On Our First Week Together...

I have a lot of great stuff planned for our first week together and I can't wait to get started. But first, I had some parents ask about volunteering opportunities. I absolutely welcome volunteers in our classroom. Some of the activities I especially appreciate having that extra person around for are:

1. Daily 5/Language Arts centers to read one on one with students while I work with small groups or individual students.
2. Math centers for extra supervision and support. This gives me a chance to provide extra instruction to small groups geared to their specific needs without many interruptions.
3. Art...enough said.
4. Tying skates of course. The more we have, the sooner the class gets on the ice.

If you are interested in volunteering, please email me when you are available and we can go from there. Please also let me know if you want to come at the same time on a regular basis or if you are looking for opportunities on an as needed basis.

Here are some of our planned activities for the week:

Language Arts: 
-Review expectations for Daily 5 and building stamina. 
-How to organize our writing when composing a letter and writing to Santa.
-Reading Moosletoe, decorating edible Christmas trees and a writing activity to go along with. 
-There will not be new spelling words given this week. 
-An activity using the book Snowmen at Night which will also be tying into this weeks art project. 
-Last week I began conferencing with students about their reading strengths, challenges and goals. As well, I was reading with them so that I can begin creating my own reading growth plans for them. I will continue to do this throughout the week as opportunities arise. However, I may not be able to complete this until after the new year. 

Math:
-We will continue building on our addition skills by adding 2 digit numbers and learn a new math game using dominos. 

Social Studies:
-This week we are wrapping up our current Social Studies unit learning about the climate and more about the land of the 3 communities we are studying across Canada as well as in Devon. After the holiday break we are going to move on to a new science theme exploring hot and cold temperature. 

Friday is a pajama day! Oh how I love pajama days. Mrs. Kloshinsky is going to be showing a Christmas movie in the afternoon to the entire school. Between that and skating, I am not sure we will have time for an official Christmas party. However, I have lots of fun Christmas themed activities planned and would like have hot chocolate and cookies in the morning. If you would like to bake a batch of cookies for the class that morning, please let me know. One cookie per student is plenty as they are skating after and we want to avoid sore tummies.