Winter Holiday!!!

Thank you!!!

Thank you all so much for a wonderful first semester. 
Thank you for sharing your children with me. Thank you
for the thoughtful class gift!  Thank you for the individual
 cards, cookies and gifts that let me know that you appreciate
 all the things I do.  Thank you for taking care of our adopted
staff member.  Thank you for giving the kids a fun party.
 Thank you for all the things you guys sent in to make sure
 the party was a success. Thank you, Thank you and Thank you
 a million times for all that you guys do.  I am so grateful for all of you.

I will miss your children so much over the break, but I know they 

will have wonderful stories to share when they come back. I hope

 you all have a fantastic winter break.  See you in the new year. 

Buddies

Winter party

December 17th-19th

The holiday break is almost here!  We only have a three day week next week! I cannot believe how quickly our time has flown by!  Thank you all for a wonderful first semester with your children.  I have enjoyed them all so much. 

Important Reminders:

• December 19 - Winter Parties/ Students Last Day
• December 21-January 4 - Winter Break/No School for Students and Staff

December 19th we will run a slightly different schedule.Our lunch will be at the same time, but we will not switch classes with Mrs. Marshall at all on the 19th and we will wrap up our classroom activities by 1:30 for the holiday party.  

• The holiday party is December 19th from 1:30-2:30 and all parents are welcome. 

Reading:

We are all done with our middle of the year reading assessments. We will have a reading DCA on Monday and will wrap up the very last of our reading groups. The reading groups were a lot of fun and we will pick back up in January with new books. 

On Tuesday we will have some fun activities with the book Snowflake Bentley. 

Writing:

We will wrap up sharing our biographies and finish our expository essays that we started last week.  The biographies have been great fun, and they are now hanging up in our room. 

Spelling:

We will pick back up with spelling after the winter break. 

Social Studies:

We will wrap up talking about the Texas Revolution before the break.  We will end with important figures of the Texas Revolution and with the Texas Constitution. 

Party Day:

We have lots of fun activities planned for the party day, like meeting with our buddies, making crafts, listening to stories of holiday celebrations in many cultures. 

We will leave our room at 1:00-1:30 to allow parents to set-up the party.  All help is welcome at this time.   Our party is from 1:30-2:30.  Then we will stop to pick up.  Please help your child to remember to send in their holiday item for the party. 

Thank you all for your support and help with making this a special time for your child. 

Over the break!  

Homework- the holiday break is a great time to relax and enjoy special moments with your children.  It is also a long amount of time away from school work.  This is a great time to encourage some daily small practice on Dream Box, reading on MackinVia, BookFlix, or watching academic videos on BrainPop.  All of these sites are paid for by the school district or your PTA dues and are a wonderful place to send your kiddo for some practice daily. If your child wants to keep a short diary of things they do over the break we can also make time to share those after the break with the class. 

I will miss your children very much over the few weeks of the break.  I hope that you all have a restful break with many wonderful memories created. I cannot wait to hear all about what your families have done when the kiddos come back!

December 10-14

Hello, Families!Thank you for signing your child's agenda, and encouraging your child to read at home every day.

December Events

• December 10-14 - Book Fair Week
• December 13 - International Night, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
• December 19 - Winter Parties/ Students Last Day
• December 21-January 4 - Winter Break/No School for Students and Staff

Book Fair-

This week there is library book fair. The kids will all get to preview the book fair on Monday and we will have a library time later in the week. Kids who bring money can go to the book fair on the day they bring it, and we will also have a specific shopping day where our whole class has a 30 minute shopping time together.

Reading:

Students will review literary nonfiction versus fiction texts. We will read paired texts (fiction text and nonfiction text about a similar topic), and discuss the differences and similarities between the two. We will focus on main idea, and we will practice picking out important parts when reading fiction or nonfiction. Students will have a DCA this Friday. We will also continue with book clubs this week.

Spelling:

No new spelling list until after the break.

Writing:

Students will have a DCA on Thursday. Students will be writing an expository piece this week. They will get to choose  which prompt they want from a list of four prompts. Students will create a boxes and bullets organizer before they start drafting their piece. Here are the prompt choices:

Everyone has days that they will always remember as being very special. Think about a special day that you have had. Write an essay telling why it was so special.

We are learning all the time. Some of our learning takes place in school and some outside of school. Write about something you have learned recently and how it has affected you.

Rules are important. What are the most important rules at your school and why are they important?

We all have a place where we can imagine or go where we want to be alone and relax. Think of your favorite place. Now write an essay explaining why this place is your favorite.

Social Studies:

This week, we will be studying the time after the Revolution when Texas was its own country called The Republic of Texas. We will talk about the success and challenges this new Republic faced, and students will identify the important leaders during this time.

Ungraded Writing Prompts-

These are great practice if your child is struggling with getting ideas onto paper. Practingin just getting started and writing something out is helpful.

1. If you could design a bike, what would it be like? You may draw a picture.
2. What is your favorite movie and why?
3. If you were faced with an obstacle, how would you overcome it?
4. What is your favorite subject and why?
5. What is your least favorite restaurant and why?
6. If you found $100 on the floor, what would you do with it?
7. Write a poem about a very important moment in your life.
8. What is your favorite animal and why?
9. Write a poem about an animal.
10. Would you rather live in the city or in the country?
11. If you saw that someone was left out, what would you do?
12. If you could design a robot, what would it do?