Brrr....A Chilly Start to 2015

Welcome back to school!  I hope you all had a nice enjoyable holiday break.  I know I truly cherished the time I had at home with my family.  Now we are back in school and working hard to meet our goals by the end of the school year.  

Swimming started this week during P.E.  Thank you all for remembering to pack all needed items for swimming lessons.  I love that our school has swimming as part of its curriculum.  I've always thought that was something very unique that our school offers.  Not to mention it is an extremely important life skill.  I do not accompany the students to swimming, so I have no photos to post.  It is possible that by the end of swim classes, I might go down and sneak in some pictures.  

This week we picked right up where we left off in most of our subjects.  Today, I sent home a math news and a phonics Fundations letter that explain what we are working on this month.  Please be sure to read those to keep informed of our classroom happenings.  The Fundations letter packet includes activities that you can do at home to assist your child.  In addition, the new trick words for the unit are included in there.  In reading, we reviewed some of the things we discussed first semester through the use of snow related literature.  It's a shame we have no snow to go along with all these frigid temperatures.  I may be alone in wishing for that type of weather.  :)  Next week, we will begin learning how to retell a story.  We will also begin our author study on Jan Brett.  You can check out her website here.  

This week I sent home all of our previous writing materials.  First semester we learned how to be storytellers and write narrative stories about ourselves.  Before break, the students worked on publishing one of their pieces.  They chose the story they like best, they then edited and revised it.  Afterwards, they wrote their final draft and added a cover.  We then took their books and bound them together and laminated the covers.  When we returned from break we had a celebration and shared our pieces with a Kindergarten class.  We are now learning how to write nonfiction pieces about things we are experts on.

In social studies in the coming weeks we will be learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.

As the weeks continue, I hope to add more pictures up of our classroom happenings.  I have a few snapshots that I took today with my phone in class.  I will try my best to get back out here at some point and add the pictures.  Enjoy your weekend and stay warm!  

Upcoming Dates of Importance:

1/13 PTO meeting in the elementary cafeteria

1/16 Kindergarten Nursery Rhyme Day (Mrs. Hogan will be out of the classroom to watch her daughter's performance in this.  She will return when it is finished.)

1/16 PTO movie night sponsored by 5th grade.  Doors open at 6:30 and the movie starts at 7:00 p.m.

1/19 NO SCHOOL-Martin Luther King. Jr.

1/20 NO SCHOOL-Professional Development