Happy New Year! We hit the ground running and 2018 is off to a terrific start in Temescal Creek. If you haven’t heard . . . homework started this week and the Temescalians have a wide range of feelings about this. Please make sure to read the homework letter that went home Tuesday with the packet, along with the procedure and tips. Homework typically goes home each Monday and the packet is due back completed Friday morning. We are easing into homework with a reading log, math, and word work. In the future, you may notice that the work increases and there will be more opportunities to do bonus work. If you have any questions please let us know.

Here is a look back on our last week of 2017 . . .

Thank you for coming in to celebrate our published expository writing pieces with holiday music and a festive potluck. The keepsake essays will go home after we refer to them for progress reports.

Temescal scientists learned about the science of snow and cut paper snowflakes, and we also grew borax crystals inspired by snowflakes. For Super Science/Art, Julianne introduced an artist friend of hers who photographs snow and we also read about Wilson “Snowflake Bentley” (1865-1931), who lived in Vermont and was one of the first known photographers of snowflakes.

Make Something! Holiday edition . . . during choice time there was the option to make holiday decorations with popsicles sticks, beads, paper, our imaginations, and a glue gun! If you have any extra glue guns at home that are not of use to you we would be happy to take them off your hands. They are a big hit in our makerspace.

In math we finished up our unit on rounding, estimating, adding, and subtracting before moving onto measurement in the new year. Students continue to teach each other different approaches and strategies, while showing their works and explaining their thinking. We also completed our number corner calendar for December decoding the fraction patterns and noticing equivalency. Students worked in pairs to extend their learning and continue to practice number sense through games.

We practiced alphabetizing during Information Literacy with Rebecca and students are enjoying the read aloud, Calvin Coconut, by Graham Salisbury, a series about a boy growing up in Hawaii.

Steller spellers!

Thank you to Sharon, Temescal mom and classroom coordinator, who came in to to share a Hanukkah story and traditions including lighting the Menorah, cooking latkes, and playing dreidel.

We celebrated two birthdays before break, and enjoyed learning about their lives and families. We were treated to panda cupcakes, homemade mochi, and balloon animals.

As if our last week in 2017 wasn’t exciting enough, we also earned a popcorn party and students shared some dance moves they learned in PE!

Important Dates:

In January we have no school Friday, January 12, for report writing day (childcare available, look for an email that went out from Carmen), and Monday, January 15, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day (no childcare). Family reading will be on Friday, January 26, from 8:30-9:00. Finally we have a field trip on Monday. January 29, to Zellerbach to see Chinese Acrobats. We will are in need of a few chaperones to take the bus there and back and join us for the performance. Watch for the field trip form coming home in a week or so.