November | 2015 | Primary 1

The desert winter has arrived, and bringing with it the chance to bundle up and wear sweaters and jackets. Please take a few moments to make sure that your child’s jackets, sweaters and hats are labeled with their name.

We encourage the children to keep their jackets in their cubbies, but sometimes they fall out and without a clear name on the label, finding the right owner can be challenging.

Please send your child to school with a new set of clothes in a ziplock bag, and we will send the original set home.

Celebrate America Day was a huge success. We are so grateful to the parents who helped supply our classroom with s’more makings and to those who helped facilitate the craft activities inside our room.

It was also very helpful to have the mom’s travel with us as the children migrated from area to area.

Thank you to all of our families who contributed to the Upper Elementary drive to collect new and gently used jackets and clothes. It speaks to the generosity of our community that so many of you answered the call.

One of the science lessons we teach the children is the five categories of vertebrates (mammals, reptiles, fish, birds and amphibians). We started with mammals in October and then added reptiles in November.

Some of the key features of mammals are: they are warm blooded, they have hair or fur on their bodies, they breathe with lungs, and they give birth to live babies. Reptiles are cold blooded, they have skin or scales, they breathe with lungs, and their offspring are hatched from eggs.

It is this kind of exposure to scientific facts at this young age, that helps our students to begin understanding the natural world around them. It is also lays the foundation for them categorizing facts and information so that later in their education they will be able to recall those facts easily.