Brrr!

What a change in temperature! You don't need me to tell you that it's been COLD! I am happy to say that each child went out in a warm coat with snow pants today! Unless the wind chill is below 0 degrees, children go out to recess every day!

It was great to see so many families at Open House! The kids were SO excited to write you the letters inviting you to this special night! And I'm happy to report that the Smart Board is now functional and we used it today for reading groups (the books they read can be projected on a Smart Board) and Fundations (after each practice word, one child was chosen to write the word on the Smart Board). They are more excited than I thought they might be...I suppose the novelty will wear off! Now I've got to find a way to use it for the overheads our math program uses each day...

Speaking of reading groups...what a bunch of readers we have here! They're starting to read anything they can get their hands on! I'm happy to say that they love books and are very excited to be learning to read! I sure hope Santa brings books this year! I've been asking children to choose more than one book each night and more and more the extra books they choose are books of their own choosing from our classroom library-AND they really can read these books! Please try to avoid telling them words that stump them and instead ask questions like, "What would make sense?" Some words you will need to just tell them (today one reading group had the word "proud" which is tricky to read and many kids didn't know the meaning) but as they become better readers, they'll be more likely to read tricky words in the proper context!

We've embraced the holiday season! We've studied the Jewish holiday Hanukkah and Christmas traditions in several places in the world. We plan to make gingerbread houses on Friday and I hope you don't mind donating the necessary supplies! I've begun saving milk cartons and we'll be using frosting to "glue" graham crackers to the cartons. Then they'll be able to use candy to decorate them! It should be an exciting Friday!

We'll be spending one more week practicing Unit 4 skills in Fundations...words with -ll, -ss, and -ff as well as words with -all. The trick words are really "tricky" this unit and require one more week of practice as well as continued practice with past skills and trick words! SO much to learn!

Have a great weekend!
Michelle