Giving Thanks

As I sit here in Thanksgiving morning updating my blog, I am reminded of all things I have to be thankful for.   I'm Thankful for the wonderful students I get to work with everyday; for a supportive administration; for the great lunch program that provides nourishment to our students; for the curriculum that shapes the education of my students; for the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues; for making it through the first trimester of the year; and for the truly amazing parents who year after year make my job that much easier by providing the supportive love and encouragement your children need to grow and learn.
You are your child's first teacher, so my thanks to all of you for doing your best as a parent!

We've concluded our first trimester of the school year.   I was happy to meet with just about all of you for parent/teacher conferences.   If you were not able to make your conference, Please feel free to contact me so we can make arrangements to meet.

This past week and 1/2 have been busy.    We finished our first unit in math.   Students should be able to identify, write, and order numbers 0-10, understand that numbers are made up of parts (hidden partners),  and understand the concepts of (one) more, (one) less, and equal.   Students should be able to count to 20 by ones. 

In literacy, we've introduced all the vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and most recently the consonants: j, p, r, s,  and d.   Our new sight words are can and see.  At this point students should know the following sight words: the, I, a, it, is, see, can.  Click the link to open a practice page of sight words.
https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=muscle%20words

Students have begun the publishing process in writer's workshop. 

During E.C.O. students learned about how some animals prepare for winter.  We "became squirrels" and worked to collect the equivalent of one day of food for a human size squirrel.   Students discovered that squirrels must work hard to collect enough food to get through the winter.  We also made treat for the birds and squirrels (pine cones, peanut butter, and seeds), and roasted apples on the fire.