Thanks for Sharing Your Child With Me

The book fair starts on Monday and runs through Thursday.  We visited the book fair on Friday.  The children saw lots of books they would like to own.  You may send money to school for the book fair or you may come to the school and shop with your child.  You may come at any time during the book fair hours and take your child shopping.  My editorial of the book fair:  The book fair has a table full of "trinkets and treasures" commonly found at a dollar style store.   The items on this table are very popular with the children but may not be  made of the highest quality of material.  If you are not coming to the book fair to shop with your child, I suggest setting boundaries as to what your child can purchase.  At the McDevitt house, only books can be purchased at a book fair.

Due to the book fair, we will not be going to the library this week.

Nancy's Italian Ice is Monday for $1.00.

There will be a PTA meeting this Tuesday at 6:00.  Mugshots will be selling a box dinner for $6.00 to make dinner plans easier.

Information went home last week about the Cookie Dough Fundraiser.  Orders need to be placed by December 3.  Delivery of cookie dough is planned for December 17.  Thanks for supporting our school.

I'm a firm believer in the benefits of fresh air.  Even though the temperatures are dropping, I will take the children outside unless it is raining.  So bundle up!

Please label all sweaters, jackets, hats and gloves that are sent to school.  I try my best to keep track of everyone's belongings but sometimes things get left behind.  There is a lost and found box located in the lunchroom.  After a few days the articles in the lost and found box are moved to huge bags located in the lunchroom closet.  If you are missing an item, then please check those large bags.  Parents must check those bags.  They are too huge for a child to do the checking.  It is overwhelming the amount of stuff in those lost and found bags.

Poetry Journals did not come home on Friday.  They will come this Wednesday.  Keep them at home for the duration of the Thanksgiving break.  Pull them out at night and use with your 20 minutes of reading or share the poems with visiting family members.  Stay in your daily reading habits even during the holiday break.

In reading this week, we will be focusing on the letter "Ii."   This is a difficult sound for the children to distinguish from the sound the letter "e" can make.  Having southern accents and pronunciations doesn't help either.  Help your child distinguish the two sounds by the letter Ii makes the "itchy, itchy insect bite" while Ee makes the "elephant and egg" sound.  We will also be talking about the long sound the Ii makes when it says its own name.  We will be spending two weeks on the letter Ii so help out by reinforcing the different sounds at home.  High frequency words are:  one, two, three, four, five. 

In reading, we are learning how to use our schemas to understand stories.  Our schemas are everything in our brains that we know to be true.    Before you read a story, tell your child that good readers try to figure out what  book will be about.  Ask your child to look at the cover/title and use his/her schema to guess what will happen in the story.   As you read the story, have your child guess what will happen next.  Your child will know that good readers can change their thinking in the middle of the story.  Don't ask your child these questions on every page because that would ruin the enjoyment of it all.  Rather, ask them every once in a while.    Praise the connections your child makes as he/she reads/listens to a story.

We've been working with nouns and adjectives.  We know a noun is a person, place, thing or animal. An adjective gives us more information about a nouns such as size, number, or color.

In math, we are working with the beginning stages of addition.   We use the word "plus" and this week add the word "the sum."  The sum is another word for the answer when you are adding.   November calendar pages will come home on Friday.   Check out the learning from this month by going over each calendar page with your child.

We will be dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians for lunch on Wednesday and Thursday.  Our lunch time is 10:45-11:10.  Half the class will be pilgrims on Wednesday and the other half will be Indians.  We will flip flop roles on Thursday so that everyone has a chance to be a Pilgrim or Indian.

Please send in the $9.00 for December's Family Secret by Monday.

  A great way to end a week is to have a Crafternoon.   Room 114 has so much to be thankful for and you can see the biggest blessings celebrating fall by clicking on this link.  Thank you to the families that supported the Crafternoon from home by sending in supplies and those that volunteered in the classroom.  Our next Crafternoon will be at the end of January with a Cowboy and Cowgirl Western theme.

 I am blessed beyond measure to work with these sweet fingers everyday.  I know how lucky I am to teach at Blount and have the parental support that is found in Room 114.  Please know that when I give daily thanks for my blessings that your child and your family is included in my thoughts.  Enjoy your week off from school.  Spend time talking and listening to your child.  Get outside and become a Nature Spy.  Don't worry about the laundry or the housecleaning.  All that can wait!  Just cherish your family.

I appreciate you.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Upcoming Events:
11.17-11.20:  Book Fair in the library
11.18  PTA program at 6:00 pm
11:19:  Pilgrim/ Native American lunch (10:45-11:10)
11.20  Pilgrim/ Native American lunch (10:45-11:10)
11.24 - 11:28:  Thanksgiving Break - no school
12.18:  December Classroom Party (schoolwide) at 1:45
12.19:  Polar Express Day:  wear pajamas to school
12.22-1.5:  Winter Break:  no school
1.6.2015:  Children return to school
2.10:  Stephen Fite's  "Giddy Up and Learn" concert - Kindergarten Field Trip