Dear Parents,                                                     November 29, 2010

I hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends.  Hard to believe that it is the first week of Advent!  The next few weeks are very busy and filled with much excitement.  I know that it is a busy time for everyone but I am asking that you take a few minutes at night and check over your child’s homework.  Make sure that they have put their name on the paper and that the assignment is complete and completed NEATLY! Thank you for taking the extra moments and instilling pride and responsibility in our first graders.

Our reading strategy this week is “evaluate”.  Our comprehension skill that can help us evaluate whether we enjoyed a book is “compare/contrast”.  Comparing and contrasting or finding ways in which certain things are the same or different can help us in understanding a story and ultimately in deciding if we enjoyed the story.  Our phonics focus this week is on words with ‘s’ clusters, silent letters (knit, write) and reviewing the short sound of /e/.  Our spelling words this week are from unit 15.  We continue to work on the structure of a sentence and our grammar focus this week will be on telling sentences.  We are working on relating addition and subtraction sentences in math (related facts or fact families).  Religion finds us learning why God promised us a Savior and starting our Christmas preparations.  We will concentrate on science this week with our study of environments.

Please remind your child to bring their library book to school tomorrow so that they may check out a new one.

Water bottle sales continue on Tuesday and Thursday.  Thank you for your support!

Wednesday is a free dress day.  The theme is Cartoon Day.  The cost is $1.00 and the proceeds go to the Adopt-a-Family Program.

Friday is Primary Centers and a noon dismissal day as the teachers have a staff meeting.

It is All About…Matias this week.  Congratulations!

Next Tuesday, December 7th is Teddy Bear Day!  On this day, students bring a new Teddy Bear or Friend to donate to the Adopt-a-Family Program.  These stuffed toys are collected by Monsignor Flemming and distributed along with candy to families in the Los Angeles archdiocese.  Such a wonderful experience for our children to partake in – spreading Christmas joy to those less fortunate.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Mrs. Manning