Dear Moms and Dads,

Later today members of the Green Mountain Youth Orchestra will visit our classroom to demonstrate some of their instruments. I wonder which of the little innocent faces watching will end up playing an instrument one day? After the demonstration, we will attend a performance by the full orchestra. Since this letter will arrive to you before the performance, I will send photos separately.

Last week, our learning partners taught us a game typically played during Hanukah using dreidels. Ask your child about this game.

We are busy writing thank you letters to the community members that visited us last week to talk about life in Moretown in earlier years. We are also adding pages to our memory books about the information they told us.

The first graders just finished work on a math problem about geometry. The problem read as follows: Steve has 19 toothpicks. He wants to make 5 squares. He will use one toothpick for each side. Does Steve have enough toothpicks? You might ask your child to show you how he/she solved this problem? You could ask the following questions:

What do you need to find out? (Does he have enough toothpicks?)

What will you make to find your answer? (key and diagram)

Can you make the key and diagram to find out your answer?

What is your answer?

What is a connection you could make? (One possible connection might be that he would need one more toothpick to make the fifth square.)

.Yesterday and today they are learning some new math games to practice some addition and other number skills. Some of the games they will play are: Odd or Even, Take the Difference, Teen Number Concentration, Fill up Tens, and Lulu. Ask your child to tell you about these games. Maybe he/she could teach you play the game called Take the Difference. This game uses 15 pennies. Here are the directions:

Decide who will collect heads and who will collect tails.

Start with 15 pennies. Take turns. Toss the pennies and sort them by heads and tails. Line them up in two rows, one-to-one, to see which row has more.

If you have more pennies, tell the difference between the two rows for example 5 heads compared to two tails is three more. Then take that number (the 3 more) of pennies to keep in your own pile. Write the number sentence (5-2=3).

Toss only the remaining pennies each time.

Continue to play until all pennies have been taken. The player who has more pennies wins. Be sure to shake hands and say "Good Game" at the end of the game.

HAVE FUN!

Jamie Wimble has invited us to visit the Town Clerk’s office. She knew we went on a tour of the village and wanted us to stop in to find out what a Town Clerk does. Thus on Tuesday, December 18^th at 2:15 we will walk over to the Town Clerk’s office.

Here are some questions to ask your child this week:

What is happening in the story about the Whangdoodle? ( The professor can’t see the Whangdoodle because his imagination is not as good as the children.)

What are you doing in math?

Do you think you will get all of your spelling words correct on Friday?

What instruments did you see in your classroom?

What did you think about the concert?

Dates to Remember:

December 14^th: PTN popcorn Sale

December 18^th: We will walk to the Town Clerk’s office at 2:15.

December 19^th: two fancy pencils (wrapped together without a nametag) and nonperishable food item(s) due

December 21^st: Last day of school before holiday break

January 2^nd: School resumes.

January 7^th: PTN meeting 6:30. Please try to attend as there are many fun events being planned!

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your sharing time with your child.

Sincerely,

Kathi