I hope that everyone had a very wonderful Thanksgiving break! I spent the time with my family relaxing and enjoying each other's company, it was really fantastic.
Can you believe that winter break is just around the corner? We have something like 14 days of school left! This means that we are almost half way through the school year as well. Please remind your child that each night the expectation is that they are reading for at least 15 minutes and practicing their spelling words for homework. The "best fit" list is up to you in regards to spelling words and the list may change weekly. This is perfectly acceptable. The last two weeks in class have been truly amazing. The kids are focused, working diligently, and showing some great growth academically and socially. In the month of December the kids will be asked to choose one country within Africa (ask your child how many countries there are in Africa!) to study for the remainder of the year. We will be delving into specifics within each country and hopefully sharing the information with you towards the end of the year. This coming week we will be learning more about African jewelry and creating our own replicas using recyclable materials. *Do you have any #10 cans at home? Please send them in! We need them for drums. The last few days of school before break we will be having a celebration of holidays around the world in the primary wing. This will involve the children choosing 4 different countries to visit and experience for approximately 30 minutes each. That same week we will be having our classroom winter party. I will be asking each child to bring a food to share for our classroom celebration. Mr.Chuck has asked for 2-3 parent volunteers from our classroom to help direct children during the winter concert on December 12th from 6-8pm. Are you available to help with this? Please contact me ASAP so that I can let him know. Thank you! Have a wonderful week and please contact me with any questions or concerns, Christine Homan Important Dates: Holiday night/concert December 12th, 6:30-8pm Primary Wing Holidays Around the World: December 17th Classroom Winter Party: December 18th Scholastic Book Order due: December 19th
0 Comments
Thank you to all of our wonderful chaperones; I feel so fortunate to have such an awesome group of parents to help out with our class! We had an amazing field trip at the museum and we got to experience so many wonderful things.
I have purchased 10 headphone sets for our classroom because many students have not brought a set in yet. Please send one in with your child ASAP. You can find sets on sale at Fred Meyers for $5. The computer lab gets incredibly loud, as does our classroom, when all of the students are on Lexia at the same time. It makes it incredibly hard for students to concentrate and do their best. With our focus on Africa this year, we are in need of #10 cans (giant fruit cans from Costco) and shoe boxes. We need at least 22 of each and I have a few weeks to get them together. If you have any of these items laying around your house and you're looking to get rid of them, please send them our way! These will be used to make drums, masks, and African jewelry. We could also use pony beads and twine if you have any extras laying around your craft closet! Many of the kids have made big gains in reading and math this school year already and I am so proud of their diligence and perseverance. There are some truly awesome things happening in our room; have you been in to check it out for yourself yet? Thank you to everyone who donated corn and green beans to the canned food drive for Salvation Army. Our class donated nearly 100 cans of food; that is so awesome! The winter concert is quickly approaching and Mr.Chuck is in need of a few volunteers from our classroom to help direct students during the concert. It will be on December 10th from around 6-8pm. Are you available to help out? Please let me know as soon as possible. Have a great week and contact me with any questions or concerns. Email is the best and fastest way to get ahold of me. Thank you, Christine Homan Important Dates: Scholastic Book Order due: November 30th Winter Concert: December 10th Hello again!
