The book fair is here!!

The holiday book fair is at New Berlin! Students had the chance to fill out a wish list on Monday and it was sent home in the agenda. If you would like to send money in so your child can purchase a book, please be sure to include 7% for sales tax. If you have any questions about this, please let us know!

The students will NOT have homework next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. We ask that you continue to work on the skills we've sent home this week; sight words, number recognition, reading stories, etc. Homework will resume the week following Thanksgiving.

We have started to set individual Math Goals in our classroom. To start off small, we chose writing our numbers from 0-20. While this is not a standard, or a requirement, we have been working extremely hard in helping students to reach their goal. To ensure your child meets their goal by December 1st, please use the holiday weekend to practice writing numbers. I explained to the children the 'tens' column as well as the 'ones' column and how writing numbers backwards makes a new number...if a child writes 31 and really means 13, it's wrong. Encourage your child to practice writing their numbers. We are hoping to display something outside the room when we have all met our goal. With all of that being said, I'm hoping to start 'Math Fact Goals' right after Christmas. I will send home more information after the holidays to explain what we are going to be doing. Again, it is not expected that you work with your child on their 'Math Facts' but my intent is to have them fully ready for first grade addition and subtraction.

ALL ABOARD!!! The Polar Express Night is approaching. Be on the lookout for more information in your child's agenda.' Polar Express Night' is one of our favorite family nights!!! Ms. Burns and I, always volunteer to read the book in our classroom so please consider bringing the family out for the fun of the 'Polar Express'

With the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching, we just want to express how thankful we are to have such wonderful support from our parents. We work very hard everyday with your children and we would not be as successful as we are without the encouragement and support you have shown us. Enjoy your time with family and friends and again thank you for all you have done for us. It is such a pleasure to be apart of the New Berlin Family!

A month later...

In the past month, we have done so much!! I apologize for not updating sooner.

Thank you to everyone who came out and participated in our 'Spotlight on Learning' Night. We had an excellent turn out and hope that you have a better understanding of the curriculum and the things we are teaching in class.

In Math Investigations, we have been working on creating, extending, and recording patterns. In the slide show below, we were creating hopscotch paths to show patterns. We introduced this lesson by jumping on hopscotch paths after recess outside. We are so proud of the students. They are able to identify the unit of a pattern as well as explain how many times the unit repeats. This week, we used 12 red and yellow chips to create patterns. The homework next week has an extended activity so be sure to ask your student all about it!

Our Fall Harvest Celebration was so much fun! Many, many thanks to the parents who helped make it a success! The children thoroughly enjoyed painting their pumpkins as well as making arts and crafts to celebrate the wonderful season of fall. Below are pictures from the event. Be on the look-out for information coming home about our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie social as well as our Winter Celebration information!

This is our last week of narrative writing. We are going to be starting our study of functional writing. Over the past several weeks, Ms. Burns and I have been pulling guided writing groups. On one particular day of guided writing groups, I paired my students up with each other and explained that I was reversing the role. I told the students they had to teach each other by reminding each other of the important things we need to remember to do when writing stories. I was so impressed with how well they worked together. Below are some pictures of the lesson.

Also, as we continued our work with patterns, we practiced making 'border patterns'! While we were working on the lesson, I went around the room and took a picture of each child to put in the middle of their border pattern. The border patterns are hanging in the hallway outside of our classroom. The children are so proud of their work! By looking at the below pictures, it sure is evident that our students know how to show off their pearly whites :)

Last but not least, we had an amazing time at the Diamond D Ranch on Monday! The Tye-dyed shirts came out amazing and the students were so excited to show them off at school. We did so many fun things at the Ranch; we went on a wagon ride, fed billy goats and cows, went on a nature walk, fed cat fish, played in the bouncy houses, rode on the drum roll, and best of all, RODE PONIES!! Below are a lot of pictures from the Ranch. Please check back for additional photos!