December 1-5

Greetings All!

 I hope that each of you had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with your loved ones! Last week's "Thanksgiving Feast" in the classroom was incredible and I want to thank you all for preparing such delicious food to share with us. Team Peake has much to be thankful for this holiday season. With that in mind, we will begin our new Unit of Inquiry titled "Helping Others". Our central idea is as follows: Helping those in need is one of our responsibilities as a member of a community. Some of the questions we will be answering during the next three weeks are...

What is a volunteer?

How does volunteerism help a community?

What are wants and needs?

How do our actions affect others? 

What is the Ronald McDonald House?

What a wonderful time of year to focus on the needs of others! Your child will be taking a very active role in a school-wide Candy Cane Gram Sale to raise money for the local Ronald McDonald House. First graders will be advertising, counting money, sorting, labeling and delivery grams to classrooms.

All we are asking of parents is to bring in 5 boxes of candy canes (which many of you have done already-thank you!) and to take a look at some volunteer opportunities to collect and organize gram sales at the Intermediate Campus. Please be in contact with Ashley Welcher if you are interested in volunteering for this special project.

Here's a look into the curriculum this week:

Phonics/Spelling:

Long A sound with spelling /ai/ ex: pail, aim, maid, nail etc.

Red Words: how their will

Reading:

Identifying the main idea, characters, setting, problem, and solution in texts.

Grammar: 

Using the verbs: is and are correctly. 

For example:

She is running. 

They are running.

Writing:

Brainstorming, Editing, Revising and Rewriting "My Gift to the World."

Students will choose a gift that they would give to the world.

Math:

Identifying place value with Tens and Ones, comparing numbers using "greater than", "less than" or "equal to", and estimating surface area and weight.

Science:

Introduction of our new Unit of Inquiry: "Helping Others."

Important Updates and Reminders:

• Tutoring will be changed from Monday to Tuesday this week. You will receive a letter in your child's Red Folder if your child has been invited to tutoring. 
• Please make sure your child reads 20 minutes each night. 
• If you would like to check out the Ronald McDonald House website it is: www.RonaldMcDonaldHouse.org
  

CONGRATULATIONS to our newest Star Student, Derin Manay! Derin is caring to his friends and shows enthusiasm towards learning each day. We are looking forward to learning about what makes Derin so special this week! Great Job, Derin!

Thank you for your continued support at home! Your children are truly a gift and so are you!

Sincerely, 

  Mrs. Peake