The 100th day of school is this Tuesday, and we will have lots of fun projects and activities in class in celebration of the day! We are looking forward to a fun day of celebrating 100.
We have 180 total school days, so we are more than half-way through the year. Spring conferences are rapidly approaching (March) and I sent out those sign-ups in a separate e-mail last week. Thank you to so many of you for already signing up-- if you haven't done so already, please select a time. Conference sign-ups can be found here.
We will wrap up our math chapter on subtraction this week, and begin a new math chapter on numbers to 20. In this chapter, not only will children learn to recognize and write numbers to 20, but they will also learn how to decompose these numbers into parts. For example, nineteen can be 10 & 9. Decomposing numbers is a common core strategy to create innate number sense.
Our art activities this week will center around Chinese New Year, 100 Day, President's Day, and even Valentine's Day. The beginning of February is a busy time! Thank you to Hannie's parents for offering to come in and talk about Tet. We are looking forward to hearing about the Lunar New Year!
In celebration of 100 Day, this week's share is 100 Day collections. Please have your child bring in 100 of the same item that they'd like to show on his/her share day. This is a fun counting activity at home, plus a fun way to see the many ways 100 can look. I will probably ask your child how they counted out their items (by 1s, 10s, 5s, etc.), so have him/her prepared to talk about the process. Remember that it can be as simple as 100 cheerios-- whatever your child has 100 items of that s/he would like to share. If they want to glue down the 100 items and make a picture out of them, that's fine, too.
Homework is due tomorrow, and then we will have a special homework project coming home this week. In honor of President's Day, we will be doing a very simple project honoring George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The children will complete and color a timeline of each president. There are two timelines in the packet, one for Abraham Lincoln, and one for George Washington. Children have to put historical events that happened during these presidents' lifetimes in order. On the back of each of these timelines, your child is to write one or two sentences about each President. The children will present these facts next week for sharing. It is always fun when the children bring in little-known facts about the Presidents, so do a little research on the web and see what you can find! Of course, it is also okay to stick with basic facts such as "He was the first President." and "He was the sixteenth President." This is their first exposure to doing an oral report, so it is most important to choose a sentence that you think your child will be able to remember and present on his/her own. There will be no journal page to complete in the upcoming week since children will be writing about the presidents instead. I do, however, want you to read the book in the bag with your child.
On Friday, February 12th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class. This is not a party, but we will be passing out valentines. Just a reminder (since I know your children will be eagerly shopping for valentines soon!) in kindergarten, we have the kids sign their valentines, but we do not have them write who the valentine is "to." This makes distribution MUCH easier, since many kids cannot read the names. So please sign the cards, but leave the "to" box blank. Please send in 24 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. Thanks!
On the 12th, we will also have a smoothie party that we earned for having 100% participation in the walk-a-thon! This will be a fun send-off to our President's Week break.
See you all tomorrow, Blue Bags in hand!
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Blue Bags returned (Jillian), Centers (Camille & Hiromi), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Gwenny & Tanya), P.E. with Recess 101, Sharing
Wednesday: Computers (Lawrence), Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Jill & Pantea), Sharing
Friday: Story Time with Grandma Gail, Sharing
Upcoming Events:
2/2: 100 DayFriday: Story Time with Grandma Gail, Sharing
Upcoming Events:
2/2: Union School District Family Night
2/12: Smoothie Party
2/15-2/19: President's Week Break
3/5: Bocce Ball Tournament & Auction
3/22-3/31: Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences
