Happy Holidays

I hope you all have been staying warm! The kids were so excited to finally make it outside Friday... a little indoor recess goes a long way!
This week we have been busy in math. We wrapped up unit 8, where we used the equal arm balance to find the masses of various objects in our room. This week we began adding larger numbers. As a class, we have been exploring various strategies used to add larger numbers including: base 10 pieces, tallies, pictures, the 200s chart, and the paper pencil method (vertical addition with carrying).
I won't be telling you much about our current writing project, because it's a surprise! I will tell you however, that they have been working hard and have been producing some great writings!
Your child received a new spelling list last Wednesday and this will be the last new sort before break. We will begin our regular schedule in spelling when we return in January. Thank you for practicing at home.
This Thursday we will participate in the 1st and 2nd grade Gingerbread day! From 9-11 we will rotate between our classrooms and have fun with the various gingerbread activities!
In health this month we have been studying how to stay safe and stay well. When we return in January we will begin our new science unit about weather.
I can't believe this is our last newsletter of 2009! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends. I look forward to making many more memories with your children in 2010!

Busy week back from break!

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break! I hope the break was restful and that you were able to enjoy time with family. Before the break, we participated in many Thanksgiving activities. Many of which included: thesaurus turkeys, a study of Native American tribes, writing a journal from a pilgrims point of view, and pumpkin pie!

Before the break we wrapped up a study in math about volume of cube models. (I know some of the homework was tricky!) This week we began a new unit in math about measuring and comparing masses of objects. The objective of these weeks’ lessons is to understand that you can not always tell the mass of the object by just looking at its size and shape. For example, if I have a steel ball and a wooden ball that are the same size and shape, because they are made of different materials, they will have different masses.

Over the past few weeks we have been recording the number of independent books we have read. We finally reached 100 books! I turned in our count to Scholastic and our reading helped to donate over a million books to children who need them.

In writer’s workshop we began a paragraph writing unit focused on the important people in our lives. We will be using the writing process to produce a final project that is sure to be a keepsake!

Ask your child how they are doing on school supplies. Most children are in need of new glue sticks and a new set of crayons and/or markers.

I have posted a great spelling website on our resources. You are able to input your child’s spelling words and it creates various practices for them to learn their spelling words. Our food drive also began this week and will continue into next week. Have a great week!

Mrs. Crooker