December 8-12, 2014

Holiday fever has finally hit in full force. The next two weeks will be dedicated to Christmas Concert practices, holiday-themed activities, and Christmas parties. Although this week is fairly 'normal', there is still some changes happening.

This Friday is the deadline for "Santa's Helpers Donation box". There has been a box at the front door for items to be donated to Santa's Helpers. Please consider dropping something off if you are able to.
This Friday is the deadline for purchasing the West Edmonton Mall attraction passes. Please contact the office for more information.

For the Christmas concert, Grade 2 has been asked to wear black bottoms/pants/skirt and a white top/shirt. Each class is being asked to dress differently, but we are asked to follow this guideline for both performances.
Our class party will be on Wednesday morning. If you signed up to bring treats for this party, I will be emailing you to sign up for items. Keep an eye out for this email.

Here is the schedule for the next two weeks:

Tuesday Dec 9: Library
Wednesday Dec 10: Theme Day: CrAzY ChRiStMaS dress up day!, Popcorn ($0.50), Leduc Jr High SWAT visit (8:50-9:50am), Miss Kruse gone in the afternoon (sub in the afternoon)
Friday Dec 12: Spelling Test, DQ Hot Lunch, Scholastic book orders due, Santa's Helper's box donations due, West Edmonton Mall attraction passes deadline to purchase
Monday Dec 15: Christmas concert practice in the afternoon, Scholastic Book Fair in the Library
Tuesday Dec 16: Christmas concert practice in the morning, Scholastic Book Fair in the Library
Wednesday Dec 17: Class Christmas party in the morning and Christmas concert practice in the afternoon, Scholastic Book Fair in the Library
Thursday Dec 18: Scholastic Book Fair in the Library, Christmas Concert performances at 1:30pm and 7 pm. You are welcome to attend either performance. Please remember to have your child dress in black pants and a white top.
Friday Dec 19: School Christmas party/movie in the afternoon

Language Arts
Spelling: There will be new words this week. See the "Spelling Words" tab for the words. Test will be on Friday. The focus is on 'L' and 'R' blend words.
Phonics: Long vowel e words.
Writing: Naming forest creatures and matching specific information to pictures. Students will be provided specific information about an animal, they will then be able to research the animal and find out which animal it is (from a specific selection). We will also be sorting details into main idea categories (expository and informative writing pieces).

Math
Patterns: We have now wrapped up our pattern unit and the students are now applying their knowledge of patterns to create and recognize patterns in real life.
Numbers to 100: Equal and Unequal sets of numbers. Students will be able to recognize equal and unequal amounts of different manipulatives.

Science
We have dove right into our Hot and Cold unit. Every day we look at the weather, record, and discuss what the weather feels like. We are also talking about hot and cold areas in our house and at school. Talk with your child about hot/cold areas in the house and what the rules are about these areas. For example: The rule about the stove is not to touch the top of the stove while something is cooking or after something is taken off because we can burn ourselves.

Social
Students are in the middle of discussing Urban and Rural communities and specific characteristics of these communities. Some students are struggling to find specific characteristics of each community, so please discuss these with them. Urban communities are cities with buildings, lots of cars, malls, stores, lots of houses, parks, bikes, busses, etc. Rural communities are areas outside the major metropolitan area (usually farms and acreages) with tractors, fields, farm animals, less traffic, more open green space, etc.