Wednesday, January 31, 2018

January Newsletter


Dear Parents,
Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2018!  I hope that it was a lovely break for you all and that everyone is ready to get back into the swing of things here at school.
HOLIDAY PARY:  What a fun party! The Gingerbread houses were AWESOME and so fun to put together!  Thanks to two of my room parents for helping put them together on Thursday so we could decorate on Friday.  And thanks to Mrs. Kirk for the games. The kids had so much fun!
LANGUAGE ARTS:  We continue to read together in our groups and I am reading individually with students as well.  Thank you to those parents that come in weekly to read one on one with my students.  In Writer’s Workshop we have started to write informational books.  Your children are working diligently on their writing, editing, spelling and revising skills.  We will have an end of the unit celebration in February.
MATH:  We are working on a unit called Understanding Shapes and Fractions.  We have been comparing 2D and 3D shapes, discussing sides and angles, and we will talk about and compare simple fractions.
SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/SOCIAL STUDIES: We will continue to add to our SeeSaw accounts throughout this school year.  We have been in the CLAB to complete our Gingerbread Man challenge.  In Social Studies we will finish up with the two units about cultural celebrations and how things were in the past.
100th DAY:  January 30th is the 100th day of school.  We will celebrate this day in our classroom with lots of activities related to the number 100.  It will be a fun day!
CHINESE NEW YEAR:  As part of our cultural studies in Social Studies we will have a first grade day around the theme of Chinese New Year.  I will be asking parents to come to school the morning of February 16 to help guide various centers that the students will rotate through.  Please mark your calendar and if you can come to school and help out anytime that morning between 8:30 and 11:30 we would LOVE and NEED to have you!  Watch for information about that day and volunteering soon.  Our day will culminate with a dragon parade around the school that afternoon after lunch.  All are welcome to come and cheer our parade on!  J 

SPECIAL DATES:
       January 15: MLK day/no school
       January 26: Learning Day for teachers, no school for students
       Jan. 30: 100th Day of School
       Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day
       Feb. 15: Pete the Cat 10:00 at the Flint Center
       Feb. 16: Chinese New Year Centers in the GLC
       Feb. 19-23: Winter break
       March 16: Green Luncheon in Room 30 (St. Patrick’s Day celebration)
       April 23: Hiller Aviation Museum
       April 16-20: Spring break
       May 18: No school
       May 25: First Grade Performance in the GLC at 1:00
       May 28: Memorial Day/no school
       June 4: End of the Year party/first grade picnic
       June 7: Last Day of School: dismissal at 11:50

Thanks for your continuous support, Kathleen Erikson