Mrs. O'Connell's Classroom Connection

Welcome back!

As we begin the holiday season and the first week of Advent, we are reminded to keep the reason for the season in our minds and hearts -- the birth of Jesus. This is a time of waiting, watching and welcoming as we anticipate with joy the day we can welcome Him! We will be learning about Advent this week, and will begin a classroom project to see how long we can make a paper Caring Chain that lists acts of kindness done by class members. I'll be sending home construction paper strips labeled "Caring," "Sharing," "Helping," and "Loving." When your child completes an act of kindness, please make a note of it on the strip and return it to school to be added to our Chain.

Here are Spelling and High Frequency (word wall) words for the week:

Spelling: us, bus, cut, but, rug, hug, our, bring, city, giant

Word Wall: bring, carry, hold, our, us

Please remember to have your child return their school library book, if they haven't already.

Have a wonderful week.

As promised, here are this week's spelling and high frequency words:

Spelling: fun, up, stuff, run, cup, puff, jump, more, skip swim

High Frequency (word wall): jump, more, sleep, time, with

PENNIES
Please send 12 pennies to school on Monday for a math activity.

LIBRARY BOOK
Because of the short week, library books checked out on Friday, 11/21 will not be due back until Monday, 12/1.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS
Please return order forms and payment to school by 11/25. Remember to include a note if you are ordering items for Christmas and want it kept secret.

READING/SPELLING
Because our week is short, we will be taking both a spelling and reading selection test on Wednesday, 11/26. Unfortunately, I left the spelling word list at school on Friday and cannot post it until Monday morning. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I will get it on the blog on Monday.

PROGRESS REPORTS
Progress reports were sent home this Friday in your child's Home folder. I can hardly believe we're halfway through the second quarter already!

MAGAZINES
We can use a few more magazines for our Thanksgiving project. Please don't hesitate to send another one or two if you have them laying around waiting to be recycled. Thanks!

REMINDERS
Lunch towels... Hats or hoods and gloves or mittens...
Still seeking grandparents who'd like to read stories to our class on occasion (even if they can only commit to doing it once or twice)!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Please send an old magazine or two to school with your child this week. We need lots of pictures for a Thanksgiving project. Thanks!

We're back to our regular routine this week, thanks to five full days of school. Things to remember:
Friday is a 25c paid out of uniform day and Ladies Guild Hot Lunch
Please send lunch/snack towels back after washing so we don't kill too many trees using paper towels.
Make sure your children have warm jackets, hats and gloves for chilly recesses to come. We need to get outside for fresh air, even if it is cold!

Spelling Words to work on for Friday's test: met, pet, let, get, ten, yes, want, good, plan, trap
Word Wall (shoebox) words coming home on Monday: for, some, good, too, want
We continue to work on the short e sound and will focus on initial r and l blends this week (plan, trap, etc.)
The kids are doing really well on their spelling tests. Kudos to you for all you do to help them prepare each week!

Unit 2 Skills Test scores were really good. Some have commented that the work seems really easy for their child. It has been, but as you'll soon see, stories we read are getting longer, more complex and include more difficult words. Phonics work will become more of a challenge as we get into blends, long vowels and digraphs, and as the year progresses, you'll see more difficulty in the words your child reads and spells.

Religion
We're beginning a new unit this week, entitled God's Son, Jesus. Chapter 9 teaches us that God loved us so much that he gave us the best gift possible, his own Son, Jesus. It's hard to believe that we will soon be heading into Advent!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Yesterday, your child brought home a wish list from the Scholastic Book Fair. Tonight you have the opportunity to attend the book fair as a family from 6 - 8:30 p.m. You may purchase books at that time, or send money to school with your child on Wednesday, as that is the day we will attend as a class to make purchases.

VETERANS CELEBRATION
As a reminder, you are welcome to attend the ceremony honoring our Veterans this Monday at 9:15 a.m. in the church (immediately following 8:30 a.m. Mass)

READING
Our performance of Kate Goes to the Fun Fest was a big success and the children really enjoyed having an audience. Thanks to all who helped rehearse lines and encouraged little actors and actors to read with expression and enthusiasm!

We have completed our 2nd reading unit and will be back to our regular reading homework routine this week as we begin Unit 3 -- phonics story on Monday evening, a phonics take home reader on Tuesday, and the main selection on Wednesday, with a reading vocabulary and comprehension test on Thursday.

SPELLING
Because we have no school on Friday, this week's spelling test will take place a day earlier, on Thursday.
Spelling words: red, bed, fed, tell, well, mess, said, who, fell, yell
Word Wall (high frequency) words: help, now, said, so, who

MATH
We continue to work on subtraction this week and will put our bead counters to use when needed, instead of fingers. We are relating subtraction to addition and learning about Fact Families. Please continue to work on both addition and subtraction facts at home. It is really showing in their work at school.

SCIENCE
We are finishing our Animals unit this week and will soon begin our study of plant and animal habitats.

OTHER NEWS

Now that the weather has definitely turned colder, please be sure to send them to school with proper outerwear. We really like to get outside for recess most days, even when it is cold.

Wednesday is Ice Cream Day -- $1.00
Thursday -- dismissal at 11:30 a.m. Parent/Teacher conferences begin at 12 noon.
Friday -- No School -- enjoy the long weekend!

We're still seeking a few grandparents with a little free time to volunteer as "Rocking Chair Readers" in our classroom. Please send a note or email if you are interested. Thanks!

I'll be sending home a Scholastic Books order form this week or next. I know that some families order these books as Christmas gifts for their children. If you would like to keep your order a secret, just include a note and I'll be happy to hold your books for you until you can arrange to pick them up, or send them home via another student.

Hope that you enjoyed the beautiful weekend! Here's a little of what's happening this week in Room 16...

READING
We will be working on our second unit test, so there will be no Reader brought home this week. We'll also begin practicing our Readers Theater Kate Goes to the Fun Fest and will have a performance on Friday morning at 9:30 in our classroom. If you are available, please feel free to join us!

SPELLING
This week will be a review of all the Unit 2 Spelling words that have been learned to date. We will have a Test on Friday on 10 of these words, but I'm not going to tell the kids which ones they will be tested on, so they'll need to review them all!

MATH
We're working on subtraction concepts, which can be difficult for some students to understand in the beginning. Please don't be too concerned if your child doesn't seem to "get it" right away. Work at home with manipulatives such as pennies or buttons to demonstrate the idea of "taking away" part of the whole to find the difference. We will be spending a lot of time on this at school. This week we will make Bead Counters to use for both addition and subtraction practice. Please begin to add subtraction flash cards in your daily practice at home, as well as addition. Weekly fact quizzes will soon include subtraction problems for those who have progressed past the "Adding 6's".

CONFERENCES
As you know, Parent/Teacher conferences are scheduled for Thursday, November 13th. If you receive a note home requesting a conference, please let me know if the time requested is inconvenient for you. I am pretty flexible and available to meet most days both before and after school, so do not feel that you need to adjust your work schedule to accomodate mine.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

A big thanks to the moms who coordinated and volunteered at our Halloween Party today. The kids had a great time!

Someone in Room 16 dropped a pair of St. Linus sweatpants, size 7, on the floor today, but there is no name on the tag. Do they belong to you?