Advent Service Project

Dear Parents,
I will be discussing with the children today our Advent school wide service project Mrs. Parsons has designated this year. We will be collecting funds to purchase school uniforms and shoes for the students of our twinning parish in Honduras. I am asking them to earn change by helping out around home. When they bring in their change they will get to tell me and their peers what they did to earn their money and by doing so they are making the connection of service to others. They will also get to write their name on an ornament to put on the school Christmas tree at the entrance of the school. Each child brought home an Advent calendar with simple activities you can have your child do each day during the next few weeks to help them prepare for the birth of baby Jesus. November homework calendars and Book- It are due tomorrow. A copy of the  December/January goals to practice at home, December homework calendar, and December Book-It will be in Friday folders this week.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Newest Popcorn Words

Dear Parents,
The following are the popcorn (sight words) I introduced to the children last week.

in, my, a, up, be, on, am, like, this, had

You can help your child memorize these words by calling attention to them as you speak them and read them. Make flash cards and play a game with them. You may even hear your child say " That is one of our popcorn words!"

Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Spirit Week

Wow, what a great week in kindergarten. They participation in dressing up has been terrific. Being the mother of three children who participated while at Holy Spirit, I need to say thank you to you parents because I know if adds to your already busy schedule getting outfits ready for each day. Your children loved it though and they were so excited. Despite all of the "extras" this week we have been very busy learning. Our shared reading this week was Rosie's Walk. Please ask your child to retell you the story of Rosie and the fox and their adventures. We also reviewed Cookie's Week and a homework sheet is coming home in Friday folders today. We visited the SmartBoard for interactive learning, made "wagons" during cooking, reading, writing, religion, math, social studies (we got to walk on a GIANT map), and much, much, more. Probably most importantly we made a predictable chart where the children told me what they were thankful for and it was you- their families. :)  A very important homework watcher was sent home earlier in the week about our first field trip on Wednesday, December 21st. Put it on your calendar and plan on joining your child for this tradition here at Holy Spirit. More information will be coming.
Enjoy your weekend,
Mrs. Catton

Family

We have finished our unit of study of school and tomorrow I will be introducing our next unit of study- The Family. The key knowledge point that I want each student to learn from this next unit is that while all families may not look alike they each have responsibilities that are similar. Each family is unique and special and families love each other. We will be talking about  how we have our home family, school family, parish and community families. We will be reading books, doing activities, and sharing about our families. I am asking each child to bring in a family picture. They will share their picture with the class during religion time so I encourage you to have your child practice talking about their picture at home before they bring it in. These will be returned when we complete this unit. We had an opportunity to share today in a community circle how sometimes families celebrate together when great things happen in the family and how sometimes when things don't go so great everyone in the family feels the consequences of that. A few of the kids in the class had a rough day listening and following directions all morning and it spilled over into recess and our special for the day so we had to cancel book buddies :(.  We had a community circle instead where we discussed how our actions not only affect us but others like those in our school family.  It was a good learning experience for all of us and I am confident that tomorrow will be a better day. :)
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton