Hi Parents!
We thoroughly enjoyed our last week of “What’s Inside”! Students especially liked making the tubes of “blood”!
Short Week This Week!
• 1:00 dismissal on Tuesday, November 1 for staff meeting
• Noon dismissal on Thursday, November 3 for SAES Conference – NO LUNCH
• NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 4 for SAES Conference
Día de los Muertos and Native Americans
Tuesday, we will celebrate Día de los Muertos, remembering and honoring our ancestors in the Mexican tradition.
By tomorrow. each child needs to bring a photo of a family member or someone who is special to your family who has passed away. With each photo, your child will need a bit of background information, such as name, relationship to the child, and why they were special. If you think your child will have a difficult time remembering their “story” you may jot it down and send it in your notes so I can prompt them.
Your child is also welcome to bring in something that reminds us of the person in addition to or instead of a photo. If you choose to send something from a person, he or she need not be someone your child actually knew. Día de los Muertos passes on family stories and traditions and honors those who lived before us, so this is the perfect time to pass along a story about a beloved ancestor to your child. The photos and “things” will come home by Wednesday.
This week we will also start our new unit, Native Americans. Mrs. Dugat will introduce the unit to us. She will speak about Columbus sailing West, different North American tribes, the Great Circle of Life, the Great Spirit, and symbol writing. It should be a good start!
Letter/Language Arts for the week
This week, we will look at the letter Y. We will practice shape and line placement on chalkboards, as well as the different sounds Y can make. First, we will learn the sound Y makes at the beginning of a word. Then, we will review how Y at the end of the word says I or E, as in “sky” and “baby”.
New sight words this week are you and yellow.
Numbers and Math
Math lessons this week will continue to work on place value up to 20. We will also work on “number sentences”, or addition problems. Finally, we will introduce the “minus” sign and subtraction problems taking away just one (-1).
Chapel
In chapel on Wednesday we will “Make a Joyful Noise!” On Thursday, the story will be Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. Our class will not perform a chapel story this week.
Reminders and Happenings…
Please keep bringing in Velveeta boxes! Please remember, each child will need at least one Velveeta box for making “pueblos” in our upcoming Native American unit.
Halloween Party – Monday, October 31. Your child is INVITED, not required, to wear his/her costume tomorrow. Send a change of normal clothes just in case your child gets tired of wearing the costume. Your child will NOT need an afternoon snack on Monday. Thank you again to Jen Nield, Jen Kern, and Tracy Malone for organizing the party!
Book Fair – November 8-11. (Hours: 8:30 – 3:30 Tuesday-Thursday; 8:30 – 1:00 Friday)
We will go for a Book Fair preview visit on Wednesday, November 9 at 1:45. Each child will make a “wish list” to bring home for your consideration. To make this “wish list”, we could use a little extra assistance! Please let me know if you would be able to come in and help students write down the titles of books they would like to buy. Your help will allow us to fully practice our reading and writing skills!
Golf Tournament – Friday, November 11. Again, thank you to all who have signed up to sponsor a hole, rounded up a team to play or have offered to help in some way!
Nutcracker Field Trip – Tuesday, December 6. Thank you so much to those of you who have signed up! If you are going, please remember to give Debbie Noack (in the office) a $20 check payable to St. Matthew’s with “Nutcracker field trip” on the memo line. Checks are due this WEDNESDAY.
Homework
• Monday – Have fun and be safe!
• Tuesday – Learn a story about one of your ancestors.
• Wednesday – Please write 3 or 4 nice upper case Y’s and 3 or 4 lower case y’s.
Warm regards,
Lindsay
