Week of September 17th

This week we finished up reading the Red Clover books. We worked on some projects to go along with the books and became watercolor artists, writers/illustrators and wrote Dear Me letters about what we are passionate about and want to do. We then voted for our favorite Red Clover Book. The classroom and team winner was "Me...Jane" by Patrick McDonnell. The story tells about the life of Jane Goodall. If you or your child is interested in learning more about Jane Goodall you could check out the following link: http://www.janegoodall.org/media/news/animal-planet-accompanies-dr-jane-goodall-global-excursion-during-roar-campaign. On Wednesday it was Fire Prevention Day. We had some guest Firefighters come and talk to the team about what to do in case of a fire. They also talked about tools vs. toys and the importance of not playing with tools. Some examples of the tools they shared were matches, candles, lighters, etc. Then we went out to the Breezeway and practice how to stop, drop and roll and walked through a smoke house with fake smoke (only those children who wanted to). We also got to take a look at the outside of a Fire truck. In the afternoon we practiced our first school-wide fire drill. Our class was in Art so they got to experience what they would do when they were outside of the classroom. It was a fun day! Today I sent home a letter about Fastt Math. My hope is that children will do this from 3-5 times a week to help with their math fact fluency. It's important that students become fluent with their math facts as this a foundational piece to being successful in mathematics. I was happy to hear from a lot of the class that they have already been working on this at home. I have access to reports to show how students are doing with this program. If you have any questions about it, please let me know. In Social Studies we are talking about being a citizen in a community and what our role is in that community. We brainstormed together the different communities that we are a part of: school, classroom, neighborhood, family, town, state, world, and sport teams/clubs. Next week we will talk about on our different roles in each of those communities and come up with an idea of what we can do to make a community better. Have a great weekend, Nancy P.S. Just a reminder that their is no school next Wednesday.