LANGUAGE ARTS (Reading, Writing, & Phonics)

   We have completed the zoo phonics alphabet; the children are doing well with their sounds and working on reading words by breaking down the letter sounds. Keep reading and practicing letter recognition and sounds at home. Students have begun writing, we are doing “step it out” pages in phonics, which help the children to understand capital letters at the beginning of the sentence, spacing and punctuation. Ask you child to step out a sentence for you, its fun to do! In addition to our phonics sentences, we are exploring with writing in other areas. Children were asked to draw, label and write a sentence about their favorite Christmas gift and each of them did a great job. We will continue to develop writing skills throughout the rest of the year.

     Jan Brett is our author of the month; we’ve read many of her books and discussed her clever use of illustration. During snack time we have been reading Junie B. Jones books!

MATH

   We continue to work in Ch. 5 “numbers through 31”, students have been practicing skip counting by 2’s and 5’s, as well as working with ten’s frames to aide in counting bigger numbers. We have added a dice game to the math center, which allows the children to practice counting and begin to learn about addition and subtraction.

RELIGION

     We learned a lot about advent, a period of patient and waiting for the coming of God’s greatest gift – Jesus. The Children made advent wreaths, manger scenes, and learned about making good choices. We learned about Mary and how she chose to say “yes” to God. In addition, we read stories from the bible, Christmas story books and a couple of books from the animals’ perspective. After coming back from break we learned that Jesus is the “good shepherd” and He loves and cares for each one of us. We read the bible story “the lost sheep” and talked about how we are Jesus’ sheep. The children made sheep to remind us of the story and played a game where the children had to find the lost sheep (a stuffed animal hidden in the classroom).  

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES

     We continue to work on being a good citizen, showing respect for others and following the rules, especially during our Christmas program practices in December! We have further discussed that it is important to follow the rules everywhere you go, whether it be in Miss Riley’s room, P.E., computer, at home or visiting a friend. We have been focusing on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how his leadership help put a stop to segregation in America. We talk about how things were in the past and how happy we are that changes were made for equality.

     We started a germ science experiment using wheat bread and the children’s hands. We have three pieces of bread, one touched after recess before washing hands, the second touched after washing hands and the third not touched at all – we are looking to see which one grows mold first!

COLD WEATHER – A reminder that if your child wears boots to school, they should bring in sneakers to change into, especially on P.E. days.

Sight Word Books – I have sent home sight word books throughout the year, it is a good idea to create a box or drawer for your child to keep these books inside and keep practicing as we will be reading and writing a lot more this half of the year.

Library – Remember to bring in library books every Wednesday

Volunteers – Please remember to sign in at the office if you are volunteering at school.

Catholic Schools Week – January 29^th kicks off Catholic Schools week, be sure to check your blue folder for activities that will be going on during the week. Monday – Thursday are free dress days with special themes (i.e. sports – wear your favorite sports team).

First Friday Mass – February 3^rd is a full uniform day, we will be going to Mass.  

Noon Dismissal – Wednesday, February 8^th will be a noon dismissal.