Sunday, December 16, 2012

Seal Class Newsletter

We are very excited about the holidays in the Seal Class!  We will be stringing Cheerios and cranberries for our hike in the woods this week as well as lots of other fun holiday projects.  We will also get to watch the Teddybear class put on their musical!


                                                                                           

We are learning about:

  • holidays around the world
  • the sound short u makes in words
  • l blends (pl, bl, sl, cl, fl, gl)
  • how to add details to the illustrations in the stories that we are writing 
  • the story elements of fiction
  • how authors develop the characters in their stories especially in a series 


Some activities we did:

  • compared and contrasted different versions of the Gingerbread Man story
  • explored the character traits of the gingerbread man/boy/baby/girl
  • measured things in our room with nonstandard things (gingerbread men, blocks, shoes)
  • measured items with a traditional ruler
  • played roll a gingerbread man
  • got our scooter license
  • played catch the gingerbread men
  • continued to write our books
  • became guest readers in our own class

Upcoming Events:

December 20 

 Night Tree hike through the SMS woods   We will leave our classroom at 1:30.  We will   have treats to share at the end of the hike.

December 21  

 Pajama Day!!  Have your Seal come dressed in their comfy pjs.  They may bring a special teddy or other friend to share the day.






Friday, December 7, 2012

Early release...

Reminder.. December 12 is an early release day.  The students will be dismissed at 12:50.

Thank you

Thank you all for making our performance incredible!  The children were so excited to perform and we are so proud of them.  
The flowers are beautiful and such a thoughtful treat.

Our next special event will be our annual first grade Night Tree hike.  We will leave our classroom at 1:30 on December 20 to sing carols and take a walk through the SMS woods.  We will decorate a tree for the animals just like the characters in Eve Bunting's book The Night Tree.  Everyone is welcome to join us!  We will come back to our classroom to enjoy hot cocoa and a treat.



Tuesday, December 4, 2012

sneak peek.....

We had our dress rehearsal today for the school and the class was fantastic!  We are so proud of them!






We loved seeing all of the family dolls and learning about the countries that they represent.  What talented families we have in the Seal class!

Ireland

Antarctica

Scotland

Italy and France

Finland

Italy 

Canada

Ireland

Ireland

Ireland

Italy

Poland

Ireland

Poland 

England

Scotland 

Lithuania

Monday, December 3, 2012

November 30 Newsletter

We are learning about:

  • the differences between wants and needs
  • editing our writing for punctuation
  • how authors develop the characters in their stories when they write a series
  • the sound the letter e makes in words like bet, sent, yes and egg
  • increasing our reading stamina
  • stopping and thinking about the books we are reading
  • adding coins together (pennies, nickels and dimes)
  • simple fractions (1/2 and 1/3)                                                            


Some activities we did:

  • practiced for the musical
  • played penny, nickel, dime grab
  • decorated ornaments for our room
  • created winter scenes with pattern block templates
  • wrote about our favorites toys
  • categorized and graphed toys according to whether they had wheels, made noise, cuddled or bounced
  • made suitcases to carry our treasures when we "travel around the world" next week
  • visited the book fair
  • traveled to the Music Hall to see Martha Speaks 
  • compared the character Martha with another dog named Oscar

ipad app:  Spit
Poem of the week:  My Favorite Toys

Upcoming Events:

December 1     8-9:30   Pancake breakfast  in the SMS cafe
December 4    2            This Old Gingerbread House performance for the school
December 5   6:30        This Old Gingerbread House performance for family and friends.
                           
                  We will be joining the 5th grade chorus as they present their holiday concert.  It may be very crowded in the cafe.  You may want to come early to get a good seat!  I will be in the classroom at 6.  Please bring your child to the classroom so that they may  get into their costume and ready for the show.  The children can be picked up in the classroom at the end of the 5th grade production.  We are so looking forward to the show.  It will be a fun filled night!