What's New in One and Two? January 11 - 15, 2016

*Reminders - Scholastic Book orders are due on Wednesday, January 13

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!          Xander     January 5     and      Sacha     January 8

THANK YOU
Thank you so much for all of the wonderful gifts that were given to me at Christmas time.  They were beautiful, thoughtful, delicious and very much appreciated.

OWLS
We are starting off the new year with a science unit about OWLS (Growth and Changes in Animals).

HOME-READING LOG
For Christmas break I sent home a green sheet of paper with a Christmas tree picture on it.  The challenge for the students was to read 20 books over the holidays and colour in one decoration for every book they read.  I have received a few trees back so far and I told the children that if they returned the reading log challenge they would get to choose a prize.  This is the last week for the trees to be returned.

GRADE ONE HOMEWORK
The grade ones will be bringing home a new kind of homework (instead of the Math Games).  They are starting out with their spelling homework.  There is a short list of words and some practice sheets to go with them.  They will be starting out with the basic sight words.  You may need to help your child read the directions.  The homework will be coming home on Monday and needs to be returned on Friday every week.  You/they may choose which night or nights to do their homework depending on what works for your family's schedule.  Please practice these words with your child at home (or in the car).  There will be a spelling test every Friday.  Later on I will be adding some other homework pages to their packages (math and printing).  Please let me know if they are struggling with the homework or if there are any questions or concerns.

What Can You Do If Someone Bugs You?
We worked on a new skill this week by brainstorming and making a poster showing some suggestions about what to do if someone is "bugging" you. (Ignore them, Walk away, Use your words to tell them to stop and that you do not like it.) We talked about trying to handle the problem by yourself  first and if that did not work, then they should get some help from a teacher.  We also made a list of things that do BUG people and that we should LISTEN to each other.

 

Last month I posted pictures of the children with their self-portraits and I missed one - oops!

 

This week we read 2 books about chameleons and compared the stories.  Then we drew our own illustrations for the book "A Colour of His Own" by Leo Lionni.  They are hanging in the hallway.