Happy New Year!

Dear Families,

Welcome back and Happy New Year! It has been so nice to reconnect with the children and hear all about your fun Winter break adventures. We have been humming along this week getting back into all sorts of new learning.

On Sunday, we made wishing wands for the new year. Hopefully your child will use his/her wand to help you make a wish for the new year too! We played together again, shared about our long winter holiday escapades and wrote about our holiday in our new Weekend News journals, celebrated two birthdays, sang about Bubble Gum and made a bubble gum class book with addition number sentences, wrapped up our 3D Shapes unit,

SCIENCE
We started a new Science unit about Living Things----be sure to ask your child how they know for sure whether something is living or nonliving. We learned that ALL living things...

1. grow
2. move
3. breathe
4. reproduce

We sorted pictures of objects into Living or Nonliving. The children readily knew where to put each object and if they weren't sure, they knew what to ask themselves. Does it grow? Does it breathe? etc.

Today we had our first peek at some little caterpillars and tiny caterpillar eggs. We look forward to watching them grow and grow and follow the amazing change they make as they become beautiful butterflies. They look just like monarch caterpillars though they are called Tiger butterflies.

MATH
This week, we started something  new called "Calendar Books". I love this Math activity because it give children daily practice writing numbers, using number sense, and thinking about other Mathematical concepts such as the months of the year, days of the week, odd and even numbers, making sets of 5 and 10, place value, greater than/less than/equal to and so on. Next week, we will begin a new Math unit called Comparing Length, Weight, Capacity and Numbers to 10. We will learn about length (longer/shorter/equal), capacity (full, empty, more, less) and weight (heavy, light). We will have lots of opportunities for hands-on comparing and measuring of many different objects' length, capacity and weight (using nonstandard units-such as paperclips, cubes, etc) as we continue growing our number sense and build towards comparing actual numbers.

LITERACY
Our Shoebox book this week is called Places We Go. We added the word to to the word wall. We talked about the vowel U and practiced writing it in our Handwriting books. We are going to be zooming through the last of our capital letters so that we can focus on the very important formation of lower-case letters. In Writing Workshop, we are writing TRUE stories about ourselves (personal narrative). We are just getting back into our workshop after such a long break! The children seem eager to get back to their important work of making books. In reading next week, we will review retelling stories...using a special book mark and will begin to learn about our Super Powers----reading strategies. Something to look forward to next month---your child will be bringing home a book to read to you from his/her book box. These little books will go home and then be returned to school again. More information to follow!

DISCOVER OMAN
Thank you for sending back your child's signed permission slip. If you haven't sent yours yet, please send it when you are able. We are looking for parent volunteers to chaperone our trips to Wadi Sa'al and to Shatti-Qurum beach (near Japengo/Crowne Plaza). We would love for you to join us! Remember, parents will need to provide their own transportation. Thank you in advance. These are really fun trips-hope you can come! :-)

MUSIC CONCERT
Next week is the K-2 Music Concert on Wednesday, January 20th at 2:30 p.m. We do not have P.E. though we will have our normal recesses times. If you would like your child to change into their concert clothes, we can help them after lunch recess. Be sure to have your child wear something dressy (Ms. Elbin requested no PE t-shirts or TAISM polos). Thanks!

RAINBOW DAY IS TOMORROW!
Today we talked a little about what to expect and what color everyone is wearing. In the morning, I will give them some more information about how their day will go. For your information, this event combines K-2 students for early morning games, and K-5 students for later morning games. The focus is not on competition, but on cooperation. You are most welcome to come out and watch, and follow your child through the different games. Timings: Games begin at 9:00 a.m. We will have a snack (inside) at 10:20, and a picnic lunch at 11:45 (outside on the handball court). Students should bring their own packed lunches (and parents can too!). For supervision/safety reasons, children are not allowed to play on the playground equipment during this time. Your child will be dismissed from the classroom at 12:25. Please do not take your child home before then. 

A few notes and reminders:
-children need a packed snack and lunch
-children need a water bottle
-children should wear a hat and shoes that are good for running and jumping
-children can wear their assigned color----if you can't remember, ask your child, I reminded them today. OR send me a quick email and I can let you know.

Hope to see you tomorrow. :-)

Happy New Year! 
xx Ms. Cori