Merry Monday!

Wow.. the last week before Winter Break!  We are still busy this week and hope to get a few things accomplished.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow for our Writer's Celebration from 2:15 until dismissal. The children will share their poems that they wrote during our poetry unit and their reading response journals. They have completed their first personal narrative and we hope to be able to show you our hip covers when you come tomorrow.  My plan is to have another writer's celebration in late January or early February to show off all our narratives and our realistic fiction piece.

This week we will not have a spelling test or any new map work. The children are to study the map that we completed last week on Waterways of the United States. They will be given an enlarged map on Thursday with a list of 18 bodies of water that they will have to identify. If the children have misplaced their map work from last week, I will be prepared to give them another copy tomorrow. However, it will be their responsibility to come and let me know.

We will complete our work with Lesson 7 in Wordly Wise. The children will have a test on these words on Thursday.

We have completed our study of the Florida Native Americans in the classroom and in the computer lab where they have been doing some additional research.  On Wednesday, the children will complete a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting two of the Native American groups. The children will complete a project all designed by them in the classroom that I know will not be completed till after the Winter Break.

We are using our Science book to work on our critical reading skills. The children must read for specific factual information and fill in the blank with the correct word that they find in their reading. There are no word banks so the children really have to read carefully to get the meaning from the text. We have successfully completed one as a class and they were allowed to work together with a reading buddy. My goal is to eventually have the children feel confident in doing this type of reading independently.

On Thursday, the children will do some project work in the morning.  Then at about10:15 the children will have a grade level holiday celebration. At 11:00, we will journey up to the Theater to participate in the Holiday Sing. The children will be dismissed at noon.

I know that I have shared this with you before. But I wanted to assure you, in light of the events of last Friday,  that my number one concern  is making sure that your child is safe and feels safe while here at school.   We have procedures in place as an entire school  and the children are given opportunities to practice these procedures. It is not my place to have in-depth conversations with your child about what they may have heard or seen  over the weekend. Personally I think as the parent, that is your job. You are the one that can control what your child hears and sees and what they don't.  However, I will monitor their comments and questions and if I feel  your child is having any trouble concentrating at school because of any fear or insecurity that they may have, I will contact you immediately. Also to let you know, I will be using our Morning Meeting in the morning to review the procedures and give them another opportunity to ask questions. If you would like to share this with your child ahead of time tonight, that is fine by me.

I would like to take this time to wish each and everyone a Happy Holiday!  May the new year find everyone healthy and happy!