It has been a great week … started off with a couple of very rainy days, that made me think it could be a long week of inside days, but it ended with some beautiful, crisp days! This week we enjoyed reading Jan Brett stories, some favorites being ‘The Hat’ and ‘The Mitten’. We also worked in small groups on experiments for our Motion Mission Mania. This was enjoyed by everyone! Lots of great things this week!
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, January 20th – Jersey Day
Friday, January 22nd
Spelling:
List will be introduced on Monday, and tested on Friday.
- why
- every
- proud
- happy
- son
- with
- our
- same
- fine
- name
- read
- word
- daddy
- girl
- never
- forget
- think
- life
- under
- Lord
Bible Memory:
Psalm 91:14-15
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”
Reminders and Other Information:
- Home Reading – make sure you are reading with your child every night – return – their book baggie when you have completed 5 days of reading
- Remember to complete your child’s health check every day
- Scholastic Code: RC155750 – this is the code you will need if you are ordering online from scholastic. Thanks!
- Jersey Day – students may wear a jersey or any sports shirt, and casual bottoms. If they do not have a jersey, they can wear their uniform or their knight shirt
Just a reminder that due to covid, we are unable to have lots of students here early before school. It is very challenging to keep the kids separate in cohorts, especially if it is raining. Students are to come to school between 8:45-9:00am if at all possible. Also, as we are doing hand-to-hand transfer, picking up at 2:55pm if at all possible!
Welcome back everyone! It was so good to see all the students and to hear all about Christmas this year. I enjoy listening as they share all about the family time, the special dinners, and the adventures that were had. We have jumped right back into things again at school, and the kids have all settled back in well.
Dates to Remember:
Tuesday, January 12th – Chapel
Friday, January 15th – Knight Day
Spelling:
List will be introduced on Monday, January 11th and tested on Friday, January 15th.
- bow
- letter
- soon
- very
- rich
- best
- zip
- brave
- face
- far
- sold
- told
- nine
- new
- spent
- block
- down
- dear
- formed
- end
Bible Memory:
Psalm 91:14-15
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”
Reminders and Other Information:
- Home Reading – make sure you are reading with your child every night – return – their book baggie when you have completed 5 days of reading
- Remember to complete your child’s health check every day
- Scholastic Code: RC155750 – this is the code you will need if you are ordering online from scholastic. Thanks!
- Library day is Tuesday – don’t forget to bring books back on that day
Before Christmas we read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a class. I would like to watch the movie as a class on Friday afternoon. We will watch the old version, not the newer one. Let me know if you have any concerns about this 🙂
We made it!
While our concert looked a little different this year, we watched it together as a class this morning, and it was so well done! I hope you will take some time to watch it online and see all the hard work the students put in!
Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our annual food drive. We reached our goal as a school, and will have a PJ day to celebrate that in our first week back to school.
I also want to say a HUGE thank you for all the thoughtful gifts and cards. I am so blessed 🙂
Praying you all have a wonderful Christmas break, that you are able to enjoy this Christmas season, regardless of the fact that it may look different this year. I hope you all find some time to rest and relax, and to enjoy your families.
Merry Christmas, see you in the new year!
January Dates:
Monday, January 4th – School resumes
Wednesday, January 6th – PJ Day (reward for Food Drive)
Friday, January 8th – Knight Day
Tuesday, January 12th – Chapel
Friday, January 15th – Knight Day
Wednesday, January 20th – Jersey Day
Friday, January 22nd
- Knight Day
- Early Dismissal
Tuesday, January 26th – Chapel
Friday, January 29th
- Knight Day
- Term 1 Report Cards go home
Polar Express day is on Wednesday, and I have thought about whether to just read the story or to also show the movie. It does have some parts that might be a little bit too intense for some. I have never done Polar Express day, and have not shown the movie before, so want to be sensitive to everyone.
This is what the commonsensemedia review shares about it:
WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW
Parents need to know that, like the book that inspired it, the The Polar Express has wonderful messages about the importance of believing, the value of friendship, respect for leadership and courage, and the beauty of being kind to others. But it’s also an adventure, with lots of roller-coaster thrills and some scary characters that might be too intense and frightening for the youngest kids. The Express roars, speeds, and skids on its perilous journey to the North Pole. Sometimes out of control, sometimes racing against dangers and obstacles in its path, it’s the center of a tale that’s suspenseful throughout. The child heroes are frequently in danger — from falls, getting lost, being left alone on a careening train, and navigating dark, shadowy places facing characters who may wish them harm.
Please let me know if you have any concerns about your child watching this movie. I am in no way tied to the idea of watching the movie, and if there are concerns, I will show a different movie.
Thanks for the feedback!
