We’ve been away from our website for a bit because we’ve been writing our report cards for Communicating Student Learning.  But we’re done now, so we’re back with more fun news about the activities in our classrooms this week.

We’ve kept a steady pace on our Alphabet Letters.  This week we learned about the correct formation for the letter “i” in upper and lowercase printing.  We’ve been working diligently on our letter recognition and sounds.  If you’re looking for more ideas about how to help at home, here are a few suggestions:

• we’ve worked on letters “a” through “i.”  When you’re reading a story, take a moment to ask your child to identify the letter of the week in different words on a page
• at the end of the story, go back and find words that begin with the letter of the week
• trace the words with your finger so your child sees that we read from left to right, top to bottom
• as you’re out and about, read the environmental print with your child and have them pick out one or two words and identify the letters

We saw our Grade 7 Buddies to write our Letters to Santa.  We’re very excited thinking about what Santa might bring us for Christmas this year!

We’ve been working on our mini-bear unit, with another familiar story, Corduroy by Don Freeman. Our focus in this story and next week’s “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” is story structure.  We’re looking at, and using the words, “beginning, middle, end” for what happens at the beginning of the story (introduction), in the middle (plot) and at the end (conclusion).  We’re asking the children directly “What happens in the beginning/middle/end?” and having them orally summarise what they remember and understand.  This knowledge of story structure will form a foundation for when we study Fairy Tales in the spring.  

We made cute Corduroy bears as our craft.

Buttons were a big focus as in the story, Corduroy has lost a button from his suspenders.  We sorted buttons according to several sorting rules and made many different patterns.  

Important Events and Reminders

Gingerbread House Event:  On Tuesday, December 14, 2016 is Ridgeview’s annual Gingerbread House Family Event.  All proceeds from the is event will go to the Me to We initiative.  Please check the weekly e-bulletin for information on how to purchase the houses.

Christmas Concert:  Our Christmas concert performances will take place on Wednesday, December 7 at 11am for odd divisions and 1:10pm for even divisions.  Please remember to start preparing your child’s costume.  Kindergarten children will wear their Christmas best.  

Girls: Party Dresses; Party Skirt or Pants and Top; Party Shoes

Boys: Dark Pants; White Shirt; Tie or Bowtie optional; Dress Shoes (preferably no runners)