Shining Light

Last week, our Shining Light was Reigna!  Reigna has been doing an excellent job during writer's workshop.  On Thursday, we created a dream quilt to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Reigna wrote so many sentences that she said her hand was hurting!  Great job, Reigna!  I can really see your love of writing each day!  I hope your hand is feeling better :) 

Our Next Field Trip

On Monday, January 31, our village will be attending a salsa dancing themed play in Ann Arbor.  We will be joined by Cheyanne's grandmother, Mrs. Lewis, as our chaperone.  Our school is asking for each student that will be attending to bring $2.00 to assist with the cost of the trip.  Please have your child's money turned in to me by Friday, January 28.

The bus will be leaving promptly at 9:00 am.  Please make sure that your child comes to school on time this day, as well as brings a bag lunch in which everything can be consumed and disposed of while in Ann Arbor.  Thank you in advance!

Paper Towel Rolls and Snack

This week, our class started to create number scrolls!  We will be using them to write our numbers from 1 all the way to 1,000!  If possible, we are asking for donations of paper towel rolls to attach our scrolls to.  Any standard size paper towel roll will work.  We are looking for 17 rolls so that each child can use one.  If you have any extra rolls we would be happy to take them off your hands!

Also, we are running low on snack.  If you or your child have a favorite healthy snack that you would like to share with the class, please consider donating to our snack cabinet!   

Thank you in advance for your help!

Learning About Needs and Wants

Last week in social studies, the children learned about the differences between needs and wants.  As a class, we decided that our needs as humans include healthy food, water, shelter and clothes.  We then discussed the things that we want, but don't really need.  We had a wonderful discussion about how things like cars and computers make our lives a lot easier, but that if we needed to, we could live without them, making them wants.  Also, we discussed that while shelter or a house is a need, a huge, expensive house is a want.  This got the children thinking about other things.  They explained to me that you need a coat that keeps you warm, but not a fancy coat, as well as wanting candy, but needing fruits and vegetables.  After we learned about needs and wants, the children were given modeling clay to build a need and a want.  Here is what some of them came up with:

Noah - "I want a dog, but I am still healthy without one!"

Reigna - "Toys are wants, but I really want a yo-yo!"

An'Niyia - "We need coats to keep us warm."

Emmanuel - "A family that loves you is a need."

NO SCHOOL Friday, January 14 and Monday, January 17

This is a gentle reminder that there is no school on Friday, January 14.  This is a professional development day for the teachers.  Also, there will be no school the following Monday, January 17, as our school will be observing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  School will resume on Tuesday, January 18. 

Keisa's Special Day

Over the winter break, Keisa celebrated her birthday!  Because we were not able to celebrate with her on her actual birthday, we did it today!  Here is a picture of the class toasting Keisa with cupcakes!  Happy birthday, Keisa!

Keisa was also chosen as this week's Shining Light.  She was selected because she has been helping her group members complete their center work when they are having trouble.  She is a wonder "assistant teacher!"  Keep up the great work, Keisa!

Class Pride

Morgan sent me this picture of himself over the break with his new Wii!  Based on Morgan's email, it sounded like bowling is his favorite game!  Thank you so much for sharing what you did over break with our class, Morgan!