We wrapped up our unit on Habitats this week, culminating with a research assignment and creation of our habitat using recycled materials! Students did a fantastic job, please swing by our blog for pictures!

 

This Week:

We will learn about holidays celebrated around the world and move into two digit addition (with and without regrouping). In language arts, we are focusing on antonyms. Here are a few important dates for the week:

 

-Tuesday- Mug Exchange- *optional* send in a new wrapped mug if your child would like to participate!

-Wednesday- Math Science Innovation Center lesson on Matter

-Friday- Jingle Bell Run- dress warmly!

 

*Bonus Question:: What are 3 synonyms for funny? (note: you can bring your answer in Monday or Tuesday for a punch!)

Your child has probably shared with you that we have partnered with Mrs. Waldenmeier’s class for book buddies this year. We meet once every other week for 30 minutes to buddy read, and occasionally do something seasonal and fun. We will meet with our buddies next Tuesday, and thought it would be fun to have some hot chocolate while they read. I will be providing the cocoa, and we are asking that each child bring in a wrapped mug on or before next Tuesday to participate in a White Elephant exchange (no Christmas themed). You can find these very reasonably at Walmart and Dollar Tree. If you would prefer your child not participate, just let me know and I’ll have a cup ready for them to use. Thanks!

Colonial Trail Families,

 

Our annual Jingle Bell Run will be held on Friday, December 16^th! I am looking for volunteers for this very fun event! I would like to have 2-3 volunteers per classroom. Your job would be to help supervise the class during their running time (outside) and supervise the class during their assembly time (inside).

 

The Jingle Bell Run schedule is as follows:

K-2 Run outside from 8:45-9:30

3-5 Assembly inside from 9:00-9:30

 

3-5 Run outside from 9:45-10:30

K-2 Assembly inside from 9:45-10:15

 

Volunteers will meet in the teacher’s classroom by 8:30AM. You will then take their class where they are scheduled to go and be with the class until 10:15 if you are K-2 and 10:30 if you are 3-5. If you would like to volunteer please use this link below. All volunteers are more than welcome to run/walk the course during your class’ outside time. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Coach LeClair!

 

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4fa4ab23a75-jingle

 

 

Thank You!

 

 

Tyler LeClair

Health and Physical Education Teacher

Colonial Trail Elementary School

(804)-364-0066
Douglas S. Freeman
Assistant Varsity Baseball Coach

 

 

Thanks to your generosity, we brought in the most cans in second grade (267!)!  To celebrate, I got to wear a silly turkey hat at our Turkey Court assembly on Tuesday. This food drive helps ensure that no families in our area are hungry over the holiday. Please check out our new ‘Photos’ tab for some great shots from this week and some additional pictures from our field trip. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing students on Monday.

We’ve been working on nonfiction reading comprehension, and focusing on reading recipes. Today, students explored following directions (and making substitutions!) to make their own cookie turkey.

 

Next week, we will finish up habitats so that we can move on to adaptations after Thanksgiving. In math, we will be wrapping up place value so that we are ready for comparing numbers and rounding. Reading will continue to focus on those nonfiction reading sources (I can’t wait to see all of the recipes!). We will also spiral back to main idea. Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

 

Bonus Question: Tell me two differences between the Arctic and the Desert.

This is probably my favorite trip of the year, and I’m so glad we had a gorgeous day to explore the exhibits both inside and out! Here are a few pictures from our day, I’ll add more as I receive!

 

 

CTES PTA Dad’s Night Bowling Nov 2016

 

Calling all Cubs!!  The CTES PTA would like to invite our families to our first Dad’s Night at Bowl America in Short Pump this Friday, November 18th.  Come anytime from 5-8pm to bowl with your kids!  All family members are welcome to come and participate!!!  We have 15 lanes reserved and have two special pricing options just for CTES families:  $10 per person for 2 games and shoe rental  OR  $25 for a private lane, unlimited games for one hour and up to five shoe rentals.  No need to RSVP.   Please look for the PDF flyer in an email from your teacher.  Don’t miss out on the fun with your family and friends!!!  We hope to see you there!! 

A huge thanks to Mrs. Jayakumar, this week’s Mystery Reader! She is a nurse who works with Veterans and came prepared with information on Veteran’s Day to share and then invited students make cards for our Veterans!

 

Wow, it’s hard to believe the first quarter ends on Monday! Your children have worked very hard and you should all be proud of how they are developing this year. Homework will be posted shortly on our blog for the upcoming week (I’m currently having issues with the website). I am overall extremely pleased with how everyone did on our Graphing and Weather tests, it was evident that students had studied to prepare! We will begin new units in Math (Place Value) and Science (Habitats) starting Monday, so look for these notebooks to come home for review of new notes (and a quiz possibly at the end of the week). Our reading focus has been on finding the main idea in texts; please help further your child’s understanding of this by asking them about the main idea in their nightly reading. (In non-fiction, headings and titles are a BIG clue!) We are also working on our plural noun rules, which can be quite tricky. Extra support at home is a huge help as there will likely be a quiz coming on this once we wrap up irregular plural rules this week. All the notes are in your child’s Writing Journal if needed. I hope that you are enjoying this beautiful fall afternoon!

 

 

This week:

–Monday– Parent Conferences- please don’t forget your scheduled time, we have a pretty tight schedule that doesn’t allow much wiggle room!

–Tuesday– Election Day- NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS- Please go out and VOTE!

–Friday– Veteran’s Day Assembly- 10am in the gym, parents are invited to join us!

 

In the near future:

-CoGAT testing- Nov 14-16; given to all students for gifted screening. There is nothing you need to do to prepare your child aside from a good night’s rest and a complete breakfast!

-Nov 17- Field Trip to VA Living Museum- more details forthcoming next week

-Nov 18- Dad’s Night at Bowl America, 5-8pm (fundraiser)

-Nov 22- Report Cards go home

-Nov 23-25 Thanksgiving Holiday, enjoy the extra time with your children!

 

 

 

WOW- what an exciting time we had! A huge thanks going out to parents who volunteered their time and supplies, and especially to Mrs. Johnson for putting the whole party together!. The kids couldn’t stop talking about all the fun they had! 🙂 We are so lucky to have a great group of parents helping to make this a fun year!

 

More pictures will be added as I receive them, for now please enjoy a few I was able to snap on Friday!