Announcements:
Dec 8th 9-11:30 Festival of Lights (at school event) – See further directions within the blog.
Dec 19th-21st International Festival – Day One Jr High Presents; Day Two Upper Elementary Presents; Day Three Lower Elementary Presents
Dec 22nd-Jan 2nd, 2018 NO SCHOOL-WINTER BREAK
Jan 4th Pizza and Game Night with Rm 1 Families
Jan 15th NO SCHOOL – MLK DAY
The upcoming weeks are packed with projects and festivities! I hope everyone will join us for these occasions. We will be learning about festivals around the world for our Festival of Lights this Friday. The children selected a holiday at random this past Friday and are being asked to answer the basic questions of : What is this holiday? Why is it celebrated (is there a story attached to it?)? How is it celebrated? (Give 5 customs) Who celebrates it? (Country? Culture? Etc?) Where do they celebrate it? (a particular building, at home, with family, etc?) They can put together a simple poster of the answers and either draw or print some pictures to go with it.
It is good for our children to be exposed to how other cultures celebrate their holidays too. We live in a global culture and need to seek first to understand, then to be understood. It’s exciting! On the 8th, we will begin with our presentations, then have some games and a $5 white elephant gift exchange, then lunch and since it’s a half-day, go home after recess as usual. If you can help with some of the drinks or food, please contact Jessica Bateman at bateman.jessica@gmail.com. Thank you!
Also, we have begun units on geometry, fractions, exponents, decimals, conjunctions in our sentence writing, types of sentences to diversify our writing, and much more. Ask your student to teach you a thing or two and it will help them solidify their learning as much as remind you of former school day lessons.
Our International Festival is fast approaching. All students received a detailed rubric and questionnaire to complete which will aid them in being fully prepared for this special day. Students can retrieve another copy from the red basket in our classroom at any time. This is a very involved project so please aid your student in completing it and encouraging them to do their very best. Students present these to the school population and it is a wonderful opportunity to build confidence in presentations.
The students have chosen to delay the Pizza and Game Night to the first week of January. We are looking at January 4th. Anyone that can help with it, please contact Kristen DeLong <k2delong@gmail.com or Jessica Bateman at bateman.jessica@gmail.com. Thank you!
Let me know of any further questions and look for any more news, as we will have lots of it during this busy month!