I can't believe that we only have one more week of school before our Christmas break! Even though the semester is beginning to wind down we have still been very busy!
Our November book of the month was a book titled "My Brother Charlie". It is a heart warming story of a girl named Callie and her twin brother Charlie. There are things about them that are the same, but there are many ways that they are different, one being that Charlie has autism.
Recognize the author? Yep! This book was written by Holly Robinson Peete and her daughter Ryan. (Anybody else watch "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" back in the day?) This book is inspired by their real life story.
One of the key details in this story is that Charlie has a hard time saying "I love you." But that doesn't mean he can't express it! When Charlie locks his fingers with Callie, she knows that it is his way of saying "I love you". Each of the kids wrote about a special way that they say "I love you". Here is some of our best works!
Speaking of writing...
This week the class became self-directed learners by choosing their own writing goal. The kids first helped make a list of what they thought were important elements for first grade writing. The next day I presented them with this special chart:
Each student had to decide which element they wanted to make their goal... which one did they want to focus on and become really great at it. Then they got to write their name on a star post-it and choose their goal. Once their goal is mastered they get to then choose a new goal. The kids have already begun to take more pride in their work!
As a wrap up to our unit on Arctic animals the kids got to see how affective blubber is to an arctic animal's survival! We had a bowl filled with ice water to model the Arctic temperatures. The kids then stuck their hands in the water. (Brrr!) One hand went straight in to the water, the other hand was protected by a bag filled with vegetable oil. The kids were able to feel a great difference in the temperature. While one hand was extremely cold, the other hand felt warmer.
Lastly, we updated our spelling station! It's called "Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling". The kids have to write the spelling words in three different ways - and those three ways have to be all in a row (just like tic-tac-toe!)
Here is some samples from their work this week:
Thank you to everyone who turned in their book orders this week. I placed the orders on Friday after school and (cross your fingers!) they will hopefully arrive before the break! If not they should be here when school starts up again in January.
Reminders:
*The PTO Christmas festival is this Thursday at school! It is going to be a blast!
*The off-campus evacuation drill is this Friday. Please have your child wear tennis shoes as we will be walking down to Cornerstone Church and back that morning.
Also, we are "cashing in" on our Million Miles Award Pizza Party this week! On Friday we will be celebrating our class Christmas party with pizza from the PTO! (So no need to bring a home lunch that day!)
Hope you all have a fun and festive weekend!
Mrs. Kawai
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