Kwanzaa 2018

Happy December.  With three weeks left we are officially kicking off our holiday studies this week.  More information on all of that below.  Before that, please remember that with the snow and the cold we do go outside.  Please send your child with a warm winter jacket, and other weather appropriate winter gear (boots, gloves, snowpants, hat). Thank you!  Now, here's the scoop on the upcoming week...

ELA:  With our snow day we did not have the chance to finish Frog and Toad or explore animal life cycles with our NatGeo curriculum, so we will do all of that this week.  Also, we will look at main idea and details as part of our NatGeo, and as a CAFE strategy.

Math:  We are wrapping up making a 10 and moving into subtracting from a 10 and using these strategies in word problems.  

Social Studies:  We will not be doing our usual switch with Mrs. Ogg the next three weeks.  Instead our class will stay with me to teach them all about the holidays celebrated at this time of year.  Our first holiday will be Kwanzaa.  It is always fun to start with Kwanzaa because when we sit down to do our KWL (what do we know, what do we want to learn, what did we learn) they realize they do not know a thing about Kwanzaa.  By the end of the week they are overflowing with knowledge about this holiday, from who celebrates it, how, when, etc...  Next week we will learn about Christmas, and wrap up with Hanukkah.  

Holiday Cultural Sign-Up:  Thank you to everyone who has signed up on our SignUp Genius to bring in supplies for our next three Friday's.  In case you've missed it, we will be wrapping up each holiday we learn about with a cultural celebration that goes along with that holiday.  This Friday we will have a mini Kwanzaa feast.  Next Friday we will have a Christmas craft morning, where we will make our parent gifts and gingerbread houses, and the last Friday before break we will make latkes and play dreidel in honor of Hanukkah.  If you can help us with supplies to make these Friday's successful you can sign up on the link here ...   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e4fa4a72ca0ff2-cultural.  I will also send home a paper version of the sign up tomorrow, which you can add to and return to me ASAP.  I will send home a finalized version midweek, which will be updated from the online sign up.  I will keep both sign ups up to date.  Again, thank your for donations to make these Friday's happen!

Canned Food Drive:  Our canned food drive is underway.  We will be collecting nonperishable food items to benefit Marshall's in house Parenting AZ food bank, as well as the St. Mary's food bank.  All cans will be collected Friday at 9am during our annual Holiday Canned Food Drive Parade.  The class that collects the most cans wins a pizza party.  More importantly, our students have the opportunity to give to those in need.  Thank you for your contributions.

Scholastic:  Because of the snow day I did not have the opportunity to make the final book order collection.  Therefore, if you wanted to order books and did not get your order in, you still have one more chance.  I will collect book orders Monday and send them in!

Special Early Release:  Please remember, Thursday, December 13th is a special early release at 12:25.  Please plan for childcare accordingly.

Upcoming December Dates:

• Friday, December 7th - Kwanzaa Feast
• Thursday, December 13th - Special Early Release @ 12:25
• Friday, December 14th - Christmas Craft Morning
• Friday, December 21st - Hanukkah Celebration

Habari Gani...your kids will know what this means by the end of the week!  Ask them to teach it to you, along with everything else they learn about Kwanzaa!  -Ms. Shaw