Holidays around the world and other fun

This week we took a break from our regular routines to learn about how people celebrate around the world.  We learned what customs and traditions are and we shared some traditions of our own.

We boarded "Wright's Airlines" via google earth and traveled to many countries around the world including Sweden, Italy, India, and Germany.  We have had lots of fun comparing and contrasting how others celebrate with how we celebrate.  We even had a special visitor!  Joao's mom Marina came to share how they celebrate Christmas in Brazil!  We learned that it is summer during Christmas and that their Santa sometimes wears summer clothes!  She even brought Panatone, a type of bread with fruit pieces in it, for us to try!  Learning about other holidays helps us understand our world and build an understanding for others.  We have really enjoyed it!

 Sharing our own family traditions

     

This friend has a summer birthday so we celebrated her half birthday instead.  Thanks for sharing treats!

 She brought us kazoos too.  What beautiful music we made.

Even her cute little brother helped us celebrate!

My birthday is in the summer too!  Some sweet parents brought me some treats to share too!  You all sure know how to make me feel loved.  Thank you!

We did manage to squeeze in some math this week.  We learned about comparing weight and also capacity.

 Here are some pictures from our Holidays around the world unit.  

 Making hats for star boys and St. Lucia crowns for the girls

 Coloring Rangoli's to learn about Diwali.

Congratulations to our citizen of the month!  Our class picked a great friend!

Things to know:  

• Thursday, December 21 - Kindergarten Cozy Day 
• We will be wearing PJs and enjoying hot chocolate and a holiday movie.  Your child can bring a pillow and a blanket too so we can get extra cozy!  
• Thursday December 21 - Holiday Party 2:20
• Friday December 22 - January 3 - No School - Winter Break

Can it really be December???

I can hardly believe it's December already!  This year is flying by.  With December weather now upon us please send big coats, hats and gloves to school each day.  On most days we do go outside and are outside for around 20 minutes each time.  It gets very chili and lots of layers help us stay warm. 

A HUGE thank you to all the families that sent in dry erase markers!  We are stocked and ready to go.  We greatly appreciate it!

Beginning next week, we will start sharing about some of our families traditions.  In this week's Friday folder, you will find a bag.  Please put something small in the bag to represent a tradition your family has.  Then write a short bit about your families tradition on the attached sheet.  Have your child practice telling about the tradition.  We will take a few minutes each day to share them.  We did this last year, and it was a very neat time to learn a little more about each other.  

Learning Objectives:

Fundations:  We finished all our letters and sounds!  We are now learning about segmenting three letter words and blending them back together to read them.  We are also learning how to form capital letters and learning about placing our writing on the lines.

Reading:  We are reading Jan Brett books this week.  We have been looking for story clues in the pictures.  We have also practiced retelling the events in order.  

Writing:  We have learned what a personal narrative is.  We are writing stories about something that has happened in our life.  We are working on saying words slowly and writing all the sounds we hear. 

Math:  We are looking at shapes within shapes.  We also looked at 10s frames and with a quick flash and had to try to figure out how many dots were in the tens frames.  There was some fantastic language happening!  Lots of kids grouped the dots and added them together in their head.  Pretty amazing!

Here is our week in pictures!

Practicing our uppercase letters!

 We went to see a third grade's presentation about being safe online.

 Learning about shapes within shapes

Maker's Space

Here are the highlights from last week too!  

Mental Images of our Poem

Making Snowflakes

Our name was drawn at morning meeting to get the lego tub.  Our beautiful creations are in the case in the main hallway this week.

 Happy Birthday Friend!  Thanks for sharing treats!  

Things to Remember:

• December 21 - Kindergarten Cozy Day
• December 21- Winter Party
• December 22-January 3rd- Winter Break
• January 4 - School Resumes
• January 11 - PTA meeting @ 6:30
• January 15 - No School Martin Luther King Day
• January 26 - Brown Bag Breakfast 8:00-8:30 ( More information to come in January.)