Happy Holidays!! As you may have noticed, this week, we do not have any math or spelling homework. We are reviewing what we have learned so far in math and will be completing a mid-year assessment. We have been working on some exciting holiday assignments. Last week, we wrote about what we would do if we were stuck in a snow globe. Then, we made snow globes with our pictures inside. What a fun project! These are currently in the hallway and will be sent home on Thursday. I can't wait for you all to see them. The students worked very hard on them. This week, we are writing an elf job application. These projects and a few more will be sent home on Thursday, so keep an eye out!

Speaking of elves, we have had a visitor! Our class elf showed up last week. The class named him Monopoly. He has been a big help keeping an eye on the class.

Cinderella Around the World

We have had so much fun learning about the different versions of Cinderella! The first Cinderella we read was Yeh-Shen. The class travelled to China and learned a little about the culture. Then, groups competed to see who could find the most comparisons and differences from Yeh-Shen and Cinderella using a venn diagram. I was so impressed with what the groups came up with! The winning group used over 30 post-it notes!

Next, we travelled to Egypt to read The Egyptian Cinderella. The students really enjoyed learning about Egyptian hieroglyphics and even learned to write their names!

Our last stop during this unit is Canada. Here, we will learn about the Algonquin Indians and read The Rough Face Girl. This one is my favorite version and I am excited to share it with the class!

Your children are Cinderella experts now! They will be bringing their "suitcases" home on Thursday, December 17th to share all that they have learned with you.

Announcements: 

Thank you all for getting the field trip permission forms in! We are so excited about seeing Madeline and the Bad Hat! Also, thanks to our chaperones that are coming and helping out.

PTA Holiday Store is this Thursday (Dec. 3) afternoon. The envelopes were sent home before Thanksgiving break. Please let me know if you need another. They can also visit the store before and after school if you are wanting to go with them. There will be PTA members there to help the students pick out gifts within their budget. This is a good way for students to buy a surprise gift for moms, dad, siblings, or other family members without the family members help, and is a great independence builder.

Winter Gear: Each student needs to be bringing in all of their winter gear. This includes hats, gloves, snow pants, boots, and a heavy coat. Without any one of these items, the student either has a restricted recess or has to sit in the office for the entire recess. Also, I would suggest writing your child's name on their snow gear to help us keep everything accounted for. 

Items Needed:

• Glue sticks- we go through these pretty quickly and are almost out again. 
• Class snacks- Our "I forgot my snack" bucket is empty! If anyone would like to donate a healthy snack that can be kept in the classroom (pretzels, goldfish, etc) it would be extremely helpful for when anyone forgets a snack. 

Here's what's going on in class:

Language Arts: We just finished up our exciting unit on fables and are moving on to fairy tales! We are going to be learning about Cinderella around the world. At each stop on our journey, we will learn a little about the culture and gain a stamp on our passport. So far this week, we have learned the story elements of fairy tales, created our passports, and have headed to China to read Yeh Shen. 

The books we will be reading and comparing in this unit include:

Cinderella (Disney Version)

Yeh Shen (China)

The Rough-Face Girl (Algonquin Indian)

The Egyptian Cinderella (Egypt)

The students also get time daily to read to themselves and to read to a parter to build up their stamina and reading fluency, AKA to become a SUPER READER!!

Math: Chapter 2 test is Wednesday, Dec. 2. Thursday, we will begin chapter 4 where we will focus on addition and learn how to add with regrouping. Thanks to those that are using ExtraMath online. It will be a great asset as we further our addition skills.

Science- Our new science kits are here and we are starting a new unit on the plant life cycle. 

What else have we been up to??

Last week, we learned all about Thanksgiving. One of the many activities we worked on, was building a Mayflower to hold the Pilgrims (pennies). Each student was given one piece of aluminum foil, a small piece of paper, a straw, and one small piece of tape. They had to plan, test, and make improvements to their ships. We had some amazing discoveries and one of the ships held over 80 pennies!!

In October, we learned about the pumpkin life cycle. They measured and compared pumpkins, then cut them open and counted all the seeds! Messy, messy fun!!