'Tis the Season

Thank you to every family that was able to contribute to Loretto's canned food drive. I don't know what the turn out was school-wide, but our box was full!
Please don't forget about our student council toy drive sponsored by the Salvation Army. If you're out and about this weekend, please pick up something small to contribute to our nearly empty stockings. Refer to the article published earlier this month for more details.

Scholastic Book Club

I will be sending order forms for books on Monday. This will be the last order placed before the winter holidays. Books make great gifts for your children as well as family and friends.

If you would like me to be secretive about delivery of the books, please send me a note and I can arrange for you to pick them up OR I will place them in a large envelope to send with your child.

Orders are due Friday, December 3.

I encourage your to place your order online because we earn free books for the classroom. You can send the paper order form as well with a check for any of the four book clubs.

Leveled book list

Your child has the opportunity to take home a "just right" bag of books every week. Please remember these are changed out on Fridays. I know our weeks have been a little off due to various holidays, but it's quite difficult to change out the books periodically as they come. It's much easier if there is one change out every week.

In this bag of books, your child's individual level is written down. Under the tab "useful links" here on our blog, there is a link for a leveled book list. Please utilize the public library system while we are out of school for the upcoming holidays. There are some great books mentioned on this list and it would be worthwhile to have the book on your child's level so you know what to expect when it comes to independent reading.

AR store

We will be going to the AR store on Monday, December 6. Our time is scheduled for 8:45. If you are able to come and help the kids spend their points, please let me know.

Loretto School Spirit

Order forms for Loretto shirts and sweatshirts go home this week.

Loretto school shirts are on sale for $8!
Sweatshirts cost $18.
Orders are due by Tuesday, November 23rd.

Save the Date

Our holiday party will be held on Thursday, December 16. The party will be from about 9:00-11:00. We will need lots of volunteers to help at the different stations, so if you're able to make it, it would be greatly appreciated. I will be sending a formal e-vite invitation with a list of materials we need. If you would like to bring more than one item, please let me know so I can assign you multiple items. Thanks!!

Calendar Correction

Monday, November 29 we will have art instead of computers.

Full steam ahead!

I have updated the reading, writing, and math tabs at the top of the page to keep you up to date on what we are working on.

We are starting new units in math and writing as well as continuing our work in reading.

In math, we are taking a break from addition and subtraction to explore the world of patterns. Please look over the school-home connect for ideas on how to practice patterns at home.

For writing, we wrapped up our narrative genre. We will revisit narrative at the end of the year. We have moved on to persuasive writing. Students will be required to give an opinion about something and reasons to support their opinion. Please make time to discuss topics that your child can easily relay reasons why they feel a particular way about that topic. Examples include, "Why I should have a new pet" or "Why this is my favorite book".

Stockings

Our student council is sponsoring a toy drive in partnership with the Salvation Army. We have two stockings in our room that need to be filled by December 3. They are for a boy and girl around the age of your first grader (5-7 years old).

Donations should be able to fit in the stocking, although they will make a separate collection of larger toys and gifts.

Suggestions:

• bouncy balls
• water toys
• match box cars
• dolls
• bubbles
• hair accessories
• coloring books, crayons, markers
• small games

Do NOT:

• wrap gifts
• send used items

Most Improved

Every nine weeks, when report cards go home, I have the opportunity to pick a student who has made great improvements. Kylee is our most improved student this nine weeks. She has really excelled in all of her studies. I think her biggest improvement has been being able to stay on top of completing all of her work. She works hard and puts her best effort in everything she does. Great job Kylee!

Week of November 8

We will take a week off from our typical reading series next week due to a shortened school week. We will be doing an author study on Marc Brown. He is the author of the Arthur series. We will be reading a lot of his books, discussing and writing about them as well as doing some fun activities to go along with them. We will also not have spelling or reading homework next week. I will send home some math work, and there will be the typical Sunshine Math paper.

I'm hoping you are practicing the sight words in the back of your child's folder. This week we completed Theme 3-week 1. We are taking next week off and will resume the following week with Theme 3- week 2 high-frequency words.