Fluency Homework

Wow, I cannot believe it is already the spring semester! We are going to begin working very hard to get your child ready for second grade. One of the areas we will be putting a major focus on is fluency in reading. Studies have shown that fluent readers have a higher potential for strong comprehension and thus find more success in reading.

Throughout the month of January your child will have extra homework each night to help them improve their fluency. In their folder today you will get a letter explaining in detail what is expected. We will also be going over the assignment in class to practice so your child will already know what to do. This fluency homework must be completed every single night, but should take no more than 5 minutes. Homework will be sent home on Monday and is due back to school the following Monday. Over the course of the week you should see an improvement in your child's fluency. They will begin to read more quickly and with more expression.

This assignment is extremely important for your child's success in reading. We begin administering the DRA for the second time next week, and this added practice will help your child greatly with this assessment. If you still have questions about how to complete the homework after reading the parent letter this evening, please contact me! It does not help your child to do the assignment incorrectly. I want every one of my students to find success in reading and this will benefit them greatly.

Thank you again for your continued support.

Elf Antics: Last Day!

This post is a quite a bit late, sorry!

The last day before our holiday break we found Dash hanging out on top of our white board where he could see the whole room:

On every desk he left a little treat! We could tell it was him that left it, because there was glitter sprinkled everywhere as well. 

 We were a little pressed for time due to the holiday sing a long that morning, but we managed to fill out our last day of our Elf Journal:

After the sing a long, we completed the entire journal by filling in some of our favorite memories from our time with Dash. We looked back through all the journal entries and laughed remembering all the silly things Dash did in our room.

Everyone was a little sad to know that Dash would not be back again, but we had so much excitement on Friday with our holiday party it helped cheer everyone up.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday break. I am looking forward to seeing everyone's sweet smiling faces on Tuesday! :)

A New Suit For Santa

*I realized I forgot to actually post this a few weeks ago. Sorry!

The other day we worked on our special project from Mrs. Claus: designing a new suit for Santa. I shared some of the ideas the other day but I wanted to give you an update to show you the second part of the project.

After we created our new suit designs, each student wrote a letter to Mrs. Claus explaining why she should pick their suit design. They did such a good job using their words to explain their ideas!

Here are a couple great examples:

Elf Antics: Day 13

This morning we found Dash with a present for us!

In his letter, he told us that last night he let Santa know we would be watching the Polar Express so he sent us something special that we couldn't open until after the movie. Everyone was so excited about the present and couldn't wait to open it!

After the movie, we sat down to open the gift from Santa. Inside, we found 22 bells from Santa's sleigh!

I have to say, these kids just melted my heart with their excitement over this. As we opened it, I picked up one bell and rang it for them. They all started cheering and yelling, "we can hear it! we believe!" everyone was very happy to hear that I also could hear it ring.

I feel so blessed to be able to spend each day with each of your children. They have such sweet hearts and make me smile every day. It has been such a joy to celebrate this holiday season with them. It really is true that the holiday spirit is held in the hearts of children.

Holidays Around the World: Germany

Today we journeyed to our final country in our holidays around the world trip. It's a little bittersweet. We've had such a great time learning about how different people celebrate and collecting souvenirs, but we have some fun things planned the next two days before the break as well.

We began by finding Germany on our map.

Then we hopped aboard the Holiday Express for the last time. We watched a slideshow with pictures of traditional German Christmas celebrations, and listened to Oh Tannenbaum.

When we arrived, we got our passport stamped for the last time.

Next we watched our slideshow about holiday celebrations in Germany. This was our favorite country to learn about by far! We learned that the tradition of the Christmas tree began in Germany. One of my friends commented that we should be very thankful to them because they gave us the idea for something so great! 

We also learned about a new fun tradition: The Christmas Pickle! In Germany, families have a pickle ornament. While the children are asleep, one of the parents hides the pickle ornament somewhere in the tree. The next morning, when the kids wake up, they have to try to find the pickle. The first child to find the ornament receives a small present or prize. I shared with the class how my youngest brother learned about this tradition when he was in first grade and my family had fun celebrating with it in the years that followed.

We had two fun projects to create today as a souvenir from our trip.  First, a Christmas tree using sequins and glitter!

And even more exciting, was our Christmas pickle ornament. Everyone was VERY excited that they could teach their family about this fun tradition at home!

That's it for our trip around the world. We had such a great time! I hope your children all brought home their suitcases today and had lots of information and stories to share with you.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to Polar Express Day! Your child can wear school appropriate pajamas and bring a small stuffed animal and blanket if they would like. Should be a very fun day! :)

Elf Antics: Day 12

It looks like Dash made a new friend last night.  Look at these two "monkeying around"

In his letter to us, he mentioned that last night he ran into the desk fairy! He was so excited and wanted to follow her around everywhere.

If you look closely you can see some glitter sprinkled over the Desk Fairy's card and prize. Dash told us in his letter that since he didn't have anything else to give, he decided to make our desks pretty and leave glitter anywhere the desk fairy went.

It's getting close!

Holidays Around the World: Sweden

Today we continued on our trip around the world, stopping in Sweden to learn about their holiday celebrations. We started out locating the country on the map. 

Then we hopped aboard the Holiday Express to travel to Sweden. We listened to When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley (sung in Swedish) and watched a slideshow with pictures of celebrations in Sweden. After we "arrived' we all got our passports stamped:

We read a bit online about celebrations in Sweden and learned all about St. Lucia day, then filled out our scrapbook page to help us remember our learning.

Finally, we set to work making our souvenirs from the trip. Each of the girls put together a traditional St. Lucia crown of candles:

While the boys got to work making a star hat like the boys wear during the celebration:

Such a fun morning! Only one more stop on our journey. Tomorrow we're off to Germany!