Can you believe how much snow we got? In November?!? Only a small portion of the playground was plowed, so students without snow pants had to stay on the plowed area to keep their clothes dry. I have been testing students to see who knows their letter names and sounds and I am very impressed with how well everyone is doing! With our focus on families this week, we read some fun stories about different kinds of families and we talked about how "it takes a village to raise a child." Your child should be able to explain what that phrase means. Please turn in your child's reading minutes tomorrow. I will total everyone's minutes to see who has met our monthly goal of 300 minutes. Those who have met the goal will receive a Pizza Hut coupon.

Be prepared!

Snow will not keep us from going out for recess. Don't forget the snow pants, snow boots, hats and gloves!

This is Aaron’s VIP week! Our theme this week is family. We will add the words mom and dad to our word wall. The letter of the week is G. We’ll be using the interactive whiteboard a lot this week to practice putting numbers in order on a calendar, to learn about probability with an interactive spinner, and to play some literacy games. Students will use the words who, what, when, why and how in their journal writing. In science, we are studying the planets and their positions relative to the earth. As a family, you might enjoy going to NASA’s website to explore our solar system.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=SolarSys

There's no school for the rest of the week. I hope you have a safe holiday. Eat lots of turkey and take many long naps. See you on the 29th!

Plastic Pop Bottles Needed

If you think about it over the Thanksgiving holiday, please save your plastic pop bottles. We are making a special project next week and will need several 2 liter or smaller plastic pop bottles for filling balloons with sand. Okay, I'll tell you, but don't tell your child yet -- it's a secret! We'll be making stress balls. I already have the balloons but haven't purchased the filtered sand yet. Does anyone happen to have any?

It was fun to have snow on the ground today. Students had to learn the two main rules for snow: no throwing snowballs and only get off the paved area if you're wearing snow boots. We played the game, Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? I changed the bulletin board outside of our classroom to say "We are thankful for..." Students wrote what they are thankful for onto colored leaves and attached their leaf to the tree in the center of the board.

The little darlings were so good today that they earned another "link in the chain." We're trying out a new system in which students earn a slip of paper (chain link) for good behavior, positive comments from other staff members, and for showing care and compassion with their peers. The chain hangs from the white board. When it reaches the floor, students will earn a reward of their choice (popcorn party, extra recess, movie, special game, ??).