Saturday, December 3rd

   I hope you are all enjoying your weekend, super-star 1st/2nd parents! I have so much to share with you! We are in that wonderful, magical time of the year in which we are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The kids have had a lot of energy this last week and I only anticipate the excitement will grow over the next few weeks! The explorers have made their luggage for their trip around the world! Don't worry, no flights to book, we will be studying Christmas Around the World in our little classroom. Every time we study a country, the students will get to attach a sticker from that country to their paper-bag "suitcase" and put the information they collect about that country into their suitcase (the paper-bag suitcases in their cubbies won't go home until the 16th of December, when our trip comes to a close).

Important Dates Coming Up:

Saturday, December 10th: LulaRoe Clothing Fundraiser for Sonshine Christian 10 Am-1 PM at Faith Baptist.

December 12th-16th: Christmas Spirit Week!!! 

Monday: Christmas Socks Day

Tuesday: Holiday Sweater/Shirt Day

Wednesday: Christmas Headwear Day

Thursday: Christmas Colors (red/green)

Friday: Christmas PJ Day! 

Friday, December 16th: Half-Day/ Christmas Sing-a-Long (families invited!) and

 Christmas-Around-the-World (International Food Sampling) (12:00 dismissal).

10:45: Christmas Carol Singing and Classroom Parties (International Food Sampling)

 ***We need food from different countries to showcase at our Christmas-Around-the-World festivities on Friday the 12th. Food may be purchased or made. Please let me know if you have a food item you can donate, its country of origin, and any known allergens in the ingredients. (We especially need to be mindful of nut-containing products).***

Thank you!!!

Here is a website link that will give you kid-friendly recipes from around-the-world that you may want to bring on Friday the 12th. What a fun project to do at home with your kiddo!:

http://www.easy-kids-recipes.com/international-recipes.html

December 24th, 6:30 pm.: Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.
Students are practicing songs to sing for this service. Hope to see you there!

Monday, December 19th- Monday, January 2nd: Christmas Break.
Students return to school on Tuesday, January 3rd.

This next week will be fairly routine. We will begin our studies of Christmas around the world, continue reading in our latest Magic Tree House book, "Vikings at Sunrise", and focus on the continent of Europe (especially Christmas traditions in the countries there). In Bible, we will continue studying Elijah. Our verse for this week is 2 Corinthians 3:12.

Coming Up in Reading:

1st Grade: 

2nd Grade:

In math, first-grade will be using doubles to subtract, writing number sentences, making 10 to subtract, using related facts to add and subtract, and focusing on fact-families.

Second-grade will continue to work in double-digit addition, as they add three or four-digit numbers. When this skill is sharp, we will move onto problem-solving strategies and making a model using double-digit addition. These are tricky concepts and these are some steps we use in class that will help you as you are working with your kiddos at home. Let's use 46+46+12 as our example. The steps remain the same for all 3 (or 4) double-digit addition problems. I am capitalizing important steps we emphasize in class.

1. First, ADD THE ONES (so, 6+6+2).
Look for any "doubles" or (numbers that add up to 10) to make it easier. In this case, the doubles-fact is 6+6, so we do that first, then add 2 to it. We end up with 14.

2. Next, REGROUP (if needed). So, if the sum of the ones column is 10 or greater, we need to "regroup" (or "carry" the tens). I say we raise the tens and drop the ones down. With the sum being 14, we will carry one ten over and write the "4" in the ones column.

3. Last, ADD THE TENS So, now we are adding 1 (from 14) to 4, 4, and 1. Do you see a doubles fact? Awesome! Add that up first, just like we did before. So, 4+4=8, then add the 2 "1's", . So, now we have 10. Our whole sum will be (drum roll, please): 104!

I hope that this made it easier to see how these are taught in class, and I am hoping that it will make homework easier at home. This is an area that is taking us longer than usual, so there hasn't been homework every night, but be on the lookout for it this next week as we complete these lessons.It would be great if you could make some double-digit addition problems for your kiddos and work through them with them. If you use the language of our steps: add the ones, regroup (if needed), and add the tens, the consistency will benefit them. We have had some trouble with students skipping one of the steps, or not writing the tens that they are carrying. These are little errors to catch and remedy if you see them. It won't be long, and these smart cookies will be doing 3 and 4-digit addition! They are learning so much and I am proud of them!

Thank you for all you do to support your kiddos and our school! It is so appreciated! Now, enjoy some pictures from this week: