IMPORTANT DATES:
• December 10~ Polar Express Day in first grade: Wear your pajamas!
• December 16~ First Grade White Christmas program at 9 am
Wear a red shirt and blue jeans.•
December 17~ Half-Day and Class Christmas Party
Please send $1.50 to help cover the cost of goodies and supplies
If you would like to volunteer to help at the party, please let me know.
WHITE CHRISTMAS Food drive and Money Collection will continue through the rest of December. I am so overwhelmed by the compassion that our children have already shown! So far, our class has collected 38 food items and $51.51! (This has been a wonderful opportunity to practice counting money, too!) Thank you for encouraging your child to think of others at this special time of year.
FROM THE LIBRARY: Our class will no longer go as a “whole class” to library on Wednesdays. The children will be allowed to check out books individually before school, during snack time, and WITH A PARENT until 3:30.
A special holiday event sponsored by the Oconee County Public Library invites the community to give the gift of a library card this holiday season. Now through December 13th, parents and other caretakers of children are encouraged to fill out a special holiday library card application for their child. Applications will be available at all Oconee County Public Library branches, local businesses, and elementary schools. The applications should be mailed in or turned into a library branch by December 13th.
After the application has been submitted, the “library elves” will create a library account for the child and mail them a card in a holiday envelope, along with a special candy cane bookmark. The gift of a library card is a great stocking stuffer, or would make a perfect addition to gifts under the tree. If a child already has an account with the library they will be mailed a holiday envelope and book mark, with a note congratulating them on having a library card. All cards will be mailed on December 16th.
The card becomes a magical key to open worlds of facts and imaginings for children. A card is often the first public possession a child has. It teaches responsibility as well as opening doors to learning and enjoyment. Best of all it is free and such a wonderful gift for a child.
For more information contact OCPL at 638-4133 or visit their website at www.oconee.lib.sc.us You can also get an application from your child’s teacher, the Westminster Elementary School Library, or our school’s front office.
SNACKS: Thank you to Ryleigh and her mom for making trail mix to share with the class on days we forget snack! It’s always nice to have extra snacks on hand.
TAKE HOME READERS: Please set a timer for 15 minutes as your child reads. I realize that one Take Home Reader doesn’t take 15 minutes to read, so please begin to set up an area with library books and personal books that your child can read after reading the THR. You may also use this time to review the first grade high frequency words.
Language Arts: We will be reading books by Mercer Mayer throughout the next couple of weeks. We’ll use these books to study the “story elements” of Characters, Setting, Problem and Solution. We are also beginning to read and write about CHRISTMAS!
We’re learning about vowel “teams,” such as ea, ai, and oa. We are also beginning to learn more about reading and spelling BLENDS, such as sn, sl, pr, cl, st, etc. We will learn more about contractions, such as can’t, I’ll, I’m, isn’t, etc.
In writing, we are focusing on getting good ideas for writing. We’re continuing to work on spelling basic high frequency words correctly, and stretching out other words. Today we received our very own DICTIONARIES to use in our Writing Workshop. We reviewed alphabetical order. We’re going to be working harder on including finger spaces in between the words as we write. We are working on writing complete sentences, with capital letters at the beginning and a period or question mark at the end.
M&M Math Masters: Congratulations to our Math Masters! 13 of our students are already Math Masters!! We will begin “Rocket Math” later this week, focusing on memorization of addition facts.
We’re adding and subtracting on the number line, the number grid, and with number stories. We’ll continue to practice with frames and arrows and other patterns. We’ll be telling time to the HALF-HOUR and counting dimes.
