November 14th-18th

Hello!  What a gorgeous weekend!  Ben and I were able to join some neighbor friends down at the Mason park on Saturday for some fun...we sure aren't going to have many more days as nice as that one!  Looking ahead, it's hard to believe that Parent Teacher Conferences are this week already, Opening Gun Hunting Season starts this weekend and Thanksgiving is next week! 

Here's what we've got planned for the week ahead:

Language Arts:
We are continuing to focus on families.  We will read 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', 'Shoes from Grandpa' and 'Baby Bear's Family'.  Our new alphafriend is Benny Bear and we'll be focusing on the letter Bb!  Try to ask your child to come up with words that start with the 'b' sound!  We'll also continue to practice our sight words: I, see & my.  We'll also add to that list of sight words this week with the new word: like.  We'll be writing in our journals at school during small group time and practicing these new words with the sentence "I like my..." I'll help them with filling in the blank.  I often do this by writing the word that they've dictated to me on a little post it note, and they just copy it onto the page to complete the sentence and then add an illustration. 

Religion:
We're starting a new chapter on prayer.  We will learn about talking to God and learn about how prayer can be recited with the prayers we memorize, but it can also be just simply talking to God.  We'll also talk about how God can hear our prayers always. 

Math:
We're continuing with counting!  We're practicing counting to 100 at school...practice this (and higher if you can!) at home too!  We're also learning about numbers that show more and less.

Science:
We'll have a special treat this week...Brad Gingras (Bradan's dad) will come in on Tuesday afternoon to show us his various animal skins and preserved animals and talk about Hibernation, Migration and animals that 'tough it out' during the winter. 

Social Studies:
We'll be continuing to learn about life way back when the first Thanksgiving happened.  We've read stories about the Pilgrims coming to the Americas and how the Native Americans helped them to live off the land.  We celebrate the different gifts that God has given us and how we can all share them with each other.  We'll read a simple story called 'Pilgrim, Pilgrim'.  There are some of our sight words in this story, so we will be identifying them, as well as trying to sound out some of the tougher words as we read together.  Your child will be bringing this home on Thursday...be sure to read it through with them, they are so excited to be able to read new words every day!

Centers:
No Centers on Monday because of the Early Release Day. 
Centers on Wednesday will be with Mary Jo Gingras and I.  Together we will be helping the children to make Native American Headbands.  Also, earlier in the week I will be making Pilgrim hats with each of the children in small groups.  The children will be able to choose which hat they'd like to wear down to the All School Thanksgiving Luncheon!

Parent Teacher Conferences!!!
Thursday ~ After school!!  Please let me know as soon as you can if you're not able to make it that night.  I will do my best to accomodate you and find a time that works for both of us to get together!