Information and Reminders:
Wonderfully Made: Gibson Geurink Jan. 9-13 Max Harris Jan.16-20
Please finish and send your child’s timeline the week before your child’s special week. During your child’s special week, it is a wonderful opportunity to have lunch with your child, bring in pets, or share special talents your family members may have been blessed with. Just inform me ahead of time what is your plan.
Jingle Jog: Wednesday, Dec. 21 9:00-9:30
December 23 No a.m. or p.m. bussing and No hot lunch
Each student will need to bring 50 cents by Wednesday, Dec. 21 to buy Christmas cards made by classmates. All the income of selling cards will goes to the fund of supporting Hana Carmen from Grace Community Christian School in the Philippines.
Christmas Party: Friday, December 23 1:00-2:00pm
January Birthday Celebrations:
Willem Haveman & Owen Wickstra Friday, January 13
Greetings Staff and ZCS Mandarin families,
We are eagerly anticipating a great celebration for Chinese New Year. This comes up pretty quickly after the Christmas Break, so we thought we’d give you a little advance notice! We will be celebrating on January 14th from 6:30 – 8:30 (or so) at ZCS. We would love to have you and your families join us for dumpling making (and eating) and good conversation. We also can’t wait to “ring” in the new year with the “bubble wrap fireworks,” which are always a highlight. More details will be coming as the date approaches.
We hope you can save the date and join us!
Dana Moeller
Carrie Traver
Kristi Van Dyk
Curriculum
Language Arts
-Reading Strategy:
We will continue the read aloud—Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. Each week we will focus on one or two reading strategies to help us understand plot and settings of this book. This week we will focus on one comprehension strategy.
-Chapter-End Stop Signs: Each chapter will have at least one important event. At the end of the chapter, stop and jot about what the most important event is.
-Writers’ Workshop: We will talk about different ways to improve our writing: write high frequent words in a snap; write small moment story; and write to make my partner understood.
Math
-First Grade: We will talk about doubles and how doubles can help us with addition. We are also going to represent 2-digit numbers with cards and drawings.
-Second Grade:We will explore quarters and dollars, and use different methods to find addends for 100. We will also work on subtraction word problems using students-generated methods.We will focus on deciding when to ungroup and when not to ungroup.
Social Studies
we will continue doing the economic project by turing our classroom into Christmas cards factories and shops so that students will learn the concepts of producers and consumers. During the week of Dec. 12-16, students will work on making cards in their factories. During the week of Dec. 19-23, students will buy cards from other shops.
Science
-First Grade: We will observe water as a solid keeps its own shape. We will also plan and conduct a simple investigation into melting ice. We will also going to observe the downward flow of water.
-Second Grade:We will make a list of problems that we observed regarding Terracyling/recycling at school, discuss possible solutions for all the problems we found. We will also start focusing on topics we want to tackle to improve our resources usage.
Bible
This week we will talk about the angles and shepherds as well as the star and the wise men.