I would like to say a BIG thank you to Linda, Ethan's grandma, for coming in and making lap blankets with the kids this week. They loved this activity and enjoyed her company. This week we worked on our Student Treasures book and got it sent off, thanks to Jennifer, Gus' mom. The kids worked really hard on their pages the last two weeks and we are eager to see the finished product. I believe it will take about 5 weeks for these books to be published and to arrive back at the school. Maybe they will arrive in time for the holidays? We are still collecting donations for the Salvation Army food drive; our class is collecting green beans and corn. Please send any canned donations into class with your kiddo and we will make sure they get to the appropriate place. So far the third graders have brought in 14 cans and the 1st and 2nd grade has brought in 2 cans each. So great! Our field trip to the museum is this coming Friday, the 21st. Please pack a lunch for your child or let me know if they will need a brown bag lunch from Mr.Chris as soon as possible. We are also in need of one more chaperone, please contact me if you are able to come along with us. We will depart the school at 9:45 and are planning to return around 2pm. We will be seeing a movie in the planetarium and experience the Brick by Brick exhibit, as well as the Imaginarium. Lunch will be eaten at the museum. We have had a few birthday celebrations recently and this week we will have THREE more! If you child has dietary restrictions, please send in a special treat for them on the 17th, 18th, and 20th so that they won't miss out on the celebration. Thank you! Christine Homan Important Dates: Food Drive: November 21st Museum Field Trip: November 21st, 10am-2pm Scholastic Book order: November 30th Hello families,
This past week we talked more about the Timeline of Life and began discussing the Clock of Eras. The kids are still working on making their own timelines and learning about the relationship between the two. We also had some amazing presentations on the solar system; the kids were put into groups and given a specific planet to present on. This was a culmination project for all of the research they have been doing on the planets the past couple of months. They did a wonderful job and were very well spoken. On Friday we began working on our Student Treasures books. Each child gets two pages in our classroom book, one page is used for their writing and the other for an illustration. The kids were working diligently on their pages on Friday and the book is already coming along very nicely. It's neat to see them put their topic sentence and paragraph writing skills into use and to read about their topics they have chosen. I am looking forward to being able to share the finished product with you! If you purchased a book online, please make sure to send the form back into class with your confirmation code. I need the codes to submit with the book kit. Thank you to Amberlee and Jessica for helping out with the kickoff of this activity! This week Ethan's grandma, Linda, is coming in to do a very special activity with the kids. She will be teaching the kids how to make lap blankets using fleece. This will take place on Tuesday afternoon. A big thank you to Linda for donating her time and the material to do this for us! I am starting to think ahead for our holiday party and I would like to include a few different cultural activities. If you would like to share what your family does to celebrate the winter holidays so that I may incorporate it into our celebration I would appreciate the input. Thank you for your continued support. Please email me with any questions or concerns! Christine Homan Important Dates: Field Trip: November 21st, 9:30am-2:30pm Scholastic Book order due: November 30th I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and got some good rest!
We started the school year off with learning about the Big Bang, the Solar System, and then we focused on Earth. We are now beginning to focus in on the contents, this school year our focus will be on Africa. We are going to spend November learning about the different countries, different people, and different biomes within Africa. From there, students will choose a country to focus on and will continue their research through the rest of the school year. It is my hope that at the end of the year we will be able to have a family presentation in which the kids can share all that they have learned about Africa with you. Some exciting news! I am a regular user of Donors Choose, a program that allows teachers to request materials for their classroom through the Donors Choose website. At the beginning of each school year Chevron puts on a funding event for teachers; each teacher who is eligible can potentially get $2000 free dollars for their classroom. I was fortunate enough to get this amazing funding and some of our materials have just arrived. The things I requested included two mini-ipads, 4 more Hokki stools, tons of books, fossils, solar system models, and so much more. I am in need of someone knowledgeable on a Silhouette Cameo to come in and tutor me on how to use it. I played around with it but it would be great if someone who has used it could show me the ropes; is that you? We will be using this in the classroom for all sorts of craft projects, presentations, etc. Please send in a set of head phones for your child. Every kiddo needs a set of their own to store at school. I will keep them in a basket by the computers for safe keeping. Please make sure to label them with your child's name. We have another field trip coming up! On November 21st we will be walking to the Anchorage Museum to see a show in the planetarium about the Big Bang. While we are there we will also be experiencing the Brick by Brick exhibit. Are you interested in going with us? Please let me know as soon as possible so I can plan accordingly. I believe this field trip will be just $3 per child. Your child's school photos went home (or should have!) on Friday. If you did not get a chance to place an order I sent home a small card with information for how to order the photos. We will be starting our Student Treasures book this week. Each child will be writing about themselves and illustrating their own pages. If you have not turned in your sheet, even if it is a "no" for ordering, please do so as soon as possible. I need everyone to turn in the sheet regardless if you're ordering or not. Lastly, we have been learning about the 5 parts of a letter. Many of the kids are writing diligently to pen pals at least once a week using their new skills. They have also learned how to address an envelope and send it out. We are in dire need of more stamps though. If you have a few you could spare, please send them in to class. Thank you and as always, contact me with any questions, concerns, or just to chat! Christine Homan :) Important Dates: Photo Retakes: November 6th Anchorage Museum field trip: November 21st, 10am-2pm Scholastic Order due: November 30th |
Archives
December 2017
Categories |