There is no spelling this week! We will be completing some wonderful holiday activities that go along with some of my favorite books. Ask your child each day about the special book we read and project that went along with the book.

Today, Monday, we read The Mitten by Jan Brett. Your child is coming home with their very own mitten filled with the animals from the story. Have your child retell the story and put all their animals into the mitten in the correct order. We really enjoyed this wonderful winter story!

Reminder: Send buckets for Gingerbread Houses by Wednesday! Also, our ornament exchange is on Wednesday. Try to have ornaments here and wrapped by Tuesday! This will allow me to make sure everyone has an ornament.

Tuesday, we will be reading the Polar Express. We will also be doing many fun activities with this book. Ask your child about them!

Wednesday: To finish up the Polar Express, we ask your child come to school in their pajamas on Wednesday. We will be boarding a "train" and enjoying the movie. Each child will be getting a golden ticket to board the train and they will also have a special treat here for them. This is always an exciting day. We can't wait!

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday! I will see you all in 2012!
School resumes on Thursday, January 5th!

December 12-16

Spelling Words: shop, shot, shut, rush, wish, fish, for, more, from, very
Challenge Words: shadow, sunshine, English, publish, shoelace

Sight Words: came, could, gold, happy, made, night, saw, were

This week we will be focusing on the "sh" sound. We are learning to listen for "sh" in the beginning, middle and end of words.

On Wednesday, December 21st, we will be watching The Polar Express in our jammies. Kids are welcome to wear their pajamas to school that day. Pajamas must be school and winter weather appropriate.

Reminder:
* Send buckets for Gingerbread Houses!
* Also, our ornament exchange is on next Wednesday. Have ornaments here and wrapped by Tuesday, December 20! Thanks!

NO School from December 22 - January 4. We return to school on January 5th. Happy Holidays!

Spelling Words: or, for, form, more, store, sort, long, bring, your, head
Challenge Words: orbit, tornado, evaporate, important, enormous

Sight Words: animals, cold, fish, from, their, under, very

**Gingerbread houses will be ready for home delivery the week of December 19th. We have found that the homes travel well in an "Ice Cream Pail." As soon as you have finished off your ice cream and washed out the bucket, please send it in to school. I ask that your child's name is somewhere on the bucket! As always, if you have any extras, we would gladly accept them! Thank you in advance.

If you would like to pick your child up from school and take his/her house with you, feel free to do so. Houses can be retrieved Monday, December 19th - Wednesday, December 21st.


Reminder -- Book orders are due this Tuesday, December 6th!

Math: This week in math we are working on sorting, classifying, and graphing data. This is a very hard unit for First Graders. Please use the Family Sheet (sent home on Tuesday) to help your child better understand the concepts covered in this chapter.

Reading: Our sound with is week is "or". We are working on building and reading words that have "or" and "ore" in them. Please practice building words incorporating this phonetic element.