Week of December 3, 2018
Hello Parents,
Thank you so much for all the donations of food, paper ware, time and energy that you put into our Thanksgiving Feast. It was a wonderful celebration. The kids worked hard, practiced and prepared for this day for quite a while. We cannot do activities like this without your support. You are wonderful and we love not only our children (your children), but you as families also.
For December, we are trying something new this year. We would love to have families come in to talk about a holiday tradition that you do with your family. Just one thing that has special purpose or meaning to your family. It might be something as simple as “pajamas and pancakes” etc. Whatever it is, if you would like to share it with our class, please email me and I will put you on the calendar. We will reserve time on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Friday, December 21, 2018 will be our last day of school before our Winter Break. We will return on Thursday, January 3, 2019.
We will be working on Habit # 3 the month of December, “Put first things first”. This is a difficult concept even for many adults. We sometimes get in the habit of doing the fun or easy things first and put off the hard things, or first things, until it is urgent. But, think about how nice it feels when we are prepared. The book talks about a wise person who says, “Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.” It is important to teach our children to delay gratification and do the hard things (or first things) first while they are young. We will soon begin to require two challenging works to be done each day before they go outside. Somehow, when the other kids are getting ready to go outside, the motivation to get their work done increases and they can get their work done in a hurry. This is when we can really emphasize the importance of “putting first things first.”
In geography we will continue our study of North America, but will focus on the forests in North America for the month of December. In biology, we will begin our study of stems. We will learn about snow and read the beautiful story Snowflake Bentley. We will also talk about how when air moves, it moves other things, and we will do some experiments with air.
One last reminder, we go outside everyday rain or shine, so please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for the weather conditions. There are only a few exceptions in which we do not go outside which includes- bad air quality days, lightning storms, extreme cold, etc. If your child is not dressed appropriately for the weather, they will need to sit in the office while we are outside.
Thank you again for the support we receive from you,
Ms Martha & Ms. Valerie
