Happy December!

Important Dates
Nov. 25  Happy Late Birthday Jackson!
Dec. 5 Library (Please remember to bring your books)
Dec. 6 Field Trip (Please be on time, we cannot wait for children who are late)
Dec. 8 Happy Birthday Abagail!
STEM

I am so sorry about the missing blog post and major mixup in Google Classroom.  The blog finally came up Monday, and I fully intended to write a blog post, but life and family happens and it took its toll on me last week.  Thank you for being understanding and rolling with me!  

Remember the field trip is this Tuesday.  Please have your child dress for the weather, keeping in mind that their backpack is their coatroom, lunch carrier and water bottle holder.  The Children’s Theatre of Utah will be performing Aesop’s Fables, which will be perfect as these are a major part of our reading curriculum and will be a great introduction. We will then eat and have the opportunity to explore the State Capitol after we eat lunch.  It should be a really fun day.

Service Learning
We have been talking about helping others, especially those who may not have as much as we do.  With this in mind, we are still collecting school supplies to help the refugee students in Logan.  These students are grateful for everything they receive.  We are still looking for 1″ binders, expo markers, composition notebooks, lined paper, spiral notebooks, hand sharpeners and gently used books.  As you are out shopping please keep these students in mind.  We will collect items until December 14th.

Multiplication Madness
We are not in the middle of learning multiplication. Every student should know their 0, 1, 2, and 5 times tables.  We will introduce 9, 3, and 4’s this week, with 6, 7, and 8’s right before Christmas.  We are also starting our Multiplication Glyph activity, where your child will be coloring a picture of an ice cream sundae that represents the times tables they have passed off.  On February 14th, we will celebrate Valentine’s Day with and ice cream party where we use their glyph to determine which items their sundae will include.   Please support your children by helping them practice their times tables at home.  There are a variety of ways to practice multiplication at home, and I will be sharing those for the next few weeks. 

Seesaw
I recently sent home a paper that explained how to join Seesaw, A Learning Journal.  If you are not familiar with Seesaw, it’s an app that allows you to see what your child posts in school.  Our class has uploaded several items that they would love for you, their parents to see.  No one else can see what your child posts and it makes them so proud that you can see and celebrate what they’re learning in school.  Please take the time to connect with us on Seesaw.

Reading
Please continue to read every night for at least 20 minutes.  We will be evaluating each student individually after Christmas to ensure that learning is happening and reading levels are raising.  It’s OK for your child to spend some of their reading time silently, but they still need to do some reading out loud so you can talk about the story itself, how the author did things to make the story more interesting, how they create a setting and what words they chose to use and why.
Math
Prodigy is the only math homework I assign.  It’s a very motivational way for your child to practice math.  They only need to be in the game 15 and going to battles to help them maintain the math concepts we have been working on.  If you feel your child needs more than this, you may have them go into Front Row Ed and do practice in the Number and Base Ten, or Operations and Algebraic Thinking Sections.

Spelling
I have really enjoyed the spelling we are using and I am seeing a difference in our class writing pieces.  These are not easy words and patterns by any means, but we are being challenged while learning that we can do hard things!  Here are the sorts for this week.
Spelling Nine PDF
Spelling Nine Document