Hanukkah Week 2018

Happy Hanukkah!  Welcome to the final week before break.  We have a full 5 days ahead, please read on for all the info on our final week of 2018.

Math:  We will be finishing up concepts from last week, subtraction of 9 from a 10 and from teen numbers.

ELA:  We will continuing our Daily 5 routines and finishing sight word testing.  Also focusing on long e words, with our spelling test probably taking place on Thursday of this week.

Social Studies:  Hanukkah is our third and final holiday study.  Again, we will be focusing on who celebrates, how, when, and why.  On Friday we will celebrate what we learned about this Jewish holiday by playing the dreidel game and making latkes.  I still need parent volunteers for Friday, as well as frozen hash browns.  Otherwise we are set!  If you can help us out please sign up on the SignUp Genius attached.   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e4fa4a72ca0ff2-cultural.  I will bring in the hash browns if needed, but would love a few helpers!  Thank you!

This week at Marshall:  We have many school wide events happening this week at Marshall.  Mark your calendars for the following....

• Wednesday, December 19th - 5:30-6:30 - PTO Craft Night.  Join us for a night of FREE family fun!  Make crafts, drink cocoa, and take a family photo.  Woo hoo!
• Marshall's Family Holiday Lunch - 1st grade eats at 11:35, but feel free to come a few minutes early to find parking and grab your kiddos to beat the lines.  Hope to see everyone there.
• Hanukkah Celebration - Room 9 - 9:00-10:30 - You may drop off supplies anytime during the week for this.

Grinch Day:  Grinch Day was so much fun, and a great way to spend a special early release.  Here are a few photos from our First Annual First Grade Grinch Day.

Christmas Craft Morning:  This is always one of my favorite days of the year.  Thank you to all my parent volunteers, as you could tell I cannot make craft day happen without you!  I am truly thankful for everyone who came in to help (including a special guest-my mom, aka "grandma"), and to everyone who donated supplies to make this event happen.  The kiddos love making their gingerbread houses and parent gifts, and enjoying cookies and juice while listening to some Christmas music.  It is such a team effort to make this happen, and all of us in room 9 want to thank everyone who contributed to make it such a memorable day!  Here are some pictures of our Christmas Craft morning for you to enjoy.

All I can say is this class makes my heart grow 3 sizes bigger everyday! -Ms. Shaw

Christmas Week 2018

Happy Holidays!  This week we will begin our study on Christmas.  More information below, along with some cute pics from the canned food drive and information on what is happening this week in room 9.  Here's the scoop...

Math:  We will be subtracting 9 from a 10 and from teen numbers. 

ELA:  We will be concentrating on a couple ofCAFE strategies this week.  Specifically use the beginning and ending sounds , and skip a word and come back.  These are strategies students can use to help them in their reading.  We will also be wrapping up our Nat Geo unit on animal life cycles.  

Social Studies:  This week we will begin our unit on Christmas.  We will focus on who celebrates Christmas, why, and how.  Friday will be our big Christmas craft morning!  This will be the day we make our parent gifts and decorate our gingerbread houses.  If you signed up for any supplies, please send them in by Friday morning!!  We still need graham crackers and frosting to make our gingerbread houses.  If you are a girl, please send in a box of graham crackers!  If you are a boy please send in a can of white frosting!  If you have already sent in your donation - THANK YOU!  We also still need some parent helpers to make Christmas Craft morning happen.  If you can volunteer your time Friday morning from 9-10:30 am please sign up on the SignUp Genius link attached.  There is a lot to do, and many hands are needed to  pull it all off.  If you cannot make it in, perhaps a grandparent or other family member can?  Here is the link...   https://signupgenius.com/go/60b0e4fa4a72ca0ff2-cultural.  Thank you.

Canned Food Drive:  Our annual canned food drive was a huge success, with Marshall students bringing in over 2,000 cans of food.  Our class brought in 154 can of food, earning us 3rd place unofficially.  Nice job kiddos!  Here are a few picture from the canned food parade.

PTO Craft Night:  Next  Wednesday, December 19th our PtTO will be hosting craft night.  This is a fun family night to come make some crafts, eat some food, and take a family photo.  Best of all - it's a free night of family fun!  Festivities begin at 5:30 in our gym.  Hope to see everyone there. 

Special Early Release:  This Thursday, December 13th is our special early release.  Students will be released from school at 12:25, so please make after school care plans accordingly.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I cannot wait for week two of our holiday studies to begin! -Ms. Shaw

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