Weekly Update

Hi Everyone!

Happy Friday!

I hope you had an easy transition back to work and school after our Thanksgiving break. We have had a busy week and I'm sure many of your kiddos will be excited for some rest and relaxation a bit this weekend.

In other news, the 1st grade teachers hosted our Den Rally today. During a Den Rally, the entire school gathers in the gym for character building and to celebrate our Pinebrook community. Today, us 1st grade teachers did a short presentation on how adults and students can greet each other with the 3 R's. It was a lot of fun to role play different scenarios and hear the kids react. Please ask your child about it! :)

Volunteers Needed!
In social studies, we are learning about economics and holiday traditions around the world. In the next week, the 1st graders will spend time "visiting" other countries to learn about holiday traditions from many cultures. As a culminating activity to this unit, our 1st grade classes will host a "World Market" on December 18th. At the market, each class will "sell" an item representing a particular country or culture. Students will shop for items from other classes using a punch card system. They will have to budget and save their punches, and prioritize their purchases since they will not have enough punches to buy everything. At the market, we would like to showcase culture artifacts from around the world. Would you like to set up a table at the market to showcase your family's cultural heritage, and speak to students who may visit your table? If so, please return the "Wanted: First Grade Parents" slip that I sent home in yesterday's Thursday folder. Please return the slip by Tuesday, December 4th.

We Celebrate Winter Holidays:
In yesterday's Thursday folder, I sent home a paper called "We Celebrate Winter Holidays." This is a mini project that I do with my students each year so they have the opportunity to learn the diversity at Pinebrook. By completing this mini project, students have the opportunity to learn about another holiday that others celebrate during the winter season. Please support your child in completing this by Monday, December 10th. Thank you for your help!

Scholastic Book Fair:
The Scholastic Book Fair will be held at school all next week. Students previewed the Book Fair today. Students who bring money may shop at the Book Fair during recess next week (December 3rd-7th). If your child plans to bring in money for the Book Fair, please send the money in a sealed envelope marked with your child's name, my name, and "Book Fair" on the outside of the envelope. If you would like to attend the Book Fair to shop with your child, our Family Shopping Night will be Tuesday, December 4th from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Due to the Book Fair, students will not check books out of the library next week, but books can still be retuned on Monday or you can keep them until Monday, December 10th. If you don't have the opportunity to attend the Scholastic Book Fair, the books may be purchased online on the Scholastic website. If you order online, please use our classroom code. Our class will be able to earn free books for our classroom library based on your purchases. We have earned 15 free books for our classroom already this year!

Early Emergency Dismissal Forms:
Our office is asking all families to complete and/or update your child's early emergency dismissal form. This is the form that tells us how your child goes home in the event of an early dismissal due to inclement weather or some other emergency. If you have not yet completed this form in the last 2 weeks, please complete it by clicking HERE.

Focus Areas for the Coming Week:

• Reading-We will continue our nonfiction unit in which we learn ways to become super smart about nonfiction topics and practice strategies for solving hard words in nonfiction books. 
• Writing- We will finish our How-To writing unit and begin our nonfiction chapter books writing unit. 
• Math-We will continue our measurement unit. We will talk about length, weight, volume, and temperature. We will measure with standard and nonstandard units. We will learn about tools used for measurement. 
• Social Studies- We will explore holiday traditions from around the world as the students "visit" countries around the globe. 

As always, I welcome questions, comments, and feedback. 

Donal and I will be spending our weekend getting ready for the holiday season, as I know that many of you will be doing as well. I have enjoyed hearing the excitement from your children about their eleves visiting and decorating trees at home. First graders definitely keep the magic and excitement of the holiday season alive for me! 

Have a super weekend! :)