What a fun way to start our week! Thank you Miss Tina for taking some pictures of our super fast joggers!

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.

What We Have Been Learning:

Bible: We continue to read the account of Jesus’s birth. What a wonderful gift for all people!!

We have also enjoyed singing a few Christmas songs with motions. Here are our favorites:

SILENT NIGHT

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

OH WHAT A GLORIOUS NIGHT

We had a terrific morning with games and fun treats.

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We have been writing a sentence every day this week that has included one of our five sentences. We began the week with “I hear jingle bells” and today we ended with “I taste hot chocolate.” We were able to enjoy real hot chocolate 🙂

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 10:30-11am. 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 9-10am.

What We Have Been Learning:

Writing Workshop: we have been working on lists. The class is working very hard on sounding out words and writing letters. I am encouraging each child to try to read the word just written to check for any missing letters and sounds. This is a wonderful start to writing!

Daily 5: We continue to look for books to encourage some sounding out and have plenty of word wall words. This week we focused on sounding out the whole word-not skipping the ending sound.

Bible: Each day this week we focused on a part of the nativity as we made our box. From the angel to Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and wisemen. Each so important in the details of the first Christmas. I pray that we may have a heart ready to act on God’s calling like Mary, a love that extends to all children like Joseph, a curiosity and growing knowledge of Jesus like the Wisemen and may we spread the good news like shepherds. Next week we will practice 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

Phonics: We looked at beginning and ending sounds in words. Ending sounds can be more difficult to recognize. We also noticed the beginning of a sentence is on the left and the end of a sentence is on the right.

Engaging God’s World: We reviewed needs and wants. This is such a great discussion to have at home as well. 🙂

Reminders:

• Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper tubes by Monday, December 6
• 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 around the hall. We will run from 10:30-11am. You are welcome to come in to school to cheer on your runner. Masks should be worn. 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 will send home more information about the fundraising part of the Jingle Jog.
• 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 9-10am.

What We Have Been Learning:

Daily 5: This week I introduced Listen to Reading. We are using chrome tablets to access Raz Kids. I have learned that using these tablets takes a little more time to log on than I am used to. The kids are excited to use it and have been very patient waiting for things to load. We will use them about once or twice a week in school. At home, if you have an iPad or iPhone, you can download the Razkids app. It is very user friendly. I will send home the log in reminder today. One important reminder is that I would like the kids to listen to the book first (press the headphones icon) and then read it on their own (book icon). After reading through several levels there will also be a short quiz about the book. This is great practice if you are looking for something educational on a device.

Word Wall Words: a, at, go, I, is, look, like, me, see, the, up, we. Keep practicing reading and writing these words. It has been fun to see sentences with many of these words!

Math: After reviewing adding on from 5, we began looking at teen numbers. We noticed numbers 0-9 continue with 10 more. We also noticed teen number sounds a little funny. 🙂 Keep practicing counting through teens, adding 10 + and writing numbers at home.

Engaging God’s World: We discussed the different weather we experienced this week and what we wore for each type of weather. We are really working on understanding the difference between seasons, months and holidays.

Writing Workshop: We have been working on lists. This is a challenge for our young writers and I am amazed at the hard work I am seeing! I ask them to sketch what they are writing first and then we work through the letters sounds. This process is slow, but so important. At home you can also work on writing lists. You may focus on asking your child the beginning and ending sounds and you can tell them the middle sounds.

Jace was our friend Up In Lights this week. Jace is a great encourager and friend to all. He has dreams of being a cowboy with his brother.