Tuesday December 14th, 2010

Just a few mid-week reminders...
-  The Kindergarten and Preschool Christmas Pageant is this Friday, December 17th at 11:00 in the church.  We hope that you all will be able to join us!
-  Kindergarten will be going out for recess anytime the outdoor temperature is 25 degrees or higher, so please make sure that your child has his/her boots, snow pants, coat, gloves, hat, etc. everyday.
-  Please also make sure that your child packs regular shoes to wear during the school day.  Wet boots create quite a mess on our carpet.
-  Kindergarten will be going to the Museum of Science and Industry on Monday, December 20th.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered to join us.  The chaperones for this field trip will be:
      -  Arturo Barrera
      -  Dr. Taylor
      -  Romeo Vasquez
      -  Eonju Hwang
Please be at school at 9:00A.M. Thanks!
-  Also on Monday, the Kindergarten will be having a Christmas Around the World Feast when they return from the field trip.  Please do not send a lunch with your child on this day.
-  The last day of school before Christmas Break is next Wednesday, December 22nd.  Students will be allowed to dress in Christmas finery for Brunch With Santa.  Dismissal will be at 11:30A.M. and aftercare will not be offered.

Friday December 10th, 2010

Greetings from Mexico!  It's the latest stop on Room 7's trip around the world!  So far this week we have been to France to celebrate St. Nicholas Day, Italy to learn about their tradition of La Befana and Mexico to learn about Las Posadas.  Yesterday Mr. and Mrs. Rivera, the parents of Isabella from Room 8, came to speak to the Kindergarten classes about their Christmas traditions in Mexico.  The students reenacted Las Posadas and participated in the piñata tradition.  Today we will be finishing our tour of Mexico and learn about Poinsettia plants.

When we have not been busy traveling around the world this week; we have been very busy finishing Topic 7: Geometry in our math series.  On Thursday we started talking about geometric figures including cubes, spheres, cones, cylinders and rectangular prisms.  Next week we will start Topic 8: Fractions and Ordinals. 

Next Friday the Kindergarten classes and preschool classes will be putting on their Christmas Nativity Pageant.  All are invited to attend!  It will be at 11:00 A.M. in the church.

Miss Williams, the art teacher, demonstrating the latest Christmas project!

Hard at work during Art Class!



A video from Thanksgiving that we hope you will enjoy!



Thursday December 2nd, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday!


This week in Kindergarten, we have been chasing a naughty Gingerbread Baby!  On Monday, we read the book, The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.  We talked about the characters, setting, ending and refrain.  Then as a class, we measured and mixed our own gingerbread cookie.  When we went back to get him after recess, our gingerbread man was gone!  All week he has been spotted around school and we are working hard to catch him.  We have been reading all the literature available on gingerbread people in order to decide which tactic is the most effective.  On Tuesday we read The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth and took notes on the character, setting, ending and refrain.  On Wednesday we read The Sticky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith and compared that story with The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.  On Thursday we read The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst and started to make a plan to catch our own Gingerbread Baby.  On Friday we hope to catch him and finally get a taste of that ginger we have smelled all week!  We will also be taking a look at all the different story endings and writing our own.

This week in Math, we have started Topic 7: Geometry.  So far, we have discussed parallelograms, trapezoids, hexagons, triangles, squares, circles and rectangles.  There will be extra homework coming home next week involving each student bringing in a shape from home; please on the lookout for that extra assignment!

Next week we will start "traveling" around the world studying the different holiday celebrations in different countries.  This unit will take 2 weeks as we travel to France, Italy, Sweden, Israel, India, and Mexico and back to Chicago to sample the holiday traditions of each country.  If you have anything that you would like to add to this unit, please let me know.  As a culminating activity, we will be visiting the Museum of Science and Industry on Monday December 20th to visit their exhibit "Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light".  A permission slip for this field trip will be going home today.  Please have it back to us by Friday December 10th.  Thanks!

Reminders
-  Family Mass is this Sunday December 5th at 8:30 A.M.  I hope to see everyone there!
-  The Christmas Pageant for Kindergarten and Preschool will be Friday December 17th at 11:00 in the church.  We will be talking more about this as it gets closer.
-  The last day of school before Christmas Break will be Wednesday December 22nd. 

Requests
-  We are in need of both gallon and sandwich sized baggies

Thanks so much!