Dec 3-6

Our letter of the week was Rr.  We talked about the sound Rr makes (like in rabbit, rainbow, radish, and more).  We practiced our hand symbol, our handwriting sheet, and read our Alphatales story, Rosie Rabbit's Raddish.  The students are doing really well with our alphabet letters.  I am so proud of their progress with the sign language symbol, the sound symbol, the letter and even our handwriting sheets are improving!  R was the best handwriting sheets as a whole that I have seen yet.

Our theme was Snow and winter.  We read The Elf on the Shelf and introduced Herbie to the class on Monday.  Students were told they could write a letter to Herbie while he was watching and it would get to Santa.  I saw more students writing than I had ever seen before! They were trying to sound out words, write letters they had never written before and more!  It was amazing to see!

In our small group we worked on patterning with snowflakes.  We started with an AB pattern and if students were able to complete that we moved onto an AAB or an ABB pattern.  Students are doing very well with patterning.  

Tuesday we read The Gingerbread Man.  We began practicing the role playing of the skit and showing how a story can be made into parts.  Students were very enthusiastic about it!  On Wednesday we assigned parts and began practicing.  Students are very excited.  Don't worry though, if you are unable to make it students still get to practice, laugh, enjoy it and have fun.  We did talk about if moms and dads say they can't make it it is ok, they are still VERY important!

We read The Grinch that Stole Christmas on Wednesday focusing on the first two pages; The Grinch hated Christmas because his heart was 3 sizes to small.  He needed to learn about love before it could grow.  We then made a large Grinch for our classroom and are going to write the kind things we see our friends doing that made our heart grow and showed us love.  So far it is off to a slow start, but as we talk about it I feel they will get the hang of it.  I will encourage this to be a writing activity as well, brining in letter sounds and seeing if they can help with any of the letters while writing it out.  We also watched the cartoon movie of The Grinch that Stole Christmas.  Children enjoyed the change of pace.  

They also began a measuring unit with snowflakes. We measured how many "big snowflakes" tall we were, and measured how many small snowflakes a variety of objects were in our room. We then wrote these numbers on our data sheets.

 Pictures are on the class website show students next to the big snowflakes.

 Through out the week, students come into the room looking for the trouble Herbie got into during the week.  He was hiding in our drop bucket (where we put a drop in when we made good choices) on Tuesday.  He must be looking how many great choices we had made thus far to tell Santa all about them!  On Wednesday, I caugt him coming into the classroom when I turned on the lights and he had to hang from a rope on or window all day until we went home.  Thursday, he must have gotten hungry, he was sitting in a bowl full of home living food!

Important Notes:

• RSVP for Reading with the Stars.  Regardless if you are able to attend or not, please RSVP to the reading with the stars program so I can be sure there is at least one student at each part of the program.  Students will participate regardless, but I just wanted to be sure that there is someone for each job the night of.  The program is TUESDAY DECEMBER 18 5:30PM-6:30PM.
• Book Orders were submitted last week.  They should be in soon.  I have received emails from the Erickson family and the Plamann family asking that the gifts come  home discreetly. If you also need them sent home discreetly, let me know.  I did not plan on submitting another one until after the holiday, but they are always open to put an order in.  If there are a lot at some point, I will submit an order, so let me know if this is something you would want/need/be interested in.  
• Milk Jugs  Please continue to bring in the milk jugs.  We have a good start, but according to the website, we need almost 400!  We are going to use the caps to pattern and sort.  We will use the igloo in counting and other math activities.  Building this will include fine and gross motor skills.  Also, it will build the imagination as they play it in the home living center!  We are all very excited about this and all the learning and imagination it can bring!
• Dress for the Weather.  We go outside Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Students need coats, hats, and mittens.  If there is snow or even if it is in the 30s I would suggest snowpants and boots for warmth and dryness.  St. Edward Extended day families, these students go outside for "long recess" after lunch daily and need to be dressed for it daily.  Please come with everything they need to stay warm and have fun!
• Lost and Found.  Our lost and found is growing.  If you are missing something please feel free to check out the box on top of the lockers by our door, or email me and I will take a look for you!  
• As always, any questions or concerns please feel free to email me!  Have a great weekend!

Next week:

Theme: winter, snow continued

AM Snack: Higgins Family

PM Snack: Gorges Family