Reminders:

Check your child’s lunch boxes and backpacks to make sure there isn’t food left in there over break 🙂

Christmas Break: December 19-January 2

January 3: we return to school 🙂 Please send in towels in reuse bags and I am guessing winter gear as well.

Our Christmas week:

This week was so exciting as we did so many fun and different activities to celebrate our Savior’s birth!

The beginning of the week started with our jingle jog! What fun we had running and raising money for our sister school in the Philippines!

In Bible we finished up our nativities and brought them home! I hope you love them! On Friday we used a nativity to retell the Christmas story! We also ended our week with our verse, ”

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:6-7

We also added the word and to our word wall word board. We noticed that it sounded a bit like Andrew and that it matched the first three letters of his name!

In math we did some special gingerbread graphing as we graphed what part of the gingerbread man we ate first!

In Daily 5 this week we were able to log on to our tablets and listen and read books that way. I sent information home about 6 weeks ago concerning the A-Z kids reading. If your child would like to do the books at home over break just google raz kids and log in as a student and then enter my name leigharnold. Your child should know how to log on from there. Our password is a bunny:) Or you may also get the Kids A-Z app and do the same thing!

In writing workshop this week we continued with lists, making  a list of Christmas words!

Finally, we ended our Christmas week with a fun Christmas celebration!!

Reminders:

• Monday, December 13: Jingle Jog! The kids have been training and are so excited to listen to Christmas music and jog around the gym and down the hall. We will run from 9:00-9:30 am. You are welcome to come in to school to cheer on your runner. Guardians and parents, as a reminder, all those attending the Jingle Jog are required to wear a face mask properly over their noses and mouths per the August 20 Face Mask Order by the Ottawa County Department of Public Health. Disposable masks will be available by both gym entrances. Thank you for your cooperation! . Your child may dress in red and green and fun accessories (think jingle bells or Christmas light necklaces). Keep in mind that they will be running and get a little hot. Mrs. Miller and Miss Brinks sent home donation sheets Friday. If you feel led to donate to Grace Christian Community School, please turn those in next week.
• Friday, December 17: Christmas Party! We thought it would be fun to dress in pajamas for our Christmas party. 🙂 Thank you to the volunteers helping during the party and all of you for bringing in donations! I appreciate it so much. We will have the party from 9:15-10am.

Please continue to practice putting snow clothes on and taking them off!!

What we are learning:

We added to new words to our word wall word board, like and here. We now have A, at. go, here, I, is, like, look, me see, the, up and we.

In Bible this week we continued our study of the Christmas story. We added a wiseman and our most important piece, baby Jesus to our nativity this week. We also talk daily about the meaning of Christmas and how much love God has for us in that he sent His son to earth to save us. Next week we will focus on our Bible verse:

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:6-7

In math this week we continued to work on the meaning of the symbols +,- and =. We made math sentence with manipulatives at our desks and then with unifix cubes.

In phonics we continued to listen for first and last sounds as well as learning about the first and last letters in words by investigating our names.

During our writing workshop this week we continued to work on making lists. We are doing a great job with this and are loving it! We have made lists about things we love, school stuff, Christmas and animals! I am encouraging them to say the words slowly and write the sounds they hear( and no one is allowed to say I can’t!!) At home, have your child help you with your grocery list or make a Christmas list, they would love to show you their new skill!

We are continuing to work hard during Daily 5. This week we continued to focus on looking at the words as we are reading and following with our finger. This skill can’t be overlooked! I am really pushing this now as I know how important it is. When they read to you at home, make sure they are pointing to the words as they read or another option is for you to read the words and have them point while you read!

Finally, Teagan Boeve was up in lights this week and his mom and dad came to share about him. We learned so much about Teagan, especially that he LOVES the outdoors. He also brought a pretty cool remote control fork lift! We are blessed to have Teagan in our classroom and Mrs. Arnold loves his green and white hat:)

Reminders:

Please keep practicing putting on coats and zipping! I have also made a new rule for our classroom concerning coats. Since many of our friends want to go out without a coat, I have made a rule that the temperature has to be above 45 for them to go out without a coat and then they must have a sweatshirt.  If you feel like your child needs to be an exception for this please lmk and also lmk if you always want your child to have a coat on until winter is over.

Library is on Monday so you may return your books anytime before then

Make sure to open your child’s book bag and have them read to you! They are so proud of their reading! Also, feel free to continue to work on letters and sounds. We can never be too good with those;)

We just got information about the Jingle Jog. For those of you who don’t know this is a time where we get to dress up in fun Christmas things and run in the gym and hallway. Parents are welcome to come and watch as long as they are masked up. Our time is Monday December 13 from 9-9:30. Mrs. Miller will be sending home more information next week! We would love to have you come!

Christmas Break December 20-January December 31. First day back is January 3.

What we are learning:

This week in Bible we started the Christmas story! This is one of my favorite things we do all year! We are reading many books about the Christmas story as well as the story from our Bible. We have also started making our nativity! So far we have done the angel, Mary, Joseph and the shepherd! Thank you for all the toilet paper rolls and boxes!

This week we added is to our word wall word board! We now have A, at. go, I, is, look, me see, the, up and we.

During Daily 5 this week everyone received at least one new book! Make sure to check it out with your child this weekend and make sure they are pointing when they are reading. This is such an important skill for emergent readers!

In Math this week we learned about the = and not = signs and how it indicates that numbers on both side of the symbol are either the same or not. We also practiced writing our sixes and made patterns on candy canes and followed some patterns with Christmas sweaters!

In phonics this week Mrs. Arnold brought a stocking full of ornaments and we sorted them by the first letter sound. We also used white boards and listened to words with long vowels and wrote down the vowel we heard!

In writing workshop this week we began our unit on list making. Our first list was a list of friends in our classroom!

In Science we continued working through our weather unit and we chose clothes for Mr. Arnold to wear in different seasons.

Finally, Paisley Genzink was Up in Lights. Her mom came to share about her and played her favorite song for us. On Thursday afternoon her dad came and brought four puppies and we got a chance to play with them on our playground. SO MUCH FUN!