Another busy Christmas filled week! We started on Monday with Carol Day … we don’t know all the lyrics to very many Christmas carols, is what we realized. On Tuesday we had Gingerbread day, where we decorated cookies and then made gingerbread men with gingerbread play doh. We had a lot of fun on this day 🙂 Wednesday was Kindness day, and we talked about how we can be kind to everyone we meet. And Thursday was Reindeer day … where we played some fun reindeer games, completed a directed drawing (which are so cute, by the way!) and did a flying reindeer experiment. Lots of fun was had this week!
We also spent some time thinking about the shepherds and the wise men in the Christmas story. We spent some time wondering about what it would have been like to be the shepherds, out in the field when a multitude of angels came and told them about the birth of Jesus. What would we have felt? How would we have responded? And the wise men, they brought gifts to Jesus. What gifts do we ourselves have that we can offer to Jesus? How can we give Jesus our best?
Have a great long weekend!
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, December 16th – Silly Sweater Day
Thursday, December 17th
- Last day before Christmas break
- Knight Day
Spelling:
No spelling
Bible Memory:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Reminders and Other Information:
- Home Reading – make sure you are reading with your child every night – return – their book baggie when you have completed 5 days of reading
- Remember to complete your child’s health check every day
- Scholastic Code: RC155750 – this is the code you will need if you are ordering online from scholastic. Thanks!
- Food drive continues until December 16th – Let’s keep on blessing others! So far as a school we have raised $3500 … let’s keep on towards our goal!
It has been a full, but enjoyable week! We kicked off the week with our Concert recording, started our food drive with a pay to wear casual day, had our December assembly, and began our 12 day countdown to the last day of school … oh, and lets throw a fire drill in there as well! Our countdown has been a lot of fun each day. On Monday, our theme was Christmas Tree day, Tuesday was Santa Claus day, Wednesday was Snow day, Thursday was Stocking day, and Friday was Christmas Cookie day! I have to say, Snow day was probably my favorite this week. We made paper snowflakes and ‘snow’ … which then they used to build snowmen. It was great, albeit a little on the messy side as well. Lots of fun was had! We have also, for Social Studies, been studying Christmas Around the World. This week took us to Mexico, where they have a tradition that children have a pinata, and to England, where they have a tradition of Christmas Crackers at every place setting. Hard to believe it’s only a couple more weeks until Christmas break!
Today was cookie day … and I forgot to actually eat cookies with the students today! If your kids are wondering why we had cookie day with no cookies, we will enjoy them together on Monday 🙂
Dates to Remember:
Tuesday, December 8th – Chapel
Friday, December 11th – Pro-D day
Spelling:
No more spelling until after Christmas break.
Bible Memory:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Reminders and Other Information:
- Home Reading – make sure you are reading with your child every night – return – their book baggie when you have completed 5 days of reading
- Remember to complete your child’s health check every day
- Scholastic Code: RC155750 – this is the code you will need if you are ordering online from scholastic. Thanks!
- Homework – when your child misses school, I will be sending them home the next day with a homework folder that has some of the work that they need to catching up on from the days they have missed – I try to do some things with them in class, but some of it will need to be done at home – thanks for supporting them in this way
- Food drive continues until December 16th – Let’s keep on blessing others!
- There are students missing sweaters, if you could check to make sure you don’t have any extras, or ones that don’t belong to you, that would be great!
We have had such a great decorating week. It was so fun to see the excitement and enthusiasm for what our Christmas Art would be each day. And our classroom is definitely looking a lot more festive now!
There are a lot of things going on in the next week, so please make sure you read through all the information here.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 30th – concert recording day **please come dressed for the concert**
Tuesday, December 1st
- Food drive begins – see details below
- Pay to wear casual day – see details below
Friday, December 4th – knight day
Spelling:
This will be our last spelling list before Christmas.
List will be introduced on Monday, November 30th, and tested on Friday, December 4th.
- sing
- sang
- sung
- song
- doll
- feet
- zoo
- miss
- add
- lace
- mister
- finds
- nice
- plant
- got
- away
- came
- west
- went
- lake
Reminders and Other Information:
- Christmas Concert – students are well on their way into practicing for the Christmas concert this year. We will once again be recording for this. Grade 2’s have been asked to wear blue jeans and a red or green (PLAIN) t-shirt, and black or white school shoes for the concert. Recording will take place on November 30th, and students may come dressed for the concert on that day.
- Checkout Highroad social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram) for some fun family festivities to participate in this season
- Pay to wear casual day/Salvation Army Food Drive – We are going to kick off our annual food drive on December 1st, where you can pay ($5 minimum) to wear casual clothes. On December 1st we will also start collecting cash donations for the food drive. We have a school goal of $5000. There will be a jar in the classroom where students can put their donations when they come in in the morning. Thanks for participating with us in this great cause, even though it may look a little different this year!
- Home Reading – make sure you are reading with your child every night – return – their book baggie when you have completed 5 days of reading
- Remember to complete your child’s health check every day
- Scholastic Code: RC155750 – this is the code you will need if you are ordering online from scholastic. Thanks!
