THANK YOU!

Thank you all so much for the generous donation to St. Vincent de Paul as well as the Target gift card! It will certainly be put to good use! Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season! 

Game Day

THANK YOU for the amazing turnout at our first game day! I know the kids had a ball and I loved watching them have so much tech-free fun. It was so great to see everyone! I wish you all a fun vacation, Mrs. Batchelder has challenged our class to spending 3 hours outside everyday of vacation. If anyone makes any awesome snow creations send them my way so I can post them here!

December 15

We had the AMAZING opportunity this week to Skype with Georgie from The Water Princess. She was so kind and patient through our technological fumbles. We learned so much about her life and her mission. It was a great way to motivate us to now make a difference! It's so inspiring to see how much this truly means to her.

Some things we did this week:

• Drawing diagrams
• Drew pictures of us walking with Gie Gie to the well
• Learned why snow is white
• Worked on understanding place value to the hundreds
• Started researching topics to report on next week
• Skyped with Gie Gie! 

Some things to ask your child:

• What did you learn from Gie Gie? 
• What are you researching during reading? 
• Whats's a zoom-in? 
• How do you play telephone? 

Important Dates:

• Winter family game day 12/21 12:45-1:45 Families are encouraged to attend! Wear something cozy and bring a family favorite game to share with friends! 

December 8th

This week we read The Water Princess which sparked a lot of really meaningful conversation. It's about a girl living in Burkina Faso who has to walk 4 miles each day to get water for her family. The family that she works so hard to get is dirty and often makes people sick. Gie Gie, the character in the story has since grown up to be a model and activist for clean water in Africa.

I was pleasantly surprised by how interested the class was in helping these kids. I looked into it and was able to get in contact with her organization. We may even be lucky enough to Skype with Georgie herself! (Shhh I don't want to get their hopes up in case something changes.) The loons decided that by selling things they make we can raise money for this great cause. Given that vacation is just around the corner I think this is something we will have to tackle in January but you may hear about our grand plans from your first grader. To learn more about the organization you can check out her website. http://georgiebadielfoundation.org/

Some things we did this week:

• Learned ice cream scoop retell
• Place value to the hundreds
• Make a bridge for a gingerbread man to get across
• Marshmallow 5 senses science 
• Read Giraffes Can't Dance and learned how to draw a giraffe
• Finished our balanced equation snowmen

Some things to ask your child:

• What's a wonder board? 
•  How is your life different than the kids in Africa? 
• What is a 3 scoop retell? 
• Where does chocolate come from? 

Important Dates:

• Early Release 12/13
• Winter family game day 12/21 12:45-1:45 Families are encouraged to attend! Wear something cozy and bring a family favorite game to share with friends! 

December 1

Some things we did this week:

• Checked out the Book Fair together-thank you to all the parent volunteers! 
• Created our own mock book fair in our classroom showcasing their writing to their peers
• Worked on balancing equations in math i.e. 5+4=2+6+1 and 10-2=3+7
• Introduced place value 
• Introduced our new nonfiction writing unit
• Reviewed dropping our bad habits in reading
• Read lots of new book fair books 
• Began our first winter craft
• STEM challenge this week was building the tallest tower using only 30 index cards and 1 sheet of dot labels. Our tallest tower was 15.5" 
• Enjoyed a special treat all the way from London! 
• Welcomed a new student to our classroom :) 

Some things to ask your child:

• What is the moon made out of?
• What happens in Strictly No Elephants?
• What did you learn in your nonfiction reading this week? 
• We rearranged our classroom...Who do you sit next to now? 
• What did you write about this week? 
• How is a book made? 

Important Dates:

• Early Release 12/13
• December 21st we will be having a class PJ/board game day. Families are encouraged to attend! I do not have the details finalized at this point but wanted to make everyone aware of the date as soon as possible! 

Home Work:

A picture is worth 1,000 words!

The loons will be moving onto ”All About” writing and we need your help. Please help your child brainstorm topics they know a lot about. Once you have a list of ideas collect images (clipart, magazine clippings, photos, etc.) to help your child get started while in class. The visual will be really beneficial when it comes to sharing all they know. A collection of 5-10 pictures on various topics will give us plenty of options to share our specialized expertise! Please send the pictures into school by Wednesday 12/6 or email to me so I can print it here.

Some examples of topics may include things like:

Dogs

Soccer

Skiing

Police officers

Australia

Cooking

Tallest tower builders! 

November 17

Some things we did this week:

• Learned about Wampanoag and Pilgrim children 
• Fact families in math
• Had so much fun on our field trip to see Click Clack Moo! 
• Made teepees with Native American symbols on them
• Made the brick house from the Three Little Pigs
• Read the TRUE Story of the Three Little Pigs
• Practiced doing a s-l-o-w check when reading
• Learned how to say hello in Turkish 

Some things to ask your child:

• What kind of things did Pilgrim children wear?
• What games did Wampanoag children play?
• Which Three Little Pigs story do you think is true?
• How did your STEAM challenge go this week? What worked well? What do you think could've gone better?

Important Dates:

• NO SCHOOL 11/22-11/24 Happy Thanksgiving! 
• Early Release 12/13

November 3

Thank you so much to all the parents who came in this week to volunteer and for conferences. This week has certainly been crazy but it has remained very positive! 

Some things we did this week:

• Learned to read with an important "news reporter" style voice
• Worked on a new word sort
• Had a blast at our Fall Festival
• Watched the 5th graders perform "Thriller" 
• Wore lab coats and googles while exploring the inside and outside of pumpkins
• STEAM challenge: 3 Little Pigs: Today we built a house out of the classroom version of "sticks"...pencils. 
• Continued practicing adding 3 digits and working with flipped equations
• Thursday we had a practice lock down, the loons learned what to do if they are outside at P.E. 

Some things to ask your child:

• What is a news reporter voice? 
• What was your favorite part of the Fall Festival?
• What's the name of your word sort group?
• Did your pumpkin have more than 100 seeds?

Important Dates:

• EARLY RELEASE DAY Wednesday, 11/8
• NO SCHOOL Thursday & Friday 11/9-11/10
• Portsmouth Music Hall Field Trip 11/14
• NO SCHOOL 11/22-11/24 Happy Thanksgiving! 

😵 MAD SCIENTISTS!!! 😨