Dear Families,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to enjoy some time with family and friends. Thank you to all the families for meeting during our conferences.  It was so nice to sit down with you and tell you what a great job your child is doing in first grade!

I also wanted to thank any families who have donated to the Gifts for Kids program.  We are sponsoring a 7 year old little girl named Olivia.  Olivia has asked for a few toys and we have also brainstormed some other things we think she may like (hat, gloves, etc.).  Once all the shopping has been done, I will be looking for a parent to drop off the presents in Walpole.  More to come on this...

Here are some of the things we are working on in the classroom....

This week, we will be reading books by Jan Brett and doing some center activities that will involve the theme of mittens.

We have also started a new unit in Fundations.  We have started learning about basewords and suffixes (example: cat/cats).  We have learned that adding s to a word makes the word plural.  We have also learned that s can have the sound of /s/ or /z/ such as in pens or bugs.

In math, we continue to practice adding to 10 and 20 using strategies such as a number line, doubles (6+6), near doubles (6+7) and making ten using a tens frame. In the next unit, we will begin to focus on subtraction facts to 20 and the different strategies that can be used.

In reading groups, we have and will continue to talk about comprehension and how to retell a story.  We will begin using a new friend called Braidy after the break:)  We also continue to write small moment stories in Writer's Workshop.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me at hherring@email.medfield.net

Heather