We hope you all had a great week off with your families and a Happy Thanksgiving!  Here is a look at what’s coming up this month…

We are continuing our unit in Language Arts called “The Wind”.  The stories and poems in this unit help the students understand that, although we can’t see the wind, it exists everywhere and affects people and the environment in many ways.

We will be needing some items for differents projects during December.  We will be sending out a sign up list from Sign Up Genius this week.  Please look for that and see if you can help out with any of the items or volunteer times.

Here are some dates for upcoming events…
12-17 Stocking Stuffers due (24 students-1 item each)
12-18  Reindeer Day
12-19  Kindergarten Minimum Day-All kindergarteners will have school from   8:20-11:40.  P.M. Kindergarten please make necessary arrangements for drop off and pick up if need be.
12-19  Last day of school before our winter holiday – Movie (Polar Express) and Spirit Day – Pajama Day.
1-5-2015  First day back to school in 2015 with more fun to come!

During this time of year, children sometimes like to bring small gifts for their friends.  Instead of doing a gift exchange, we are asking that students bring in 24 small items to give one to each child.   Place the gifts in a ziplock bag labeled with your child’s name so that we can have him/her disburse the gifts themselves.  Please send these items in by December 17^th.   The items do not need to be expensive or extravagant.  Here are a few ideas:  pencils, erasers, stickers, or small trinkets.  No candy with peanuts or nuts please!

Bringing gifts in is an optional activity for our class.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Jackson Nelson’s mom, Ms. Tera, came back to visit our class to continue to help the kids discover music through play! Here some of the fun things they did:

Good morning Spartan Parents!
Please let us know as soon as possible if you have changed your address since school began.
Thanks for your help with a very important project!

A couple other notes about special projects…
…How are your turkeys coming along?  Please send them back to class (cut out already) by Wednesday if possible.

…Mrs. Arriaga is in need of some cardboard egg cartons.  If you have any empty ones, please send them in.

Thanks again for your help!!

In September, our classes had their first Art Docent Lesson of the year.  Our first theme was “Artist Paint Houses”.  Each theme (lesson) contains two parts:  A Gallery Visit and A Studio Lesson.  In the Gallery Visit we take a look at six different pieces of art that allows students to discuss differences and similarities between the thematic artworks.  The Studio Lesson allows students to develop their own artistic skills through using a wide variety of media and techniques: painting, collage, oil pastels, print making, cut paper, etc.  Our next theme will be “Artists Paint Stories”

Thank you to Mr. Fornesa, Mr. Larson, Mrs. Wallace, and Mrs. Bowman for volunteering to be our “Docents” this year.