Holiday fun!

Happy Holidays!

Thank you to everyone for the generous gifts! The gift cards are wonderful and much appreciated! 

The students are so excited to play with the classroom games and usually the winter brings many indoor recesses, so they will get a lot of use. 

I am so lucky to have such caring, thoughtful students and parents. My wish for you is to have a safe, relaxing, and fun winter break! See you in 2013!!!

Enjoy the pictures of some of our holiday activities below! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sharing our Holidays Around the World Posters

Look at the mess our Elves made! They are ready for Winter Break: ) 

Thank you our board members (and student's parents!) Mr. Motuelle and Mrs. Murphy for visiting our classroom as community leaders. The students loved learning about your important jobs and many responsibilities as board members! 

See you in 2013!!!

Mrs. Olsen 

Bowling fun!

Students had a great time bowling on Monday! STRIKE!

Week of 12/17-12/21

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and magical holiday season! 
I can't wait to spend it with this little fellow!
 Enjoy your time spent with your family and friends. 
From our home to yours, Happy Holidays!


Odds and Ends: 

* Paper Recycling: Remember to recycle your paper in our districts yellow and green Paper Retriever bin and help us raise money and help the environment at the same time! This includes all of the wrapping paper that will be used during the holiday season!

* Help Our Furry Friends: We will continue to collect items for local pet shelters through the end of next week. Thank you for your donations!

* PBIS: Please check out our new PBIS website : http://prairieviewpbis.blogspot.com/ to learn more about our PBIS program at school. Thanks!

 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Mon. 12/17: Bowling 9-11 (Please send in a sack lunch that day)

*Tues. 12/18: Social Studies: DG and Ch. 12 test

*Fri. 12/21: Don't Forget: December Reading Calendars are due TODAY!
Spelling: Winter Word Test
Math: 4's multiplication test
 Tivoli Movie: The Polar Express
Winter Break Begins!!!

AFTER  BREAK EVENTS: 

*Mon. 1/7: Happy New Year! School begins in 2013

* Tues. 1/8: MAPS Testing: Reading

*Thurs. 1/10: AIMSWeb Reading Benchmarking Tests

*Fri. 1/11: MAPS Testing Math

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will be finishing up our inference character bags. We will also focus on authors message, purpose, and theme. We will work on inferring vocabulary by using context clues. We will continue to work on our reading blogs. Students will also read about Holidays Around the World and share their findings in cooperative groups.

Also, December Reading calendars are due 12/21. I will also hand our January calendars on Thurs. 12/20 so students can record any reading they do over break on the calendar. This calendar will not be due until the end of Jan.

*English: We will begin Verbs after break. I will be pretesting the students next week to assess their prior knowledge about verbs, which will help me plan our activities.

*Spelling: Next week we will work with a shortened list of winter words. There will be no pretest. The final test will be on Fri. 12/21. Homework will be sent home on Monday and due Thursday.

*Social Studies: We are wrapping up our study of Downers Grove and ch. 12 local governments. We have been so honored to invite the mayor of Downers Grove into our school to talk to his about his job, as well as our very own superintendent, Mr. Arnold, into our classroom. We loved talking to our community leaders. Thank you! Our next unit will begin after break. We will study ch. 3: Culture and Immigration.

Mr. Arnold visits our classroom to teach us more about his job as our wonderful superintendent! 

Thank you for visiting our classroom! 

*Science: We started ch. 11: Matter. We will continue to work on matter next week. We will also work on this unit the 2 weeks following break.

*Math: The students have been busy making their own graphs. They created a question, surveyed their classmates, made a pictograph, and spent time in the computer lab learning about to make a bar graph on the computer. They did a great job applying their learning to this project. We will begin ch. 20 on customary  measurement next week. We will also focus on 4's multiplication tables. The test on 4's will be on Fri. 12/21.

Downers Grove Mayor Tully Visits

Week of 12/10-12/14

Odds and Ends: 

*Book Order: If anyone would like to make an online order to Scholastic books, I can still submit an order before the holidays. Please let me know if you make an order so I can submit it and get the books on their way. If you want to order any books as gifts, I can hold onto them for you to pick up in the office.
Thanks!

*Bowling: We will go bowling on Mon. 12/17. We go in the morning and students often get snacks at the bowling alley. When we arrive back at school, it is time for lunch and often the hot lunches go to waste since students just ate at the bowling alley. On this day, please send your child with a sack lunch. Thank you!

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Tues. 12/11: Math: Ch. 6 Data and Graphing Test

*Fri. 12/14: Math: 3's Multiplication timed test
Spelling: List 12 Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will focus on character inferences and cause and effect as we finish up our book buddy projects. We will also work on making visualizations while we read and story elements (character, setting, plot) and how they are used in stories. We will begin guided reading books with the theme of winter as well.

* English: We finished up our unit on nouns. We will begin ch. 3 on verbs before we leave for break, as well as work on some writing activities. DOL is also completed. DOL is aligned with ch. 5 of our English textbook, so I will be doing some review of these concepts before and after break as we prepare to take a cumulative review of all concepts covered in DOL (ch 5).

*Spelling: We will work on list 12: a pretest will be given Monday. Homework will be due Thurs. The final test will be on Friday.

*Social Studies: We will begin to look at ch. 12: local government as we connect the lessons to our study of Downers Grove. We will be completing this unit of study before break. Look for test information coming home next week.

*Science: We completed ch. 4 ecosystems. We will begin ch 11 Matter. We will focus on this unit before and after break.

*Math: We are working on data and graphs. We will take our test on Tues. 12/11. We will work on making graphs with cooperative groups. We will begin ch. 20: Customary Measurement following our graph making. We will also focus on week 4 of multiplication which is 3's facts. Please see the green note your child received on Friday to see what facts they need to know next week. The test will be on Fri. 12/14.

Learning about bar graphs as we graph our shoes in math class. 

Check our our shoe bar graph! 

REST

We are busy learning about local governments and what they provide for their communities. The students created skits to show recreation, education, safety/security, and transportation - R.E.S.T. What fun!!!

Transportation Group

Safety Group

Education Group

Recreation Group