I hope everyone had a nice break.  We had a wonderful week back at school this week! Students eased back into routines and expectations. 

This week in literacy we talked a bit about word families.  For example if  you know the word CAT you can also know the words SAT, RAT, etc.   Recognizing these patterns can help us with our reading and writing.  Students began writing  pattern books this week about things they like. These patterns will help students grow the amount of words on their pages.  

During ECO this week we talked about how animals must do something to survive the winter's cold conditions.  They may migrate (like Mr. Smith will be doing this winter 😊), hibernate, go dormant, or stay active.  We had 4 volunteers that dressed up to show what these animals might do in a silly way: the animals who were going to sleep needed to wear pajamas and hold an alarm clock, the migratory animal needed a backpack and hat for his travels, and the active animal needed to grow a fur coat!  Kindergartners thought this was hilarious!  After that everyone had a chance to play charades and act out an animal and the strategy it uses. 

In math students continued to explore and manipulate shapes through building patterns, creating a shape landscape picture, and a fun computer game found on the program Starfall.

We welcomed in December this week with some winter themed activities.  Students painted beautiful northern light pictures after we read a favorite book, from a local VT author called The Fiddler of The Northern Lights.  If your student was out on Friday you can read this story HERE. 

Reminders and notes:

**You will find some of your student's first Writing pages from our first unit in their folders.

**Some kindergartners are bringing in a small stuffy to play with during explore time.  It seems to be working okay right now because students are being respectful about asking when they can take them out and then they put them away in their backpacks. so if your child would like to bring a small one in that is okay.  I'll keep you posted on this if anything changes.  Thank you!

12/7:  Early Release, 12:15

12/13:  Mask Parade, 1:15

12/23-1/2:  Winter Break