Sunday, November 28, 2010

Week of 11-28

Dear families,

After this long weekend of reflection and celebration of thanks we find ourselves refreshed and ready to come back to school. We will start right away as hosts of the student store. The students of our classroom will be running the store on Monday from 2:45 to 4 PM. Please feel free to come by and shop, if you are unable to visit the store will be open through Thursday. To see the store commercials please visit the following links. Many of our classmates were involved in this committee.

After finishing the preparation for the student store on Monday we will turn our attention to Michigan facts and trivia. We will look at different areas of interest including famous citizens, landmarks, statehood, flag facts, geography, and interesting trivia. The information will be learned in groups and assessed via a Jeopardy type game show. This will take us into the holidays as we decorate the room for winter and look at various traditions of celebrating the holidays from around the world.

We are making a plea to all you to help us learn about different holiday traditions. We have a very diverse group of students and families including Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese, African American, English, Australian, Jewish, and certainly many more. It would be great to learn more about each of these and the traditions followed in the different cultures. If there is a way that you may be able to bring this to our classroom we would more that appreciate your participation. Please let us know if you can help. It means so much more coming from families than it does from the same old teachers.

We will also be continuing with spelling, math, writing, learning our songs for the visit to Woodward Hills and book clubs.

Monday - New Spelling Words; Hosting Student Store 2:45 to 4 PM
Tuesday - Class Music 8:30 AM
Wednesday - Class visit to Student Store 9:30 AM
Friday - Library

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Week of 11-21

Short week ahead!

Two important things for the week:

1) Please be sure to send in the family photo tomorrow. We will be displaying them tomorrow for the family photo walk on Tuesday Morning. As per the homework you are all invited in Tuesday morning for a thankful walk around the stage. We will gather in the room at 8:10 and walk through each homeroom enjoying the family photos and participating in a scavenger hunt. We will be done by 8:40.

2) Tuesday at lunch we will be eating a thanksgiving lunch together as a class. All food is provided from the classroom and the kids will prepare food, set the table, and clean up. This is a fabulous tradition in our room.

No spelling this week!

Library on Monday.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Week of 11-14

This week we will continue to work on the organization of the store. We concluded last week with a “Board Meeting” during which each group was able to stand up a report on progress made. So as advertising prepares to make its big push with print, commercial and radio ads, the design committee will be working with procurement, finance and procedures to create a process and layout which the kids feel will be effective. Production is in full swing with three shifts of homeroom each day as we create bottle cap magnets, bird feeders from Keurig cups, trivets from tiles, Capri Sun bookmarks, homemade water color paints. Please watch for the advertisements for the time and place.

Monday is America Recycles Day, and we will be looking at recycling as well as sharing our Sierra Club articles. Tuesday, Ryan Blankenburg will be in the room facilitating a writing project based off of out featured author Jon Agee. We will also continue with publishing our creative writing, spelling and math.

IT IS REALLY COLD SEND IN WINTER CLOTHING. We go outside for recess everyday unless it is below 25 degrees.

Monday – Spelling Test
Tuesday - Late Start/School Begins at 9:00 a.m.
Friday – Spelling Test

Monday, Nov 29 our class hosts the store which runs through the 2cnd.
Wed, Nov 24 - Fri, Nov 26 = NO SCHOOL/Thanksgiving Break
Tues, Dec 7 = Lower School Open House for Perspective Families/9:00 a.m./Steward Bldg
Mon, Dec 20 - Fri, Dec 31 = NO SCHOOL/Winter Break

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Week of 11-7

We will begin the week with an exciting cultural exploration of the British holiday, Guy Fawkes Day. This will be led by Mark Osborne, (Kaili's Dad) and Dee. We will be enjoying the morning with Cathy and Susie's class around a campfire learning about this day in British history.

We will continue to focus on the student store, meeting each day this week in groups from around the stage. The students came up with the following five groups and have at this point selected which groups they would like to work in;

1. Store Design/Displays (floor plan, traffic flow, location of check out, design display areas)
2. Money Tasks (develop all money-related procedures)
3. Procedures (develop setup, cleanup, and check out procedures)
4. Advertising (signs, posters, commercials, and other advertising needs)
5. Procurement (determine and gather materials and supplies we will need to run the store)
The afternoon homeroom time is being dedicated to the creation of product for the store. At this time we are creating Keurig cup suet feeders, homemade water color paints in bottle caps, trivets from left over tiles, and coasters made from wine corks. Watch for more information to come from our advertising committee.

We will also work in math groups, begin publishing books in creative writing, spelling and book clubs.

Thanks,

Scott and Dee

Monday - Yoga morning meet in dance room if you arrive after 8:15
Spelling words come home ( we will not practice in class until Tuesday morning)
Wednesday - Music Morning
Friday - Library