December 2-6

Yesterday (sorry for the delay in writing this) marked the start of our second of four units this year. Our first unit was all about connecting with ourselves. This unit is about connecting with the community. In this unit we wil explore questions like: What is a culture?, What is hibernation?, What is shelter? and What are houses made of? During this unit, which will go until mid-February, we will be reading about animals and their homes as well as human homes around the world. We will conclude this unit by building homes out of boxes and different materials. Please save and/or send in any boxes/cardboard material (paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, etc.). We will also be going on our second field trip to Kohl's children's museum (Northbrook) in February.

Reading
We are reading a non-fiction book called Animal Homes this week. We will be comparing different animals and their homes. We will also read Goldilocks and the three bears and compare a real bear home to a fictional bear home.

Phonics
We are reviewing/learning the letter Gg and Jj this week.

Writing
Students are writing about a favorite food this week. They will also be introduced to spacing when they write. Students are being encouraged to add more detail using words (write more sentences).

Math
We are learning the concept of more and less. Students are learning how to find "how many more" and "how many fewer". This is a difficult concept so please be practicing at home. (i.e. Show them five pennies and six dimes and ask which one is more. How many more? They should use one-to-one correspondence to see how many are left. That will tell them how many more. ) Another skill is to ask them how many more to get #. (i.e. Show them three pennies and ask them how many more to make 5. They should say, "I have three, I need 2 more to make 5." Or you can have them roll a dice and identify how many more to make six. "I have 2, I need 4 more to make 6."

Social studies
We are reviewing rules and working on keeping our room cleaner.

Sight word game
"Spell it"
Tell your child a sight word and have them spell it. This is a good review of words they already know. It will help with their writing if they can memorize how to spell them.

Wish List
We need paper towels. (this is a need not a want)
Cardboard boxes and items (see above)
Check out my wish list google document.