Progress Reports

I just wanted everyone to know that progress reports will be sent home tomorrow. You will notice that each goal is labeled with Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 for each quarter. Q2 are the new goals that I will be assessing for the next report card. If your child has a "+" next to the Q2 they have already mastered the goal and will have a MS on their report card in a few weeks. If they have a check mark next to the goal they are approaching the standard, and the "-" means they need support. I have seen so much progress in my classroom. The students are beginning to write journal pages on their own, reading by themselves, and I have seen so much improvement on everyone's hand writing.  I hope you are all as pleased with the progress reports as I am!

December 20th

December 20th will be our holiday party day and Polar Express day at school. If you would like to help with the party and you were not notified for our fall party, please email me and let me know that you would like to be a party volunteer (unless you have already talked to Barbara Johns). I cannot believe that Christmas is almost here!

Canned Food Drive

We are still collecting cans this week and next for the food drive. I explained to the students that this is a way that we can help people in our community who may not be able to afford food. Please try to have a meaningful conversation with your child about why we help people if you're giving them food to bring to school for the food drive (and even if you're not). I like to turn every opportunity into a learning experience. I believe that it is very important for children to learn about helping our neighbors at a young age.

A Lesson For the Teacher

I love moments in my classroom that I realize I am learning just as much as the students are. The moments came to me yesterday...As Thanksgiving is upon us, I have begun talking about Native Americans and Pilgrims in the classroom. To kick off the unit, one of our parents, a Shawnee Indian, came to talk to our class about the traditions and customs of her tribe. I believe that it is very important to expose children to different cultures, and this was an amazing experience for the students. She brought in many things for the students to see and explained that all of the items handmade by her family. The students were in awe! She even let us listen to a song that the children of her tribe dance to and the students were excited to hear the man in the song singing the words to Sponge Bob. Please take some time to talk to your children about this experience. Discuss the reason behind learning about Native Americans for Thanksgiving. Who was at the First Thanksgiving? Don't forget to explain that Native Americans have always been on this land. They were here long before Columbus got here. It is important to share facts with our children. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr040.shtml
We will continue our Thanksgiving lesson the week after break and have a feast at the end of that week!

http://www.indians.org/articles/shawnee-indians.html

Read Aloud

No one has signed up to read for next Wednesday. Please go to Volunteer Spot and sign up if you're available! Thank you :)

Estimation

We have started talking about estimation in math and the definition of estimation. After today we understand that an estimation is a "smart guess" that you make when something cannot be counted. We practiced using counting bears in a jar. I have sent home home-link page 15 for the students to work on with you. In the home-link it asks the family to begin collecting pennies in a jar. Throughout the week make estimations about how many pennies in the jar. After making an estimation, count the actual number. Please practice saying "I think there are ABOUT ___ pennies in the jar today." I want the students to understand that we say "about" because we do not know the exact number until we count. I think this will be a fun activity for you to work on as a family. Get them thinking!
Also, I have started talking about what we do if we do not know what a word means. We have been talking about dictionaries and definitions. Please take some time to sit down with your child and look at a dictionary. Next time you're reading a story to them and there are words they do not know, take the time to look them up and show your child how to search for words in a dictionary. 

Read Aloud

Thanks to a reminder from one of the parents, I have updated my volunteer spot page and I have sign ups for read aloud in November available now. There are only 3 days available in November because of our week off.  We'd love to see some new faces in our room (not that we don't love the read aloud volunteers that have been coming)!