December 2020

 Happy December. This week is the beginning of our last 3 weeks of school for the year 2020. Here is what is in store:

Math:  We are finally moving into our second module in math. We will start off by learning how to add three addends, make a ten to add 3 addends, and make a ten when one addend is 9. 

ELA:  We will be working on our sh and wh spelling sounds this week. We will also start a new December writing journal, which will go home on Tuesday (see below for information on distribution). 

Social Studies:  We will begin our social studies unit on holidays this week. We will take a look at the three holiday often celebrated at this time - Kwanzaa, Christmas, and Hanukkah. We will explore the origins of each holiday, learning who celebrates each holiday, how they celebrate, when and the importance behind each holiday. We will kick off each this unit by studying Kwanzaa this week, which is always fun because usually the kids know so little about this holiday and by the end of the week they know so much. 

Material Distribution:  Tuesday I will have your material bags out in front of the school for you to swing by and pick up. These materials will include what your child will need for morning work, spelling, and math for the rest of December and January. It will also include December and January journals, and other December and January learning and activities. I wanted to just do a distribution for the next two months for several reasons. One, because December is so short and it would be silly to do a pick-up for just a few items. Two, I did not want anyone to have to pick-up over their break. I will put the bags out in front of the school about 7 am this Tuesday and I will swing by about 6 pm to put them away. You have between 7am and 6pm on Tuesday to drop by and pick up your child's bag. We are not allowed to have anyone go inside the school for pick up, that is why they will be outside. I will not be hand delivering bags this time around, as I will be home teaching your kiddos. Any bags not picked up after 6 pm will be left in the office and you will have to call to make arrangements for pick up from there. I am hoping this window is big enough that all bags are picked up however. Oh yeah, we would be doing this tomorrow but I am waiting on a delivery from Oriental Trading so I can add something fun to these bags for next Friday. Should be here tomorrow night. Please make sure that your child does not do anything in the bags ahead of time!

Organization: Many of the kiddos still need help with organizational skills. Please make sure to put their materials and supplies somewhere your child or other children cannot get into them before they are needed (but at the same time somewhere your child can access them when the time comes).  If your child goes outside the house for their learning day, please make sure they have all materials and supplies I give to them with them. It may be a good idea to leave everything in the plastic bag they are in and tell the kiddos not to take anything out of there until I tell them to do so. They should not be working ahead on anything and they know this. Supplies they need include the scissors I supplied them at the beginning of the year as well as glue sticks, and wipeoff boards with dry erase markers. We use these materials quite a bit if not randomly throughout the weeks. They need them to be successful.

Show and Tell:  There will be no show and tell for the next three weeks. Instead we will be discussing Random Acts of Kindness for the next 15 days. Every morning we will talk about that days Random Act of Kindness and at closing circle the students will share how they accomplished their act of kindness at home that day. 

I hope everyone had a restful and rejuvenating break. Cannot wait to see the little faces tomorrow! -Ms. Shaw