Dear Families,

After the Thanksgiving break the children came back refreshed and happy to see each other.  Their teacher also felt rested, refreshed and very happy to see the children.  It has been a busy week dedicated mostly to reading lots of new books from the book fair and finishing up writing about our homes and our animals’ habitats.

While I worked with individual children on writing this week, the rest of the class worked in small groups teaching each other reading and writing.  The first graders thoroughly enjoyed learning and sharing their knowledge of reading and writing with the kindergartners.  It was very impressive to watch them use our small reading books to make up lesson plans with the kindergartners and teach with tenderness, enthusiasm, and patience.  In their eagerness to teach, the first graders helped each other figure how to read and write new words with great respect for each other’s pace and way of learning, and some assistance from their teacher.

The kindergarteners were delighted to receive so much attention and were very excited and highly motivated to learn from their friends.  At my suggestion, the first graders were also very happy to let the kindergarteners be teachers of their new found knowledge.  Overall it was an inspiring and wonderful experience for everyone. There will be more of this kind of interaction in the future.

We ended the week Friday reading with our buddies.  The children were very happy to meet with their buddies after not seeing them for two weeks.  Also Friday at our closing circle we planned how we might go about building our animals’ habitats next week, and we discussed some upcoming events.

FUTURE EVENTS

Oxfam Hunger Banquet is Thursday, December 6 from 6-8pm.  Lots of people are needed at this event to show the disparity in the distribution of a basic need –food– among our fellow human beings.  Please come and/or invite others to attend.

Visit from “Help Orphan Puppies”
On Monday, December 10 at 2:00pm, the founder of Help Orphan Puppies, Christina Francis will be visiting our class to talk about this special rescue organization dedicated entirely to puppies – www.helporphanpuppies.org.  Christina would like to bring a few puppies to show the children.  If you have any concerns about having puppies in the classroom, please let me know. I told the children that we will allow the puppies in the classroom only if it is OK with everyone.

Peace Assembly
The peace assembly will take place on Friday, December 14.  The K/1 class will be making a contribution, but we do not know exactly what that will be yet.

Show of Work

The K/1 and 2/3 classes are planning a show of work on Wednesday, December 19.  The K/1 children will be showing their work at 10:00am.  The 2/3 children are scheduled to open their presentation at 10:30.  You are all invited to come and celebrate with the class.  The children will be showing a class flip book they are making with Susie.  The book will contain drawings of the animals the children are studying, and the research they have been conducting in the classroom.  The children will also be showing the animals’ habitats they are constructing, and will be selling their cards and pictures to raise money for “Help Orphan Puppies.”

I will end now by wishing you a peaceful week.

Liliana