Please send December reading logs to school on Monday or Tuesday.  I’ll send home a personal pan pizza coupon that you can enjoy over our winter break!  Thanks!

I’m always trying to find new and fun ways for the kids to practice their spelling words, sight words and phonics.  I like when the kids feel like they are playing a game and they  forget that they are actually learning!  For our next learning game, I’ll need a lot of plastic bottle caps.  The kind you find on soda bottles, not the small aluminum kind found on glass bottles.  If you come across any of these caps over our winter break, I’d love to have them when we come back in January.  Thanks so much!

The PTO is collecting Box Tops again.  If you have any at home that you have been collecting, please send them in to school tomorrow.  We have a collection envelope in our room, so feel free to send them in at any time throughout the year.   Tomorrow is also our Grinch Day (wear green or dress like a character from the Grinch), as well as Eshleman hat day – wear a holiday hat, or your favorite hat!

Thanks!

Friday, December 19 –

Grinch day in 1T – Wear green or dress like a character from The Grinch

It’s also Eshleman HAT DAY!  In addition to wearing green, feel  free to send the kids to school in a  holiday hat, headband, or any  hat they enjoy wearing.

This is a day 6, so we will be having a spelling test!

Monday, December 22 – Polar express day in 1T – Have the kids wear their warm PJ’s to school.  They may also bring their slippers to school, but will need their regular shoes to be outside!

Tuesday, December 23 –  Eshleman wacky winter spirit day!  Wear something winter themed to school – dress like a present, wear your warm PJ’s, wear a reindeer nose, etc…

This is a 1:30 early dismissal day for all elementary students.

December 24 – January 4, 2015    – No school for students

Monday, January 5, 2015 – First day back to school for students.  This will be a cycle day 3.  We have book exchange.

Enjoy your nice long break with your family!  Thank  you for helping the kids with their homework, helping in our room, and donating supplies to our class.  We have had a great 2014, and I look forward to a great start to 2015!

All I can say is, the kids are getting a bit wild  excited for Christmas!  Ha, ha!  You know I love my little firsties to pieces, but they “earned” a class clip down in gym last week.  I’m trying to keep them focused, but it’s 26 vs. 1, and at this time of year, that doesn’t seem like  a fair ratio!  We’re going to keep busy with many fun  themed learning activities, and to do that I am asking for your help.  Get your calendars ready to write all of this down!

Tuesday, December 9 – Send your child to school with a bag full of small objects for the start of our chapter 5 Math unit on place value.  Choose one type of item, count out any number from 40-120, and put the items in a plastic bag.  You may use items such as cereal, cotton balls, buttons, dry beans, pom poms etc…

Wednesday, December 10 – Book orders are due.  Order on line with our class code, or send a check made payable to Scholastic.

Friday, December 19 – Grinch themed fun with our 5th grade buddies -Wear all the green that you can!   I’ll be looking for donations of  spaghetti colored green, (for some word work fun), green grapes,  1 bottle of green hawaiian punch, 1 bag of mini marshmallows, and some black icing in a small tube!  If you would like to donate anything, please email me!  We’ll be focusing on random acts of kindness toward  our Eshleman community, and trying to make our hearts grow 3 sizes!

Friday, 12/19 – Last spelling test before our break.  You will have new words to study over vacation.  🙂

Monday, December 22 – Polar express day!  The kids may wear their PJ’s to school!  We’ll hop aboard the Terry train to read the Polar Express, and we’ll incorporate all kinds of train activities into our Math and Language Arts time.

Send in your Pizza Hut reading logs on Monday 12/22 too, so I can hand out pizza rewards before our long winter break!

Tuesday, December 23 – 1:30 dismissal.  Enjoy some extra special time with your family!

If there aren’t any days of missed school due to snow between now and Dec. 23rd, I’ll see the kids back at school on Monday, January 5, 2015!

Thank you to everyone who braved the snowy weather and joined us for our Thanksgiving Feast!  The children looked so cute all gathered around the “table” together.  I loved hearing them share what and who they are thankful for!  I’ll post pictures from our feast on our Shutterfly site!

While I was at a meeting on Tuesday, the substitute reported that the class had a great day.  I’m so proud of the kids for showing me how they can SOAR when a guest teacher is in our room.  Today they had wonderful behavior for me too, and got rave reviews in Art class!  You should be proud of your child’s behavior – I certainly am!

Have you heard that we are entering the Lancaster Newspaper (LNP) “Illustrate Headlines” contest?  Each child chose between two headlines to illustrate – “Woodcarvers’ art takes flight,” or “Stormers slam Sharks, earn playoff berth.”  We looked at some headlines from the newspaper, and matched them to the corresponding picture.  We talked about the who, what, where, when, and why of the headline.  Next it was time to come up with our very own illustration to go along with the chosen headline.  The winning entries will be published in a 40 page special section entitled “NIE Week” that is inserted in LNP on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.  Good luck, kids!

Spelling tests will be coming home on Thursday for you to sign and return.  Thanks for practicing the words at home!  On Thursday we’ll be taking the Chapter 4 Math test.  That will be coming home for you to sign and return too!  Keep practicing those Math facts at home.  The children have learned many strategies to help them learn their facts.

Our class has been staying pretty healthy!  We miss the kids when they aren’t in school, but I really appreciate that you keep them at home to rest and get better when they aren’t feeling well.  Please remember to send an excuse card to school with your child when they return to class.  We are still stocked up on disinfecting wipes and tissues, thank you!  We could use some more pink bar erasers and 3″ x 3″ post it notes if you happen to come across some in your travels and wouldn’t mind donating them to our class.

Thanks so much!