WEEK OF JANUARY 13-17

Dear Parents,

This week we are going to be working with the letter Gg. The vocabulary that we are going to be focusing on is the following: glitter, garden, gum, garage, glasses, garbage, grandparents, goose, gorilla, globe, gift, guitar, goggles, gate, and guard.

If you have any items at home that begin with this letter, send them over with your child and we will be discussing them in class, we will display them on a table and we will return them back on Friday. The kids get excited to bring things from home.

Some of the stories that we will be reading this week are:

Will Gorilla learn to be a good houseguest? As kids giggle at Gorilla’s goofy antics, they’ll learn about the letter G.

The three Billy Goats Gruff want to go to a lush green meadow.  In order to get there, they have to cross a bridge inhabited by a horrible Troll.  When the tinniest Billy Goat Gruff crosses the bridge he convinces the Troll that he, the tinniest Billy Goat, is much too small to eat.  The middle Billy Goat Gruff also convinces the Troll not to eat him because he is also too small.  When the Troll tries to eat the biggest Billy Goat Gruff, the oldest brother decides to rid his family of the Troll forever.  Once all three Billy Goats Gruff arrive in the meadow, they eat and eat until they become too fat to go home.

It is about a rabbit's routine before he goes to bed. Before his bedtime, the rabbit goes around the room and notices items within eye sight and says goodnight to all of them. Everything from the pictures on the wall to the mice to the clock is mentioned and said goodnight too. As the story continues, the rabbit gets more and more tired before finally saying "Goodnight noises everywhere," just as he falls asleep.

This story is about a mischievous monkey who got out of his cage and follows around the zookeeper. As the zookeeper is saying goodnight to all of the animals, his first stop is the gorilla. As he is saying goodnight to the Gorilla, he steals his keys. The monkey then follows him silently and starts letting out all of the animals the zookeeper is saying goodnight to. As the monkey is letting out all of the animals, they are all following the zookeeper to each one of the cages.

Green Eggs and Ham is a short work of fiction by legendary kids book author Dr. Seuss, in which a very persistent Sam-I-Am repeatedly asks his unnamed friend, in a multiplicity of ways, whether his friend would like ham accompanied by, of all things, green eggs.

We will introduce the concept of subtraction. We will be subtracting from 5. We will also discuss the concept of after.The students are all very excited to start solving problems that involve adding or subtracting.

Please practice the following skills with your child at home:

Subtraction

J.1     Subtract with pictures - numbers up to 5

J.2     Subtraction - numbers up to 5

J.3     Subtraction sentences - numbers up to 5

This week we are starting with a new theme. We will be talking about ANIMALS. We will focus on brainstorming different kinds of animals the kids know, we will talk about their favorite animal and we will be discussing the basic needs of them. If you happen to have any books, posters, toys about animals, we would appreciate it if you would let us borrow them.

SECOND QUARTER REPORT CARDS AND CONFERENCES – Report Cards for the second quarter will be issued on Friday, January 17. Conferences for this quarter are on a need basis, and notices will be sent home on Monday, January 13. If a parent does not receive a notice from a teacher but would like to meet for a conference, please contact the teacher to set up a time for the afternoon of Friday, January 17. Students will be dismissed at 11:45 a.m, and conferences will be held from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.

HOLIDAY – There will be no school on Monday, January 20 in recognition of the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MAP TESTING – Our second MAP testing session will take place from Tuesday, January 21 to Friday, February 10.