This week we "traveled" to Israel to learn about the origin of the celebration of Hanukah. Our new friend, Mrs. Jen Chaffman, who works at the high school, came to share about how she celebrates Hanukah. She brought her menorah and explained how there are eight nights of Hanukah. She told us the story about how long ago the Jewish people were fighting with the Greeks over a temple. During this fight they ran out of oil for their lamps. They found only enough oil to light their lamps for one night. The oil somehow lasted long enough for the lamp to burn for eight days and eight nights. That is why we light the menorah with nine candles for eight nights (the ninth is known as the shamash, or "head candle," and you use it to light the others.) She shared that often times people who celebrate Hanukah will eat foods fried in oil to represent the oil from the lamp. Latkas, or fried potato pancakes, are a favorite to eat during Hanukah with some applesauce (not syrup) on top! A favorite game played during Hanukah is the dreidel game. We learned how to play this game during our centers this week. We also each got to taste some yummy gelt (chocolate coins) that Ms. Jen brought us. Ms. Jen also brought along her guitar and we sang the dreidel song with her. This quickly became a class favorite! We also learned that the Israeli flag has an important Hanukah symbol on it, the Star of David. We used watercolors during centers to paint the Star of David, and we also talked about how many points were on the star, how many lines, how many small triangles and how many large triangles could be found on the star. We marked where Israel is on our classroom map. We decided that so far it is the furtherest country we have studied from the United States. We learned that Shalom is a way to say hello in Israel, that Israelis consume the most fruits and veggies in the world per person, and that bank notes in Israel have braille on them. We talked about what bank notes might be and also what braille is. We discovered that the signs outside of our bathrooms have braille on them, which is a way to help those who can't see be able to read. One of our favorite centers this week was "cooking" dreidels. We spread icing around the sides of a marshmallow and rolled them in blue sprinkles. Next we used the icing to stick a Hershey's kiss on top, and we put a pretzel on the other end. When you turn the marshmallow over and hold it by the pretzel it looks just like a dreidel. Each child brought home their own recipe in case you want to make these at home and to practice reading. Next week we "travel" to Africa to learn about Kwanzaa. We are very excited to have a guest speaker from UNCC on Wednesday morning come and share about this special holiday.
In math this week we used "menorah candles" (rods from the base ten blocks) to measure different items around the room. Student worked with partners to measure tables, rugs, books, pencils and chair legs to discover how long each item might be. They practiced making the "candles" touch each other to get an accurate measurement. We also used unifix cubes to estimate how many would fit on one of our menorah mats. We then filled the menorah with the cubes and practiced our one to one counting of objects. Our next center was Count the Room. We "hid" several gift tags with objects on them around the room. The students had to find these gift tags, count the objects and match them to the corresponding item on their recording sheet. Finally, we worked with blank calendars to create a December calendar. We put special stickers on the dates for St. Nicholas Day, Las Posadas, Hanukah and Christmas. We talked about what day of the week the first day of December was, as well as how many total days there were in December. Students wrote their own numbers on the calendar so that we could formatively assess how we are doing with our number writing into the teens and higher. We glued these calendars into our math notebooks that we will be sharing with you. We also played a listening game where students had to listen to how many times I rang the jingle bell and write that number on their white boards. They seemed to have great fun with this game. This worked on listening for a number, counting and number formation.
This week we added some more new words to our word wall. We added her, him, and, an and the. As you read to your child see if he/she can find these words in the books your are reading. We practiced building these words with letter tiles and writing them, we used word mats to build words out of play dough and then write them with a special Vis-a-V marker. A favorite this week was writing letters to Santa. I modeled for the students how we start a letter (just like Gobbles and Tinsel start their letters) and how we end them. We also talked about what we might want to say to Santa. We came up with a sentence we wanted to write and counted the words in the sentence. Next, as a class we practiced sounding out how to spell each word. Students helped be the "spacers" in between the words, because we noticed it is very difficult to read words when there are no spaces between them. We also decided that a list is a great way to write to Santa as well. Students wrote their letters and put them in a giant green Santa envelope for me to mail for them.
Addie was our Marvelous Me girl this week. We found out that Addie has three vowels and two consonants in her name. Her name starts with a vowel and ends with a vowel. She also has double letters in her name. How marvelous?! :)
Tinsel has been busy writing letters to us this week. He told us that many reindeer live in Canada. We found Canada on the map, and sure enough there was a picture of a reindeer as one of the symbols for Canada! He also shared with us that reindeer get their antlers when they are very young and their first set of antlers are called Rudolph antlers. We love finding out facts about reindeer, as well as seeing what Tinsel is learning from us in class!
This week we will go to the Laurels nursing home on Tuesday. This will be our first trip and I can't wait! The nursing home is one of my favorite places to visit. The residents get very excited to see us and they love spending time singing, playing games and doing crafts with us. If you would like to join us on this field trip we would love to have you! We will board the bus around 9:50 and are scheduled to be at the Laurels from 10:30-11:30. We will return to school around 12. If you would like to join us please let me know. Anyone is welcome and you may ride the bus if you would like. Please send me an email to let me know if you would like to join us and if you will be riding the bus or driving separately.
We will need milk cartons to make our gingerbread houses on the 19th. Mrs. Coppola has a friend who can get us most of these for our class. However, if you have any extra please send them in. They need to be the quart size or smaller. Also, we will need a parent to volunteer to help hot glue the graham crackers on so that we can get these ready for decorating. Once I get all the milk cartons from Mrs. Coppola I can let you all know, but we would LOVE any and all parents who want to help hot glue graham crackers to join us! :) This will make the decorating go much easier! If you are willing to help do this just send me an email and let me know. This is a job that we can send home with you if you would like.
Reminders:
We have had several children who have been sick this week. I know lots of germs are going around right now. Please remember that if your child has a fever or is throwing up he/she may not return to school until he/she has been fever free or not throwing up for at least 24 hours. This is very important, as we do not want anyone else in our classroom to get sick, especially during this very busy time of the year. Thank you in advance for your help with this.
Upcoming Events:
December 12 - Field Trip to the Laurels 10:00 am
December 19 - Making Gingerbread Houses 1:00
December 20-January 2 - Winter Break - No School
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