Week 17-December 3rd-7th

Dear Parents,

We hope everyone had a great weekend!
The Christmas countdown has begun! We know the everyone is excited and tired, and ready for the holidays. It is still important, however to come to school everyday, to be on-time, and continue working hard for the next couple of weeks.

The first graders will be having a 'Secret Santa' activity on Tuesday, December 18th. This has been a tradition in our class and we hope to have everyone participate this year. We ask that all the girls buy a gift for another girl and all the boys for another boy. The gift should not be more that 150 Lemps. Please bring the gift wrapped and labeled 'For a Girl' or 'For a Boy' as soon as possible. Please do not show your child the girt for it is possible that your child will pick that gift on Tuesday.
Just a reminder that we are still collecting donations for our support staff. We ask that each first grade student bring a 5 lb bag of sugar to donate to the basket. We are also still collecting donations for the Nuestro Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) orphanage(http://www.nph.org/ws/homes/home.php?lang=en&honduras).We are asking if our students could help other children in need by either donating non-perishable food (bags of sugar, rice, corn flour, flour, etc) or buying a child a pair of shoes or socks. We can provide the parents with the size of shoes and socks needs if anyone is interested.

Last, he Discovery School Song Fest will be held on Tuesday, December 18th at 6:00 p.m. This year, the first graders will perform: “Heigh Ho” from “Snow White”. The boys need to dress up as a dwarf with a beard, a big dwarf hat, and a hammer or shovel. The girls need to wear a dress with a diamond or other gem tia­ra to simulate a jewel. The children need to have their costumes ready for Thursday December 13th for the general dress rehearsal.
This week you child will inquire into the following:

Language Arts
Phonics- This week's words are called, who, am, its, and now. Your child will practice these words and review older ones through various chants and games.
Reading- Your child will be learning how to relate a story character and conflict to personal experience. Your child will also review sequencing (beginning/middle/end) and identifying the problem of a story.
Writing-This week your child will be learning about capitalization and periods. They will also start writing a letter to Santa. We will be asking the children to take the letters home in order for you to pass them on to Santa:)

 Math- The class will be starting 'Measurement' this week. They will be inquiring into non-standard units and estimation. It would benefit your child to be practicing math skills on the IXl website. Please have have your child to pick 2 addition skills, 2 subtraction skills and 2 problem solving skills to practice for the next 4 days.

 Theme- Your child will be starting a new Science unit, Measurement. Your child will be experimenting with non-standard units to measure his/her body and body parts.

Homework

Monday
Reading-Read for at least 10 minutes and fill out the reading log
Math-Review worksheet
Phonics- Unscramble the Words activity

Tuesday
Reading-Read for at least 10 minutes and fill out the reading log
Math-Coloring activity
Writing-Editing for Capitals activity

Wednesday 
Reading-Read for at least 10 minutes and fill out the reading log
Math-How Long Is It? worksheet
Phonics-Fill in the blanks activity

Thursday 
Reading-Read for at least 10 minutes and fill out the reading log
Math-The Shortest Way worksheet
Phonics-Study for the spelling challenge

 Reminders

Donations- Please send food donations as soon as possible. If a parent is interested in helping the NPH orphanage, please send in a food donation or shoes/socks.
Discovery Song Fest- Tuesday, December 18th, at 6:00 p.m.