December 13, 2010

There is no spelling list for this week. (Merry Christmas!)

Reminders:
1. Our class will be performing in tomorrow's afternoon dress rehearsal. The rehearsal begins at 1:30. Everyone is welcome to attend. Students should dress in their Christmas finery - nice pants and shirts for the boys (a vest would be a nice touch, if anyone has one); Christmas skirts or dresses or nice pants and blouses for the girls. (The morning dress rehearsal begins at 9:00, if anyone is interested in watching that, as well.) The class looks wonderful - they should be a hit tomorrow!
2. We will be going to the museum Wednesday afternoon, right after attendance, to view the Festival of the Trees display. We should be back by 2:00 at the latest.
3. Our concert night is Thursday. Students should be here by 6:30.
4. Please monitor your child's Golden Envelope reading. The students who are practising these books regularly are really moving along well with their reading.


I've added an "Addition Practise" link to the links line-up. It would help all the first graders to jump on this link and practise their addition skills for a quarter of an hour or so. We've been practising adding using these steps:
A. Decide which number is bigger.
B. Hold the big number in your head. ("Glue" it in there.)
C. Hold up the number of fingers (or lay out some buttons or pennies or some other manipulative) that you need to add to the big number.
D. Count on from the big number.

An example would work this way:

8 + 3
A. 8 is the bigger number
B. Hold the "8" in your head - GLUE it in there!
C. Hold up three fingers. (Or choose 3 buttons, pennies, etc.)
D. Count on from the "8" - 9, 10, 11. The answer is 11.

The more experience the students get with this, the better they'll be able to add.