Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Late November

Thanks to all who joined us last Wednesday to make our Thanksgiving bread baking such a success! We kept Melissa Ricci, Judy Chan-Troidl, Inessa Shur, Polina Bouriev, Jen Sacchetti and our own Carli Sherman VERY busy with our stations of 4 children making bread FROM SCRATCH! I hope you all enjoyed eating it as much as the children enjoyed making it.

Laura Jacques joined us to take pictures, and I have created a slide show for you from those photos (on the left side of this blog).  I also found the slide show I sent to you earlier this year, and included that link on our blog as well.

Here are some impromptu photos of your children enjoying our precious Independent Reading time:




Writing:

We are finishing up our Personal Narratives!  Students are enjoying the art of writing, and we will practice and improve our skills in editing this month.  When you see work come home, it may look a little “unfinished” … please enjoy the content and notice that it will be more and more “polished” as we move through the year.  We have been focusing on many techniques of a good small moment Personal Narrative… strong leads, showing feelings, using strong verbs, etc.

Homework:

This week an activity went home to help your child notice how time in their everyday lives.  Please help them complete AT LEAST one side.

Next week we will send home an assignment where each child will write a compliment for their classmates.  You can start practicing by giving each other compliments in your family!

Enjoy the crisp November air!

Deborah Niles, Elizabeth Nolan and Carli Sherman





Monday, November 19, 2018

Welcome to Thanksgiving Week





I am so looking forward to our Bread Baking project this Wednesday- thanks to our wonderful Room Parents, Melissa Ricci and Judy Chan for organizing this.  Thanks to all of you who have agreed to send in supplies!  You can send them in Tuesday or Wednesday, and please label everything with your name so we can send it back Wed.  Painters tape comes off so easily!

Since winter has already arrived, some notes about Snow Clothing:
  • Please label all clothing.
  • A durable cloth bag works great for keeping it all together!
  • Children need shoes to wear in the classroom, so our carpet, and their clothing, does not get wet when we sit on the rug.
  • If you have any coats your children will not wear again, please DONATE them to the Student Council Coat Drive, going on now through the first week in December! The box is in the front lobby.
 
Math:  We just wrapped up our unit on Place Value, and have started our next unit on Fractions and Time.  We will be studying clock time (easiest to understand on an analog clock), as well as elapsed time (hours, days, weeks, months…).  If you can use a clock and calendar at home this will help them in their learning here at school.

Of course this ties in so nicely with our Bread Baking project- and if you can involve your child in any preparation and cooking activities around the holidays it will be a good reinforcement for their learning.  

Maps:  Our class has begun learning about maps!  I love doing this around the holidays, because as you travel you can show your child where you are going and how you get there on a map.  Even the handheld GPS version can be interesting and informative.

Thank you all for your continued support and involvement.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Deborah Niles, Elizabeth Nolan and Carli Sherman



Monday, November 5, 2018

November 5 Post



We survived Halloween week!  Thank you to Judy Chan, Janie Ricci and Jenny Choi for coming in to help serve, manage and clean up after our Veggie Skeleton activity.  Thanks also to all of you who donated veggies, plates, dressing, etc.  Here are a few of the photos... more to come in our next slide show!







Two projects for Thanksgiving:
This is one of my favorite holidays!  I love helping children see how they can use gratitude to enjoy and appreciate the wonderful things they have in their lives.  Someone who loves you, a warm house and enough food can be a luxury for others, and we too often take it for granted.

1.   A “homework assignment” for parents (in a brown paper envelope) was sent home recently (some were given out at conferences).  If you did not get one, please let us know asap!  If you have not yet completed it, please do so asap.  We will contact those that are missing this week.
2.   If you have not signed up for our Bread Baking activity, please do so... it is the best project all year!  We will get cooking supplies back to you that day- we promise!

We hope you enjoyed the “Monthly Messages” that went home on Friday.  At this point in the year we are working on describing an activity, and the learning involved, in detail.  We will be working on editing skills in the next month or so.  We want children to enjoy writing and communicating with you all!

Finally, conferences are wrapping up this week and if you have any questions as we move through the year please don’t hesitate to write! My email address is Deborah_niles@wayland.k12.ma.us.  Thanks for a great partnership!