Greetings!
The children and I had so much fun the last week of school. We studied a few holidays around the world- including the creation of a poinsettia and a holiday card based on our studies of England and Mexico! The children made a special gift for you- I hope you got a smile out of your "Melty" the Snowman. We had an enriching lesson shedding some "light" on the similarities of several holidays from Mrs. Patel (see below), and we celebrated with a holiday book exchange... not too long after being serenaded by Mr. Deptula and his 5th grade carolers! I know that the children work so hard every single day at school, so it was nice to ease things up a little bit and give the children some time to sing, create, and truly enjoy some hands-on, interactive learning at school!
I hope each and every one of you is enjoying a warm and happy winter break. Have lots of fun family time!! Thank you for all of the gifts, cards and treats that I received leading up to last Friday! It is a wonderful to feeling to receive all of the care and appreciation that you've shared with me! I am so happy to spend each day working with 23 amazing children- and their supportive families.
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| Mr. D and his 5th grade carolers! |
I hope each and every one of you is enjoying a warm and happy winter break. Have lots of fun family time!! Thank you for all of the gifts, cards and treats that I received leading up to last Friday! It is a wonderful to feeling to receive all of the care and appreciation that you've shared with me! I am so happy to spend each day working with 23 amazing children- and their supportive families.
Here are a few “short and sweet” details for you!
Reading
Read lots of books over the holiday break! Keep that fluency and comprehension going
strong!
Writing
We will begin our unit on Poetry in January! Also, the children will be preparing to take
their "Handwriting Test" before moving on to our cursive handwriting instruction. All letters
should be formed properly in print (in a nut shell: top-down, and letters mainly closed on
top!) before we will be ready to make the transition...
Writing
We will begin our unit on Poetry in January! Also, the children will be preparing to take
their "Handwriting Test" before moving on to our cursive handwriting instruction. All letters
should be formed properly in print (in a nut shell: top-down, and letters mainly closed on
top!) before we will be ready to make the transition...
Math
Please, please, please, practice those addition facts over break! Subtraction is coming up!
Social Studies
We enjoyed watching the second half of the landmark challenge reports! It was apparent
that authentic learning happened as a result of these projects, the children were able
to speak comfortably about each of their topics. I have to say that I was especially
pleased with the results of our Citizenship tests! While we did need to review the spelling
of our President's name, the children truly became experts during this unit!
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| Sarah studied the Statue of Liberty, and made a clay replica! |
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| Lucas documented his learning about the Golden Gate Bridge in a detailed poster! |
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| Kristopher created a booklet that showed all of his learning about the Statue of Liberty! |
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| Lexi shared her learning of Lady Liberty! |
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| Audrey shared her expertise about the Statue of Liberty. |
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| Hannah created a diorama of Mount Rushmore! |
Holidays Around the World
While we weren't able to delve as deeply into our cultural studies with this unit as I had
hoped, we were able to touch on the winter traditions and customs that go along with Hanukkah, Christmas in Mexico, Christmas in England, and Christmas in Germany! We
covered as much information as we could in the time that we had! Encourage your child to
read through the fascinating customs and answer the questions about the traditions of
the countries in the holiday packets that they brought home. There are also a few links
here on the blog that they might want to explore a little bit further, too! We will more
fully cover our "Cultural Comparison" learning objective when we study the country of Australia in the spring.
While we weren't able to delve as deeply into our cultural studies with this unit as I had
hoped, we were able to touch on the winter traditions and customs that go along with Hanukkah, Christmas in Mexico, Christmas in England, and Christmas in Germany! We
covered as much information as we could in the time that we had! Encourage your child to
read through the fascinating customs and answer the questions about the traditions of
the countries in the holiday packets that they brought home. There are also a few links
here on the blog that they might want to explore a little bit further, too! We will more
fully cover our "Cultural Comparison" learning objective when we study the country of Australia in the spring.
Thanks to Mrs. Patel for enriching our cultural studies the day before break by preparing
an engaging lesson for our class! It was a lesson called the "Universality of Light." During this lesson, the children were broken into small groups and given a holiday to investigate, including: Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and Diwali. With their groups, the children looked through the books for examples of ways that the concept of light is incorporated. We found that light is a part of each and every one of these holidays, and it is something that we share with people across the cultures. After sharing their findings, the children were given a glass votive holder to decorate and a votive candle, to remind them of their learning. It was a wonderful way to "enlighten" the children about holidays and cultures that are celebrated by people all around us.
Book Exchange:
The children were so excited to see what new book they had chosen during our book
exchange! Thank you for participating!
an engaging lesson for our class! It was a lesson called the "Universality of Light." During this lesson, the children were broken into small groups and given a holiday to investigate, including: Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and Diwali. With their groups, the children looked through the books for examples of ways that the concept of light is incorporated. We found that light is a part of each and every one of these holidays, and it is something that we share with people across the cultures. After sharing their findings, the children were given a glass votive holder to decorate and a votive candle, to remind them of their learning. It was a wonderful way to "enlighten" the children about holidays and cultures that are celebrated by people all around us.
Book Exchange:
The children were so excited to see what new book they had chosen during our book
exchange! Thank you for participating!
Coming Soon: THE LMC WILL BE "CLOSED" FROM 1/10 – 1/14 due to
MAP testing!
MAP testing!
January 3: Welcome back to school!
January 10: Reading MAP testing
January 13: Math MAP testing
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