It's Winter Break! Woohoo!

Hello First Grade Families,

I'm writing today to wish you all a happy, healthy, joyful Winter Break, and to pass along wishes for the happiest holidays. I will send along a weekly update at the beginning of January with classroom information for the first week of the new year.

I'd also like to offer my sincerest thanks for the treats and gift cards so many of you sent! I am humbled by your kindness and generosity :)

Enjoy the time off with family! May you rest, recharge, and relax...I know I will be! I already scheduled a massage for the first day of break! I hope you are all able to connect with family and loved ones. I will be heading back to Pennsylvania to enjoy the holidays with my family.

Many blessings!

P.S. Our class used Santa Tracker during Computer Lab time yesterday and they absolutely loved it! Here is the link so students may enjoy at home! Santa Tracker

One last thing...the third grade classes of Pinebrook are collecting plastic bottle caps for a recycling project. If you have any plastic caps or lids throughout the holidays, please save them and send them in with your class when we return from break. The third grade class will be collecting until May.

Weekly Update

Hello Everyone! Happy Friday!

The anticipation for Winter Break is in the air, everyone is in a festive mood, and we just can't hold in our excitement any longer! We have some fun events planned next week to celebrate the holiday season and we will begin some new academic units as well.

Holiday Shop:
We previewed the items for sale at the Pinebrook Holiday Shop this morning. Students will be coming home with an envelope and a list of items they took interest in purchasing as gifts for family and friends today. Students may purchase items on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. If your child is purchasing Holiday Shop items, please kindly use the envelope sent home to send in his/her money on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Students who bring in money may shop during our recess time. Please remember, there is no obligation to buy. If you would like to shop with your child, the Holiday Shop will be open tomorrow, Saturday, December 9th from 9-11:30am. The 5th Grade will be hosting their annual Pancake Breakfast fundraiser, so come for breakfast too! :)

Interim Progress Reports:
Interim progress reports (commonly known as "interims") will be sent out to parents on Wednesday, December 13th. A friendly reminder that I do not send home an interim for every child. If I send one for your student, you will receive it via email at the email address on file in your ParentVue account.

Holiday Craft:
On Tuesday, December 12th our first grade class will be creating a holiday craft for families. Currently, I have three wonderful volunteers who have offered to help out our students to create their crafts. If you would be interested in helping out on Tuesday from 9:15-10:30am, please let me know. Thank you! :)

Winter Break Activities:
I will be sending home a Winter Break activity packet for your child to work on during the winter break. It will be going home with your child on Thursday, December 14th. Please be on the lookout for this packet in your child's Homework folder on Thursday. If you have any questions about what students are to do, please let me know.

Holiday Travel:
If you are traveling for the holidays and your child will be absent from school, please kindly notify the school in advance. You can send a message or a note to me, which I will then forward to the office. You may also submit your notification to the office directly by using the "online absence excuse," found on the Pinebrook website homepage. The link to the Pinebrook homepage is HERE

Focus Areas for Next Week:

• Reading-We will practice reading strategies to increase our accuracy of reading words correctly and integrating sources of information to decode unknown words.
• Math-We will begin our addition unit, which teaches multiple strategies to solve addition facts
• Writing-We will begin a How to Build a snowman writing activity.
• Science/Social Studies- We will continue our economics unit by learning about wants/needs, goods/services, and consumers/producers. We will also talk about Holiday traditions around the world with our annual Holidays Around the World on Thursday morning. During the time, the first grade teachers take turns rotating through the other first grade classrooms to teach students about a holiday tradition from a different country or culture. 

I CAN'T WAIT!!!! The Mercer Middle School Band and Chorus will be here on Wednesday morning for a special holiday concert for our students and on Friday, the entire school will pile into the gym for our annual Holiday Sing Along. We sing Holiday songs from many faith and cultural traditions represented at Pinebrook while the teachers and staff all take turns learning the songs. 

Have a great weekend! I am looking forward to time with friends, wrapping gifts, and some cookie baking, all the while (hopefully) watching a little snow fall. There is much to do and prepare for the holiday season still! 

WE DID IT!

Room 3 is officially Word Detectives!! I am so proud of all the hard work our first grade class has used to solve tricky words in their books! Keep up all the super work word detectives! :)

Weekly Update

Hello Parents!

I hope everyone had a super week! It has been difficult getting back into a full week routine after having a few days off. The kiddos are getting very excited about the upcoming winter break, so we are all trying to stay focused to keep on learning more and more each day! :)

Timeline Projects due December 6th:
Your child's "Look At Me Now" timeline project is due Wednesday, December 6th. Please send your child's project to school with him/her on or before Wednesday. The kids will love to share their projects and I'm excited to see their creativity on display!

Inclusive Schools Week:
Next week is Inclusive Schools Week, which is a time to celebrate our public schools as environments in which all students are invited to learn, regardless of educational, emotional, or behavioral challenges. We will welcome a guest reader, who will share a story and lead a discussion about the importance of including everyone in our learning environment.

We Celebrate Winter Holidays!
Students brought home a "We Celebrate Winter Holidays!" activity yesterday in their homework folder. I am hoping that each child completes this small activity so we can learn about holidays that we each celebrate during the winter season and display these in the classroom. I am asking that each student please bring this back by Friday, December 10th. Thank you for your help!

Sight Word Homework:
While reviewing sight word homework that students complete at home, I've noticed that they are not using the writing skills learned in the classroom. Please remind your child to use their very best handwriting to write their words/sentences. Also, students should be checking that they are using two thumbs up sentences (begins with a capital letter and ends with a period). Students have all week to complete this small homework assignment, so I expect them to do their very best work as they would in the classroom, and not just rush to complete the assignment quickly. We should all be encouraging our children to use what they learn in the classroom outside of the classroom as well so they become lifelong learners.

WANTED: Magazines!
Our word detectives reading unit is coming to a wrap and to showcase what students have learned during this unit, they will be completing a small in-class project of using old magazines to find snap (sight) words. If you have any old magazines at home ready for recycling, our students could really use them to complete their project. :)

Holiday Craft Helpers:
Our class will be completing a Holiday craft on Tuesday, December 12th and I am looking for some parents to help! Our class, along with Miss Angelucci's first grade class will be making a special holiday craft for students to give to parents for the holiday season. We would love for a parent helpers to come in and help us complete the craft. Please let me know if you are available on Tuesday, December 12th from 9:15am-10:30am. THANK YOU!! (We will make sure to have you NOT help your child, so that it can stay a surprise!)

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We will be finishing our Word Detectives unit and reviewing reading skills to be effective readers and understand what we are reading
• Writing- We will be practicing handwriting, practicing a new word study sort, and starting a winter writing assignment
• Math- We will complete our short Sorting unit by looking at attributes to sort different materials, including buttons!
• Social Studies- We will continue to learn about economics: wants and needs, goods and services, consumers and producers. 

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or feedback. 

I hope you all enjoy the weekend!!