Week of December 7th

What a wonderful time of year! The children and I are having so much fun getting into the Christmas spirit! I am SO enjoying your precious babies! They are so much fun and hard workers. I also love their excitement about learning too! Here is what is happening next week:

Reading - Literature circles - The kids are doing great with this! I'm hearing some great discussions about what they are reading as well as hearing good predictions! Predicting is an important reading skill and book discussions help the children learn keys to comprehension from each other.

Math - We've been doing a lot of estimating products. We also practiced multiplying 2 digit by 1 digit numbers on the smart board. Next week, we will spend the whole week multiplying 2 and 3 digit by 1 digit numbers. Please keep practicing the times tables with your child if he/she doesn't know them. When we get back from Christmas break, we will be multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers.

Science - Animals We had fun this week making "edible animal cells"! I will post some pics soon of the kids! We have also been working on animal reports. These reports and pictures are due next Wednesday. The children KNOW this. We've talked a lot about it in class and I've given them 2 times in class to work on the research part. Most are done with the research and just need to write their report out neatly or type and print it at home. You may help your child with the typing part if they choose to type it. I sent a hard copy of the directions home on Tuesday for this project.

Spelling - Suffixes List 14 on spellingcity.com Enriched words are the "o" list.

English - Possessive pronouns, also daily English review

Spanish - We will have a Spanish quiz on Friday over family member names like abuela, tio, etc. I will send home a study guide on Monday.

Our class won the Box Tops Contest! Yeah! We will be having a pizza - movie party as a reward! We will be watching a movie that relates to the spirit of Christmas and what I want your children to be doing, always of course, but especially this month! ARK- Acts of Random Kindness The children will be drawing names and doing anonymous kind acts for this person. Help your child think of things they can do for his/her person. They are excited about this project!

Don't forget the 3 exciting days ahead..............Gingerbread Houses on Dec. 11th and Polar PJ Day on Dec. 18th. The Christmas party is Dec. 17th at 2:00! Fun times!