, and read everyday! Winter Break Reading Logs (200 minutes, signed by parent) due for grade.
Have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing your child with me. Let me know if you have any concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam
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