Monday news!

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope everyone is getting into the holiday spirit!  I can't believe it's already the last week of school before break.  I still have A LOT of shopping to do!

With that being said... here's what's happening on this very crazy last week of school for 2013!

We just started our 3rd unit for reading.  Our spelling pattern for this week is "ch" and "tch" words.  It's important to note that both "ch" and "tch" make the same sound.  Please practice, practice, practice spelling these words this week!  We will be reading the non-fiction story, "I Am A Butterfly" with a comprehension focus on predicting.  Our grammar skill this week is still nouns, with an emphasis on animals and things.

In Math, we are finishing up Topic 7.  We doubled up on math lessons today (since they were both short), so we will be taking the test on Thursday.  There will be no quiz for this topic.  I wanted to finish out the unit before break started so that we could start fresh with a new math unit in 2014!  Today we covered skip counting by tens up to 120 and using a 100's chart to help us count on by ones.

We are still working on out Holidays Around the World unit in Social Studies.  On Friday, the teachers switched rooms and taught each class about how different countries celebrate the holidays.  The holidays covered were: Hanukkah, Christmas in Italy, Christmas in Germany, Christmas in Mexico, and Kwanzaa.  The students enjoyed learning more about these holidays AND getting to have a new teacher for 10 minutes!  It was a blast for both the students and the teachers!

We are working towards an incentive this week instead of earning brownie points.  The students will earn a tally for each day all kids end on green or above on our behavior chart.  So far we have 1 tally.  We need to get 5 to earn a Polar Express movie watching party on Friday morning!  I think we can do it!  Students are invited to wear their pjs and bring 1 cozy item (pillow, pillow pet, stuffed animal, blanket, etc.) with them to snuggle up with while watching the movie.  I will bring in some blankets and we will SPREAD out and get comfortable while watching the movie.  We'll be just like the characters in the Polar Express because we'll be wearing our jammies too!  I hope we can earn this AWESOME reward!  I will send a note explaining the party tomorrow and a note on Thursday to let you know if we earned it or not!

Thanks again for all your hard work at home!  These students are working hard every day at school AND at home!  Keep it up!

**REMEMBER... it's an ornament FREE for ALL!!  Bring in as many ornaments as you can this week to earn the prize!**