The Week Ahead.....

Hello Families,

I hope everyone had a fun weekend.  We finally have a 5 day week ahead of us, and hopefully no snow interferes this time!  Here's what we're getting into this week:  

In Language Arts, we will:
- Continue learning sight words, focusing on the words: came, look, her 

- Make predictions about a text and revise our predictions as we read.
- Use the title, cover, pictures or photographs of a book to help us with our predictions.
- Use the "five-finger retell" to learn how to summarize and retell a familiar story. 

In Science, we will: 

- Begin our "Earth" unit by talking about weather and seasons.
- Start tracking the weather and look for patterns, similarities and differences in the weather.
- Be able to use resources to predict the weather.  

In Writing, we will: 

- Identify a problem we see in our classroom and brainstorm ways to solve it.
- Write a "persuasive" sentence about why we should solve the problem in a certain way. 

- Identify ways we can tell other people about the problem we have identified and how they can help us solve it.  

In Math, we will: 

- Explore and understand positional words (over, under, next to, etc...) 

- Use 2D and 3D shapes to make another shape.
- Explore geoboards as a tool to help us make shapes. 

- Use shapes to create a monster, and then talk about the shapes we used, and their attributes.  

Other important information: 

***Valentine's Day***

We will have our Valentines day party on Thursday February 12 from 2-3 pm.  Papers went home in Thursday folders about this, but if you need another form, or have any questions, please let me know.  We are asking for monetary donations, and then I will go out and buy the supplies we need for our party.  If you are interested in volunteering, please let me know!  Thanks! 

***Spirit Week***

This week is spirit week, and there's fun way to dress for each day.  See below for the list:
Monday- Wear purple for Alzheimers Awareness or Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness
Tuesday- Twin day- dress like another student so you look like twins!
Wednesday- Jersey day- wear your favorite sports team's jersey. 

Thursday- Throwback Thursday- dress like someone from another decade- 70s, 80s, 90s... be creative! 

Friday- School Spirit Day- Wear red, white and blue to show your Whittier School spirit!  

K teachers love spirit week!!!

***Book Swap***

We are having a school book swap and we need your gently used books!  If you have books that your children are no longer using, you can donate them to the book swap.  The goal of the book swap is for every child in the school to take home a book to keep.  If you have any questions about this, please let me know. 

***ABC/123 Team***

If you are a trained parent volunteer, and you would like to come in to school and help out on a regular basis, then the ABC/123 team is for you!  We have students that are working on learning their letters and numbers and we would like you to help them out.  It requires just a small amount of time (5-10 minutes) with each student, and you can work with as few or as many students from the list as you'd like.  If this is an opportunity you would like to be a part of, please email me and I will get you on the list of parents to be trained specifically for the ABC/123 Team.  If you have already talked to me about it, then someone will be contacting you soon!  

***Book Fair***

This Friday, February 6 is the kick off for our Technology Book Fair!  The Book fair will be open from 4:00-7:00 and will also be paired with the PTA Sock Hop.  Stop by the book fair and pick up some great books at a low price.  The money we raise from the book fair will go towards purchasing technology for our school!  Come and support a great cause and the love of reading! 

***Finding Nemo***

Movie day was a success!  The kids loved relaxing and eating popcorn.  Note to self - kids do not sit still for longer than 20 minutes while watching a Disney movie : ) 

Important Dates:
Monday 02/02- Pink and Purple Day, Library Lesson and book exchange!
Tuesday 02/03- Twin Day
Wednesday 02/04- Jersey Day

Thursday 02/05- Decade Day  

Friday 02/06- School Spirit Day, Book Fair Kickoff and PTA Sock Hop! (6-8)

Thank you for all you do to support your child's learning at home.  As always, please feel free to let me know of any questions or concerns you may have.  Have a great week!  :)