A few FYI's -

First Grade Math - This week we have been working a lot on the ones places and the tens place.  We worked on circling shapes in groups of ten.  We made hundreds charts and looked for the patterns.  We used the hundreds chart for find all the numbers that had 5 in the ones place, 7 in the tens place, etc.  We also used the hundreds chart to help us add or subtract numbers by 10, 20, 30, etc.  Today we worked on math facts by playing shut the box.

Phonics - We are continuing to learn about blends and r-contolled vowels.  (ar, er)

Reading - This week we made a book called Is It Christmas Yet?  We have been working on chorale readings of the book.  Another fun book/song is The Twelve Days of Christmas.  We read the book and then made our own version of what we would like for the twelve days.

Science - We are at the end of our light and sound unit.  We made a drum out of a cup and a rubber skin.  We put rubber bands around a shoe box.  The rubber bands were different thicknesses and sizes.  We listened to the different sounds made by each rubber band.  Then we tightened the rubber bands with a ruler and listened for the change in the sound.
We tied s string around a spoon.  Then we put the string around Caxton's fingers and we hit the spoon with a pencil.  He could feel the vibrations.  As he made the string tighter, we noticed the change in the pitch.  And...our favorite experiment with vibrations and sound - we made telephones out of paper cups, string, and paper clips.

Religion - All week we have been talking about the fourth week of Advent.  We lit the last purple candle - he candle of love.  We have been discussing five more - what can we do five more of to show love?  Tomorrow we are reading a beautiful story out of our Children's Bible called The Story of Baby Jesus.

Writing - We are getting the hang of writer's workshop,  Some students have started to have their stories typed and they are illustrating illustrating their stories.  All of the steps we are working on are - making a web of ideas, writing a rough draft, editing, rewriting, and publishing.

Handwriting - We continue to work on forming the letters the correct way and making sure they are in the correct spaces.

Something we are working on all the time in our classroom is following the expectations.  We are lucky to have Mrs. MaryBeth Friday work with us.  She has been visiting our classroom on Wednesday mornings.  She has been reading stories and doing lessons on the zones of regulation, following the group plan vs. following your own plan, whole body listening (eyes on the person talking, mouth is quiet, ears are listening, hands and feet are down and still), raising your hand vs. blurting out, and limiting interruptions.  We use a lot of positives in our classroom to reinforce these concepts.  They love to earn Faith Shields and Magic Stars. They can put these in the bucket at church for a chance to win a drawing or put them in our class bucket to earn a classroom reward.   The students also earn positives in our class dojo by following these expectations.  When they have 70% or higher by Friday, they earn Friday Fun Time!  What does that mean?  The last 20-25 minutes of the day on Friday are free!  They can play on the computers, play on the ipads, draw, play games...whatever they want!  If they don't earn Friday Fun Time, they have to sit with me, talk about what happened, and make a plan for the next week.  The students love Friday Fun Time and are working hard to earn it.  :)

Social Studies - We will not have another Einstein Kit until March.  So after Christmas we will switch from Science to Social Studies.  We do have a book that we will be working out of.  They will be learning things like communities, simple land forms, and even states.


Dress Down Day - Tomorrow is a Packer dress down day.

The students can also choose to wear Christmas clothes tomorrow.

Thank you so much to Mrs. Klika for organizing our Christmas party tomorrow!  

Gym -

DECEMBER/JANUARY (all posted on school web page) PE K-2 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope the time spent with your child over the Christmas break is happy, healthy, and safe. The children are all showing improvement in their cardio/running laps. During December we spent a couple of extra classes doing our cardio downstairs in the old church hall due to concert set up. And, WOW, great concert!!!!! I love going to those things. The music was excellent. We will continue to work on their gross motor skills. I will be doing a recheck of the skipping and galloping as well as the other strength builders of seal walk, crab walk, bear walk/run, etc. I will be working on more station for the ½ combined class for after break as well. 

Mrs. Petrick