December

Welcome to Winter!
Please remember to send extra snow gear for your children in a separate bag. These items can get misplaced easily, so be sure to label everything.  Please also work on getting your children to put on their winter gear by themselves.  Practicing this at home is important and will help your child be ready for lunch on time.

If you’d like to keep an extra pair of shoes here for your child to use in their cubby, that’s perfectly fine. Otherwise, please send their shoes in their backpack each day.

I do have a few extra pairs of shoes available in case your child forgets theirs. 

 VR Glasses Adventure

In social studies we have been learning about the world around us. Today, Mrs. Lynch visited our classroom with a large box full of VR glasses for the students to enjoy. Before opening it, we asked the students what they thought was inside—and we couldn’t stop laughing at their guesses! Many thought there were animals in the box, including snakes, alligators, and fish.

We talked about technology and how we can use it in our classroom to continue learning about different countries and their traditions. Using the VR glasses, we traveled around the world to see how various countries celebrate holidays.

There was lots of excitement and plenty of joyful yelling as the students explored new places through virtual reality. It was an unforgettable and engaging learning experience for everyone!

Math Fun with Shapes

In math, we are continuing to learn about shapes in our world. The students explored different shapes by building them with straws and discussing their characteristics, such as sides, points, size, lines, and curves.

The children were excited to create and identify shapes as they worked, using hands-on learning to deepen their understanding. Look at what we built with our straws!

Gingerbread Week

This week we read many gingerbread books.  We played gingerbread games during stations and played on gingerbread games on our computers too. Click on the books to read some of our stories we read this week.

Calendar time

We have started a new way of working on our calendar.   The use of slates adds an extra challenge that requires careful planning and spatial awareness.  Writing dates in both formats (Monday, December 3, 2024 and 12-3-25) helps students understand different ways to represent the same information, while developing their fine motor control and handwriting skills.

Incorporating base ten blocks and counting school days brings in valuable math concepts - students practice place value, counting, and number writing while keeping track of their progress through the school year.

As students master fitting all these elements onto their slates, they're developing abilities that will help them in many other academic areas.  This will translate into a calendar book once we have come back after winter break.

Keep encouraging them through this learning process - the initial difficulty will lead to stronger skills across multiple areas.

CHOOO...CHOOO

Train Cars in our Room

After our movie night we had a few boxes that were left over and we decided to use them in our classroom for the week.  We had each table work together to decorate their train car and then they will be allowed to sit in the car to do their work this week.   Take a look at how cute they turned out.