Happy Holidays to Everyone
This morning we celebrated with home-cooked waffles, home made cookies, coffee, juice, strawberries and whip cream while sitting by our "virtual fireplace" sharing some holiday traditions that we enjoy with our families. The children will be coming home with a "fragile gift" that we made in class especially for you. I sat with each of them individually and typed up your children's words. I hope you enjoy them they came out looking wonderful. They will also be coming home with, if they haven't already, their wrapped gifts that they bought. Hide them under the tree and no peeking! Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the shopping experience due to all hands on deck! They are so EXCITED to show you what they picked. Share pictures if you would like, of them giving gifts and I will share with the class. It is nice to see the process full circle.
Candy Grams
The Life skills classes have been busy putting up flyers, selling, preparing and delivery Candy Grams during their lunch period. Students sold Candy Grams for $1 during their lunch period. They practiced the skills we are mastering in class using money and social skills. We delivered the candy canes with notes to peers and teachers around the school. The Life Skills classroom raised over $250 for the Friendship club to put towards a special event for our students towards the end of the school year!
Physical Education
It's amazing what the students are doing in physical education with Mr. Betancourt and Mr. Miller. Sometimes it looks like so much fun and they let me try to join when dropping them off. I'm not as limber on the rock wall as they are!
Math
Each week we work on money skills, time and reading charts. We focus on one area within those units. The first few months we worked on addition. We are currently working on subtraction. With subtraction we are all at different levels. Most of the students are counting backwards using the number lines. They are all at different levels of learning and mastering the steps of regrouping. When they work they should always reference their math notebook which has the number line glued in on top of the pages.
Reading
This unit we currently studied all the different holidays people celebrate. The students read and answered comprehension questions based on a History Unit titled "It's a Tradition" . The students studied the traditions of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the history of the gingerbread cookie.
Writing
The students have been working on writing complete sentences and paragraphs. We have incorporated the sentences daily into our spelling instruction. Each time we ask "Do you have a capital, punctuation and does your sentence make sense?" The students have been making nice progress with this. When they add the appropriate punctuation and capitals they are given an extra point on their spelling tests.
Family Pictures
I love when the children are able to share with the class what they are doing at home with their families and friends. Please send any pictures you are willing to share with the gang! Here are some things our students are doing at home!
Kiersten visited NYC for the holidays!
Noah went to NYC to see the band King's X
Thanks for sharing!!
Have a happy, healthy and peaceful holiday and New Year.
Love,
Mrs. Johnson