Welcome back!

Welcome back!

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a restful break. It's been great to see all of the students. They seem happy to see each other and eager to get back into the school routine.

Thank you for helping your children with their Reading Logs over the break! It is so important for them to read every day. Thank you also for bringing them to school on time. I am pleased to see their smiling faces at 7:45 every morning. It makes for a smoother start to the day.

Posadas Pictures

I was flipping through photos on my computer when I realized that I did not post the photos I took from our school's celebration of the Posadas. Gracias a Senora Ronk for putting together two wonderful videos, one which featured the third graders acting out the Posadas story and the other which included interviews with various students about Christmas traditions.

We enjoyed delicious tamales before the videos. Afterwards, Mr. Morten played his guitar and led us in a few Christmas carols.

Here are some photos of the students enjoying their tamales:

Here's a little video clip I took of the Christmas carols:

I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing break.

*Please encourage your children to read every day and complete their reading logs!
*Remember to take your children to church on the weekends!

See you all on Monday, January 7th!

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for attending the Saint Ann Christmas Program! Here are a few photos of the students dressed up for the occasion:

I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas holiday! May the break be restful and enjoyable. I look forward to seeing you all in 2013! I am counting the blessings in my life this holiday, and your children definitely are near the top of my list.

*Reminders*

*Friday, December 21st is the last day of classes for 2012. Classes resume on Monday, January 7, 2013.

*Please take your child to church every weekend.

*Make sure your child reads every night and completes his/her reading log. This is the only required homework the students have over the break, so it is very important that they do it. (I told them they could skip Christmas on their log!)

*I sent home an additional optional packet for the students to complete over the holiday. It has word searches, grammar, art, and math activities in it. I hope it will be fun and educational for them.

A Christmas Guardian Angel Activity

This morning, we met with our Guardian Angel class (6th grade) to make angel Christmas tree toppers out of paper plates. The students worked well together, and the angels turned out great! The only materials we needed were paper plates, coloring supplies, scissors, and a stapler (we also used glitter and glue for something extra special). Check out some photos from this morning:

Also, if you missed the video of some of the children signing "Mary, Did You Know?" check out this blog post from earlier in the week:
http://secondgradecrusade.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-video-and-some-photos.html



Finally, please keep the community of Newtown, Connecticut in your prayers. The school shooting was a horrible tragedy. One of my friends shared a good resource for how to talk with your children about the recent event: http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/terror_general.aspx
Please visit the site if you are able. I think it will be helpful.



Enjoy the weekend. Please remember to take your child to church on Sunday (or Saturday night).
Also, THANK YOU to parents who ordered books from the last Scholastic order. They came today, and I sent them home with your children.

A Video and Some Photos

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

We celebrated this feast day with an all-school liturgy this morning. (Please note there is not a Mass on Friday, December 14th.) Later in the day, the students practiced sign language to a song called "Mary, Did You Know?" I filmed some volunteers, and you can see the video here:

http://youtu.be/sA_aqL7aEoQ

(Note the settings are private, so it is not available without the link. Feel free to share with your family and friends, but I did not want it on general youtube searches.)

I was so proud of (all of) them. I only taught them the signs on Monday, and this was only their third day of learning it.

We also had a lot of other things going on in the classroom today. Jessica brought her book and stuffed dog, Bell, who responded to the story as I read it aloud.

We also measured length in math using "feet." One ruler = 1 foot = 12 inches.

We checked the length of the snack Fruit by the Foot and discovered that it was over 3 feet long. (Why don't they call it "Fruit by the Feet?")





Announcements

A Couple of Quick Announcements

*Book Orders*

Thank you to families who ordered books. I placed the order today (Friday) after school. The books should arrive before the Christmas break- most likely the week of December 17th! Thank you for encouraging your children to read and to fill your homes with books they enjoy.

*Mass*

Be sure to attend Mass every Sunday (or Saturday night) with your child.

Fr. Felipe came to our classroom today to teach us about the patent, ciborium, and chalice that he uses at Mass when he consecrates the bread and wine into Jesus' body and blood.

Please note that next week, there will not be a school Mass on Friday, December 14th. Instead, we will attend Mass as a school community on Wednesday, December 12th in honor of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.


*What We're Learning*

*Make sure to ask your child to tell you what s/he learned at school each day. It is so great for them to be able to share their wealth of knowledge with you! (Some of the students brought home their blue Reading notebooks to show you how to write some words they learned in Chinese today with our read aloud: The Pet Dragon.)

Life's Little Equations Read Aloud

Today we took a break from our December reading strategy of Asking Questions and focused more on Making Predictions with our read aloud entitled:

This Plus That: Life's Little Equations

(You can check out a description of the book at this link: http://www.amazon.com/This-Plus-That-Little-Equations/dp/0061726559)

In this book, the author makes addition and subtraction (and occasional multiplication and division) equations such as:

wishes + candles = birthday

book + chair = cozy

chalk + sitting = learning

chalk + jumping = hopscotch

The students enjoyed predicting the answer to each equation as we read the book aloud. (They had some really good thoughts!)

After we finished reading the story, they came up with some of their own equations. Here are a few I remember from their journal entries:

Jesus + Mary + Joseph = Holy Family

mom + dad + me = family

pop + chips = snack

Bears + touchdown = awesome!

family + church = Sunday

I am always amazed by their creativity! I love learning with them and from them each and every day.