- Homework – when your child misses school, I will be sending them home the next day with a homework folder that has some of the work that they need to catching up on from the days they have missed – I try to do some things with them in class, but some of it will need to be done at home – thanks for supporting them in this way
Christmas Festivities
12 Days of Christmas countdown starts this week … every day we will have a theme and our activities for the day will, mostly, revolve around it. I ask that you do not tell your children the themes, I would like them to be a surprise. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know, especially around some of the more ‘make believe’ themes.
Theme’s included (but not in order):
- Grinch day
- Christmas Carols day
- Reindeer day
- Gingerbread day
- Candy Cane day
- Santa Claus day
- Holiday Cookies day
- Polar Express day
- Christmas Tree day
- Stockings day
- Kindness day
- Snow day
There is nothing that needs to be done for these days, it will just be a fun way to countdown the days until our Christmas holidays!
Along with the themes, we will be studying the Birth of Christ over the weeks leading up to Christmas. We will be reading stories and discussing the Christmas Story from the perspective of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wiseman.
I want to start by saying a huge thank you to everyone for meeting with me this week. It was great to actually have a conversation either face to face or online with all of you, especially because for the most part we have waved at each other from a distance. So thank you for taking the time, and for checking in with me. This week we started our first novel study, Frog and Toad are Friends, for the majority of the class. We have done a couple of experiments for Science, which always get the kids so excited, and we painted leaves for art this afternoon. I hope you all have a great weekend.
December Dates/Dates to Remember:
Tuesday, November 24th – Chapel
Wednesday, November 25th – Western Day
Friday, November 27th – Knight Day
Monday, November 30th
- Christmas Concert Recording day
- 12 Days of Christmas Countdown (in class) begins
Tuesday, December 1st
- Pay to Wear Casual (see details below)
- Salvation Army Food Drive begins
Friday, December 4th – Knight Day
Tuesday, December 8th – Chapel
Friday, December 11th – Pro-d Day
Wednesday, December 16th – Silly Sweater Day
Thursday, December 17th – Last day before Christmas!
Spelling:
- what
- spring
- summer
- fall
- winter
- or
- yet
- moon
- than
- take
- season
- storm
- corn
- tree
- blow
- alike
- put
- river
- each
- dinner
Bible Memory:
Psalm 8:1-2
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
Reminders and Other Information:
- Christmas Concert – students are well on their way into practicing for the Christmas concert this year. We will once again be recording for this. Grade 2’s have been asked to wear blue jeans and a red or green (plain) t-shirt for the concert. Recording will take place on November 30th, and students may come dressed for the concert on that day.
- Checkout Highroad social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram) for some fun family festivities to participate in this season
- Pay to wear casual day/Salvation Army Food Drive – We are going to kick off our annual food drive on December 1st, where you can pay ($5 minimum) to wear casual clothes. On December 1st we will also start collecting cash donations for the food drive. We have a school goal of $5000. There will be a jar in the classroom where students can put their donations when they come in in the morning. Thanks for participating with us in this great cause, even though it may look a little different this year!
- Home Reading – make sure you are reading with your child every night – return – their book baggie when you have completed 5 days of reading
- Remember to complete your child’s health check every day
- Scholastic Code: RC155750 – this is the code you will need if you are ordering online from scholastic. Thanks!
- Homework – when your child misses school, I will be sending them home the next day with a homework folder that has some of the work that they need to catching up on from the days they have missed – I try to do some things with them in class, but some of it will need to be done at home – thanks for supporting them in this way
Christmas Festivities
I LOVE all things Christmas! And over the last few weeks before Christmas holidays we will be doing lots of Christmas fun and activities.
I have always loved to a decorating party, and having the students create all the decorations that we put up. Due to not being able to have parent helpers, I am switching up the way we are going to decorate the classroom this year. Next week, November 23rd-27th, we are going to take some time every day to create a decoration that we can put up around the room. It will be a ‘week long’ decorating party instead of an afternoon.
Starting the following week (November 30th) I am going to do a 12 Days of Christmas countdown … every day we will have a theme and our activities for the day will, mostly, revolve around it. I ask that you do not tell your children the themes, I would like them to be a surprise. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know, especially around some of the more ‘make believe’ themes.
Theme’s included (but not in order):
- Grinch day
- Christmas Carols day
- Reindeer day
- Gingerbread day
- Candy Cane day
- Santa Claus day
- Holiday Cookies day
- Polar Express day
- Christmas Tree day
- Stockings day
- Kindness day
- Snow day
There is nothing that needs to be done for these days, it will just be a fun way to countdown the days until our Christmas holidays!
Along with the themes, we will be studying the Birth of Christ over the weeks leading up to Christmas. We will be reading stories and discussing the Christmas Story from the perspective of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wiseman.