Class Notes

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Class Notes
Whats New
Mrs. Clarks Class January Edition
Around the World on A Magic Carpet
And what a wonderful trip it was! The Room 6
Magic Carpet was spotted all over the globe as
our First Graders explored how children around
the world celebrate the month of December. We
were treated to a glimpse of six of the seven
continents (Not to mention an important new
word!), and bumped into some terrific tour guides
along the way! Mrs. Berte (our Social Worker)
made us pudding with a hidden almond in Denmark.
Mrs. Jabbour shared her beautiful collection of
photographs from Lebanon and brought a tasty
Lebanese breakfast for us. She also taught us
how to speak a bit of Arabic with the help of
Miss Jabbour, Anthonys aunt from Lebanon who
happened to be visiting for the holidays! Mrs.
Salem shared a Hanukkah story and driedel game
during our travels to Israel, and Mr. and Mrs.
Sheikh introduced us to Eid al-Fitr traditions in
Pakistan (not to mention a tasty local treat!).
More delicacies were soon to come as we sampled
sweets in India and learned all about Diwali
festival traditions with Mrs. Singh. Mrs. Sloan
(our school nurse) punctuated her lively tale of
Father Christmas with English paper tube
crackers and paper crowns that we tried to keep
on our heads all day long! All this traveling
also provided a wonderful opportunity for
introducing the children to friendly letter
writing. Each first grader kept one special
person back at home updated with his/her global
adventures through letters that told of new
learnings and interesting facts about each
countrys December celebration. By the time we
landed back in the good ol USA, our passports
sported quite a collection of stamps, all bearing
the national flag from each of our stops along
the way. After logging in the dates of our
visits to each country on our December calendar,
everyone concluded that December had indeed been
a busy month! Thank you to everyone who helped
make this years trip such a memorable
one! P.S. Keep those letters
coming! Encouraging your children to write
friendly letters describing recent adventures to
relatives, friends, or maybe even a lucky teacher
(hint, hint) is a fun way to provide extra
writing practice at home. The letter format with
which the children are familiar is attached for
your reference. Happy writing!
Class Calendar
Friday, January 18th Fathers Club Movie
Night Monday, January 21st NO SCHOOL
Martin Luther King Day Wednesday, January 30th
Field Trip Childrens Garbage Museum Sunday,
February 3rd Fathers Club Super Bowl
Breakfast Thursday, February 14th
Valentines Day Party Monday, February 22nd
February Break until 2/24/08
This and That
With the dryness of winter weather, little lips
are often very chapped. Ouch! If you wish to
send in a tube of lip balm (not lip gloss) for
your First Grader to keep in his/her desk, please
feel free to do so.
The childrens take-home folders have really
taken a beating since September. If your
childs folder is on its last legs,
Staples carries suitable replacements.
Please look for flexible plastic or hard
plastic envelope-style folders that are
large enough to accommodate both your childs
assignment pad and math workbook. (Pocket folders
that are open on one end often lead to lots of
misplaced assignments and notes.) Thanks!
100th Day Projects are due on the 100th Day of
School, which -- due to Mondays snow day -- is
now Monday, February 11th. How are those
collections coming along?
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Game Corner
More of Whats New

BRRR! January introduced
our First Graders to two
more
places on the globe --
the Arctic and Antarctic.
We have
been on a variety
of fact-finding missions,
researching many of the critters that live at
each Pole. Did you know that a penguin can never
meet a polar bear unless hes at the zoo?
Thats because penguins live down south in the
Antarctic and polar bears live up north in the
Arctic! Room 6 discovered lots of other
interesting facts about penguins check out our
new hallway bulletin board to read all about
it! Jan Brett has written some wonderful animal
stories that take place in the winter. We are
currently practicing our retelling and sequencing
skills by concentrating on one of our favorites
-- The Mitten. We love Ms. Bretts descriptive
language, too! Room 6 found lots of adjectives
that described the animals in the book, and then
we came up with lots of our own! What adjectives
can your First Grader find in his/her bedtime
stories?
Five-in-a-Row
Who is that Mystery Reader?

Room 6 continues to enjoy the stories shared
by all of the Mystery Readers who have
been dropping by for a story break. It has
been so much fun trying to guess the identity of
our readers. Our First Grade sleuths are
developing quite detailed lines of
questioning they simply wont to be fooled!
Thank you to all of our secret guests who keep
this program going!
Weighing In on Math The children in Room 6
have worked hard over the past months to develop
their number sense and strengthen their addition
fact strategies. I am so proud of the keen
thinking demonstrated by the children during
their math discussions, and thank you for your
continued reinforcement in this area at home.
January has become measurement month for our
First Graders, and they have been busy predicting
and comparing the weights of objects with the
help of balances, scales, and their own two
hands! We have now turned our explorations
toward linear measurement stay tuned for more
news on our upcoming stuffed animal project!
Thank you to all our parent center volunteers
who have helped to weigh in on all the
mathematical fun!
Wow! I am so proud of Room 6s wonderful
Reflections Contest entries! Hooray for our
five participants Joshua, Gregory, Japna,
Danyal, and Elizabeth. All the best of luck to
you!
Student Spotlight
Hello, Jake and Matthews!
Room 6 welcomed two new
classmates recently with
lots of smiles and helping
hands! Look for their new addresses and phone
numbers in the soon-to-follow updated classroom
directory!
Kidspeak
Friday Folder Check (n.) a weekly procedure
also commonly referred to as a Yellow Folder
Check -- by which Mrs. Clark examines and
reviews the contents of her First Graders
yellow-colored work folders for the specific
purpose of awarding stickers to those aforesaid
First Graders who have without repeated
reminders or procrastination demonstrated the
timely and appropriate completion of their weekly
assignments. (P.S. Ten yellow folder stickers
1 No Homework Tonight pass)
Congratulations to Elizabeth and
Iraklis, the recipients of
Jane Ryans Make a
Difference Award
for showing outstanding respect
throughout the month of December.
Happy Birthday to Nicholas, Anthony, and Sarah,
who all shared treats with us in December!
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