I can hardly believe the holidays are here!!!  The kids and I are very much looking forward to relaxing, having fun with family, and enjoying some of our holiday traditions.  I do realize that a “break” means some much needed down time, but I do want to encourage you to log your child onto the wonderful game/practice websites that our district has made available.

The kids have worked very hard to memorize math facts and sight words.  While two weeks does not seem like a long break, it can be enough time to get “rusty”.

On Friday I sent home a paper with all of your child’s individual usernames and passwords.  Do consider allowing them to have some practice time on Xtra math, ST math, or Raz-kids!

This week we started our dinosaur unit!  The kids are SOOO excited to learn about and play with our dinosaurs!  The dinosaur study is helping us to learn about fossils, extinct and endangered animals, and how we learned about life long ago!  Some of the kids have expressed an interest in making their own “fossils”.  Here is a GREAT, simple, home activity that you can do with your child.  Make salt dough and press “prints” into the dough so they can see how some fossils were made/imprinted!

Basic Salt Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fine salt
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of water (may add more)
  Instructions
• In a large bowl, combine the salt and the flour
• Make a well in the salt/flour mixture and add the water
• Knead until smooth and shape into a ball
• When not in use, wrap in plastic or store in an airtight container 

  HINT: To get a softer dough you can add more flour. Adding more salt will lend a more granulous affect. Use wallpaper glue and the dough with be more cohesive. To add color to your dough, use different types of flour or add food coloring or paint.
  Knead to get an even color.
  You may also paint your ornaments and sculptures after they dry.

Some of you may have read about the “Hour of Code“.  Each grade level at our school will be doing coding activities during their computer lab time starting at all different times (due to cycle days, testing, and other things).  Here is a link to more information.

http://blog.elanco.org/elemtech/2014/12/02/hour-of-code-is-almost-here/

Just an FYI here is what I know about first grade’s timeline:

We will not begin coding until approximately the end of January.  These students have STAR testing for another week and a half and then we need to jump back into our re-introduction of the tablets.

I’ve just figured out how to open ST Math so that students can have access at home!  The students know their own username (name with all lowercase letters) and number (1234) passwords.  Feel free to allow them to “game” at home!

http://www.stmath.com

We had an assembly to start the day!  Following the assembly we wrote thank you notes to Veterans.  I am so proud of the students for taking such time and care on their letters!