November 25, 2012

The highlight of last week of course was Thanksgiving. All the students in attendance Monday through Wednesday, learned about the pilgrims and traditions of the special holiday. In addition to reading books on the subject, they had an opportunity to make some decorations each day to use at home.

On Tuesday, it was wonderful to gather with so many people in the community to share in a wonderful turkey dinner. Thank you to all who came and helped with the cooking. Here are a couple of photos that Mr. Cudney took at the start of the feast.

Since the start of the year, the class has been learning about real and picture graphs. Not only do we graph the weather daily, but we have looked at other things to graph to organize information. With so many students out due to sickness over the last few weeks, we finally had a full class of 10 on Tuesday and updated our class graph. Now that we have a new student, there are 7 boys and 3 girls. After the picture below as taken, the students created a new picture representation of themselves to update the picture graph of boys and girls in our class.

 

 We have another short week this week, with no school on Friday for teacher in-servicing.  Please help your child remember their homework folder daily, and go over their completed weekly work sent home on the last day of each week. I hope you remain warm and healthy through the week and weeks to come.

November 18, 2012

 Weekly greetings!
I hope you all stayed cozy and warm during the short cold snap over the week end. We have a very short and special week as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. There will only be 3 days of school. Please remember the community dinner on Tuesday at 1pm. The kindergarten students will remain at school until the meal is served and we will use the extra time to have "Show and Tell" at the request of the students. Your child may bring something special to share that they are thankful for. There will not be any open gym that night, as the students will be allowed to use the gym after the community meal. Also, there will be an early release on Wednesday at 1:45pm so that people have extra travel time if needed.

Last week we had a special visit from Theresa Christiansen, Tetlin Environmental Technician, to talk about the importance of proper disposal of electronics. The students also got to decorate reusable bags and were given additions gifts in large cloth bags. See pictures to follow.

 There have been a number of different illnesses moving through the entire school over the last couple of weeks and our class was missing a few kids each day last week. On Friday, the afternoon group only had five students. During centers, the students were able to spread out in a variety pf activities and I could not help snapping a few extra pictures to share.

 I am looking forward to visiting with you all at the community dinner and wish you a safe and joy-filled Thanksgiving holiday.

November 11, 2012

The students had a full week of academic and hands on activities surrounding the themes covered in the Language Arts curriculum. The importance of friendships was the main idea of the week,  with the specific focus on getting along and working together. It was perfect timing with the arrival of our new students, Elijah [pictured below], to the class.

Later in the week, each student made a friend puppet and we discussed ways of being a good friend even when we disagree.

Please continue to read to your child nightly and look for their "Home fun" folder with added practice activities nightly through the week. On Friday, their weekly work is sent home for you to discuss with them as another way to review what has been covered during the week.

Stay well!

November 4, 2012

I hope everyone has enjoyed a few days off after the short week we had last week. Though there was only three days of school, the students still accomplished a fair amount academically. The highlight of the week was Halloween, of course, and fun was had by all at the afternoon special game activities. Many of the students came dressed in costumes and everyone participated in the Halloween themed games which started at 1pm.

 After a couple full group games, the students lined up in order of smallest to tallest so that 3 group teams could be organized.

A number of team relays were completed before each group created an "Incredible Hulk" by stuffing one team member full of balloons.

 The next phase of the game was to then make the "Incredible Hulk" into a mummy.

 

 Community members watching the events, voted on the best mummified "Hulk", though everyone's team was a winner because lots of laughs were had by all. For the final activity of the day, a Frankenstein
piñata full of candy was smashed and all the students walked away with pockets full of candy.  A good time was definitely had by all!

The students will have a full week, and a new student will be joining the class as a second grader.
Please remember to help your child return their homework folder daily. Also, look for their weekly work on Friday and discuss the concepts they learned during the week. Have a warm and wonderful week!