Kwanzaa and Christmas 2019

Happy Holidays! We are entering week 2 of our 3 week holiday unit. Last week we finished up Kwanzaa and this week we are learning about Christmas. Please read on for all the details and more information about what is happening in room 9.

Math:  We are trudging on with adding 1 to 9 to make a 10. A big concept, today there was breakthroughs! More practice tomorrow and then we will test what we know. After that we will move on from counting on from 10 or taking from a 10 to solve subtraction problems.

ELA:  Our spelling is long i and long o this week. We will be doing our quarterly sight word testing and AIMS testing this week as well. We will also be reading a story about flamingos and concentrating on the -ed and -ing endings. 

Social Studies:  Habari Gani? Ask your students what this Kwanzaa greeting means, they learned all about it last week. I love starting our holiday unit with Kwanzaa because every year the students know almost nothing about this holiday, and by the end of the week they can tell us who celebrates Kwanzaa, the reason for the holiday, how it is celebrated, and the traditions and beliefs associated with the Kwanzaa holiday. This week we enter more familiar territory, Christmas. Although the students know so much in regards to many of the traditions that occur at this time of year, we are about to learn about a lot of the who celebrates and why. Next week - Hanukkah. 

Holiday Celebrations:  Thank you to everyone who helped make our Kwanzaa feast a huge success! The children had so much fruits and veggies and more! I was so busy serving up our "harvest" I did not have time to snap a picture. I promise I will be able to get some the next two weeks however.  I will be updating our online sign-up to match our paper sign-up by tomorrow morning. You can check that here   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0E4FA4A72CA0FF2-cultural1.  Although it appears we need items for this Friday, we do not! We are all set, and have everything we need! Thank you families! Please remember, all girls need to bring in a box of graham crackers and all boys need to bring in a can of vanilla frosting by Friday morning so we can make our gingerbread houses. Thank you to those who have already brought in their supplies! 

America's Favorite Crossing Guard:  We have 3 more days to vote Mr. Billy for Americas Favorite Crossing Guard. He is currently in third place, we would love to get him to first place (only 191 votes away from 2nd place as of now). Please take the time to vote here daily http://wshe.es/HlWecmiG. You can help spread the word by sharing the link on your social media and asking your family and friends to vote daily until December 12th. He is truly so deserving, let's make this happen! 

Canned Food Drive:  We are currently collecting cans and boxes of nonperishable food items to help restock our food pantry here at Marshall, and to donate to St. Mary's Food Bank as well. The class who brings in the most cans will win a pizza party from PTO. We currently have 0, so we have a ways to go. There will be a parade to collect the cans on Friday, and usually there is a special appearance by a special someone during our parade. Let's can hunger and show our kids the importance of giving back this year. Thank you for your donations. 

Fratelli Fundraiser: The good folks at Fratelli Pizza are once again hosting a 10% back to Marshall night Tuesday, December 10th. If you order pizza from the Ft. Valley location just mention Marshall and 10% of your sales will come back to our school. Thank you Fratelli Pizza for your continuous support of Marshall! Best pie in town! 

Special Early Release:  Don't forget, this Thursday (December 12th) is a special early release day. We will be releasing at our 12:25 time. Please plan for child care accordingly. Friday will still be our regularly scheduled 12:25 release time as well. 

Wow! We are packing it in this week. Thanks for making all our happenings happen! -Ms. Shaw