Hello families,
This week we learned about Christmas traditions in Mexico. The kids made angel ornaments, pinatas and pointsetta flowers. They researched foods and songs that are used to celebrate as well. We also learned more about trilobites and Alaskan dinosaurs. The kids were archeologists today and worked together to unearth their very own dinosaur! Next week we will be learning about Christmas in Italy. Lia's parents are coming in to share their Christmas traditions with us. They will be here on Wednesday afternoon to teach us more about the stories, food, and songs used in Italy. On Thursday, December 22nd, we are having our classroom celebration. Please be sure to send in one food item that your family enjoys each holiday season. Your child should be prepared to tell the class about the dish they have brought in. I will supply plates; if you send in a drink, please be sure to supply the cups as well. Your child may come to school dressed in their pajamas and they are welcome to bring a blanket or pillow too. We will be having a Read-In for the afternoon celebration. If you have not turned in your Sea Life Center sheet yet, please do so by Thursday. Ms.Goodman and I need this information in order to accurately book our field trip. There are still 3 spots available in the Sea Life Center for first grade parents to stay. Several parents have chosen to stay at the hotel across the street already. *There will not be a spelling list next week. Thank you, have a great weekend! Christine Homan
0 Comments
Hello families,
I have some really exciting news! Ms.Goodman and I have been putting together plans for an overnight field trip to the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward, Alaska and we were APPROVED! This means that we are going to start sending paperwork home to help gear up for the behavior expectations, parent meetings we will need to have, supplies the kids will need to bring, etc. Please be on the look out for this important paperwork to go home tomorrow (Thursday). Ms.Goodman and I created a Donors Choose project in order to help curb the amount of fundraising the students would need to do to be able to attend. Much to our awe, we raised a lovely chunk of money in about two weeks using this platform. (We are not fans of bake sales so this was the best route to go for us!) We are beyond excited to be able to offer scholarships to students who need the assistance in order to attend. We are not able to fund chaperones; if you plan on chaperoning please expect to pay the $60 admission fee. We are only allowed to have 12 parent chaperones stay the night with us in the building due to fire code, this means our class gets 6 parents to stay in the building. However, we can have as many chaperones as we want come down with us to Seward; the additional chaperones will need to stay in a hotel room. There is The Hotel Seward right across the street from the Sea Life Center for those who would prefer this sleeping arrangement. You can check out their website here, Ms.Goodman and I stayed there in October and it was lovely: http://www.hotelsewardalaska.com Please let me know as soon as you are ready to commit yourself to this field trip.There are expectations of parent chaperones, just as there are for the kids. This includes but is not limited to no drinking (at all, even if you're staying at the hotel), no weapons of any kind, and you are responsible for your assigned group of children for the entire 24 hour trip. We will go into more details at a later date when we meet for our first parent meeting. We are sending out paperwork this week to get an idea of who will be sending their child and which parents want to attend themselves. We will not ask for payment until a later date. Thank you, we cannot wait to attend this field trip!! Christine Homan Hello families, This week we have been learning about the Christmas traditions in Germany. The kids have worked through the week to learn more about adventskranz and how they're used during the holiday season, when Christmas trees are put up and why, and traditional ornaments that were used in Germany. Each child got to make their own angel ornament that represents the Christkindl, Our classroom elf, Ms.Snowflake, also delivered each student their own pickle ornament. Please ask your child about the stories behind each of these. Along with our German holiday explorations we have been working hard on our Second Great Lesson. Each grade level has a different Timeline of Life of their own that they are recreating. We have also identified 6 major points on the timeline and are diving deeper into them. The first one was bacteria; each student made their own poster of bacteria including facts they have learned. The second step was studying more about Trilobites. Each child will get to make their own trilobite to take home; this will take a week or to since I only have one small mold. The third point we worked on this week was invertebrates and vertebrates. This vocabulary can be tricky to grasp but the kids did a great job! Ask them to explain to you the difference between the two and then to identify Alaskan vertebrates. They should be able to tell you at least a few! Next week we will move into amphibians, dinosaurs, and mammals to wrap up our studies of this lesson. Our winter benchmarks were completed this week and I was so pleased to see the amazing growth in reading and math across the board. The kids work hard every day and it shows in their assessments and daily work. I am so proud of them for being responsible and focused Montessorians. Starting Monday our cultural focus will shift to Mexico. We will be making pinatas and pointsettas as part of our exploration of their cultural traditions. Please make sure to discuss your family traditions with your child and begin planning a dish that they will bring to class to share on the 22nd. They will be expected to explain what they have brought. A huge thank you to everyone who has sent in supplies for our angel ornaments (salt and flour) and the gingerbread houses. I appreciate your support and the kids would not be able to do as many projects as we do without it! We will be assembling Blessing Bags as a primary team on December 16th. Each class is providing specific items and we will work as a team in stations to assemble the bags. They will then be delivered to a local shelter to help those in need. I am covering the supplies that I have signed our class up for but I wanted you to be aware of this project in the event that your child goes home talking about it. Our goal is to make 200 bags. Important Dates: December 16th- Primary Team Blessing Bags activity December 19th- Mrs.Homan is out for the morning, 9am-noon. December 22nd- Class Holiday Party- Please send in a family dish. December 23rd-January 8th - Winter Break! January 9th- First day back to school. Beginning of the 3rd quarter! Have a great weekend! Christine Homan Our grammar cabinet was knocked over by accident. It has been quite the process putting it back together but also a good lesson on being careful in our environment.A few of the kids have been drawn to the sign language cards recently. It has been so much fun watching them explore the cards and put words and even short sentences together.A third grade student working on the checkerboard. This is a material that is used for multiplication. It is one of my favorite materials in our classroom!Hello families,
Thank you to those of you who have already sent in materials for our German celebrations! We are good on candy and newspapers but we still need 2 tubs of frosting, one more bag of flour and one more container of salt. Thank you!! This past week we learned about the Second Great Lesson and reviewed the lesson using the Timeline of Life. The kids have started researching the different eras and periods within the timeline and are creating some really great artifacts to share with you. Make sure to stop by our timeline on the board in the hallway and check out what they've added to that as well; they are doing a lovely job! I am so proud of their hard work. Our field trip to 360 Allstars was really fantastic. The kids were well behaved and we had a great time. Thankfully the weather decided to be kind too! I so appreciate our chaperones; your time is valuable and we cannot do these trips (or projects!) without you. So, thank you from all of us! The window for our winter benchmark opens next week, I will be testing each student in math and reading using the standardized tests. When I have the scores recorded I will be sending them home. Please know that these are a dipstick of information; if you see something that concerns you please reach out to me so we can discuss your child's progress. The kids have been working so hard and I have been really pleased with all of the growth each of them are making this year. Thank you for supporting them not only at school but at home as well with their reading and math. This week (December 5th), we are starting our mini-unit on German traditions during the holiday season. If you have anything from your background that you would like to share, please feel free to send it in with your child or come in and talk the kids yourself. We would love that!! Have a great week, Christine Homan |
Archives
December 2017
Categories |