December 1-5

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving Day and break!  I can’t believe it’s December and Christmas is right around the corner!  Simon (our classroom elf) has made his way back to visit us this year, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing all kinds of stories about him.

WOW: Saw

# of week: 13

Letter of week: Mm

Stories: Garrett Morgan and the Traffic Signal

    Chicken

Upcoming dates:

12/4/14: CC Public Library Trip

12/5/14: Sports Day

12/12/14: Casual Day, Louis-Joliet Mall Trip (more info to come)

12/18/14: Christmas movie @ MS with STEPS

12/19/14: Christmas Hat Day

Reminders:

• Dress properly for cooler weather: hats/gloves/warm coats
• Please review the district's policy on illness.  If your child is sick or not feeling well, please keep them home.

• Review math/reading flash cards
• Send a snack with your child daily
• Make sure hw, books, and notebooks come back to school each day
• Tuesday is Library day
• Give your child jobs to do at home

Goldie's visit

Today (11/24/14) Glen and Goldie the dog came to visit CCIS.  Glen and Goldie have been to CCIS many time in the past.  Glen talked to the students about what he and Goldie do and why it is important.  The students were able to ask questions, and there were some great questions today!  It was great to see Goldie in action and know she is keeping our schools safe!

Pumpkins

The students in the TRAILS program have been learning all about pumpkins.  To wrap up the pumpkin unit, the kids did an experiment with candy pumpkins and different liquids.  We wanted to see which liquid would make the candy pumpkins dissolve or change the fastest and slowest.  

The students had to make a smart guess on which liquid they thought would be fastest (written in brown marker) and which liquid would be slowest (blue marker).  The liquids used were: cooking oil, vinegar, Sprite, water, and milk.  One cup of each liquid was used.  The candy pumpkins were dropped in the different liquids and we waited for about 25 minutes before taking them out.  

The results were very surprising!  We found the candy pumpkin in the water was the most changed and the candy pumpkin in the cooking oil had the smallest change.

November 24-28

Since this week is such a short week, we will NOT have:

• story
• number of week
• word of week
• letter of week

Please read nightly on own.

Upcoming dates:

11/26/14-11/30/14: Thanksgiving Break….School resumes 12/1/14

12/4/14: CC Public Library Trip

12/5/14: Sports Day

12/12/14: Casual Day, Louis-Joliet Mall Trip (more info to come)

12/18/14: Christmas movie @ MS with STEPS

12/19/14: Christmas Hat Day

Reminders:

• Dress properly for cooler weather: hats/gloves/warm coats
• Please review the district's policy on illness.  If your child is sick or not feeling well, please keep them home.

• Review math/reading flash cards
• Send a snack with your child daily
• Make sure hw, books, and notebooks come back to school each day
• Tuesday is Library day
• Give your child jobs to do at home

Happy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy the time with your family! :)  I'll be heading up to Wisconsin to spend Thanksgiving with my family, and I can't wait to see them! 

November 17-21

WOW: Fly

# of week: 12

Letter of week: Ll

Stories: Firefighters

    Chicken

Upcoming dates:

11/18/14: Grandparent’s Day in Library 1:20

11/21/14: Community trip to Morris Wal-Mart/Morris Diner (more info to come), 80’s Day

11/26/14-11/30/14: Thanksgiving Break….School resumes 12/1/14

Reminders:

• Dress properly for cooler weather: hats/gloves/warm coats
• Please review the district's policy on illness.  If your child is sick or not feeling well, please keep them home.

• Review math/reading flash cards
• Send a snack with your child daily
• Make sure hw, books, and notebooks come back to school each day
• Tuesday is Library day
• Give your child jobs to do at home

Library visit

If you get a chance, stop over at the Coal City Public Library and take a look at the TRAILS book display.  We went over to the library on Thursday, November 6th to listen to Ms. Renee's favorite story and set up a display with some of the student's favorite books.

November 10-14

Because this week (Nov 10-14) is such a goofy week (Tuesday off, Wednesday ½ day, me gone Friday), we are not going to have a Word, #, or Letter of the week, nor a weekly story.  We will do other reading/math activities.

Upcoming dates:

11/11/14: Veterans Day-No School

11/12/14: Early Dismissal

11/14/14: Scholastic Book orders due, CCIS t-shirt day

11/18/14: Grandparent’s Day in Library 1:20

11/21/14: Community trip to Morris Wal-Mart/Morris Diner (more info to come), 80’s Day

11/26/14-11/30/14: Thanksgiving Break….School resumes 12/1/14

Reminders:

• Dress properly for cooler weather: hats/gloves/warm coats
• Please review the district's policy on illness.  If your child is sick or not feeling well, please keep them home.

• Review math/reading flash cards
• Make sure hw, books, and notebooks come back to school each day
• Tuesday is Library day
• Give your child jobs to do at home

Brookfield Zoo

Today (11/4/14) was our trip to the Brookfield Zoo.  The sky was cloudy and the air was a little chilly, but it was a rain-free day!  The zoo was the most empty I've ever seen it....it was kind of nice, because we were able to see the animals really well.  We all had a great time visiting the animals and enjoying the fresh air!

                                          Rino

                                          Polar bear

                                          Upside Down Jellyfish (looks like little snowflakes)

                                                   My new pet....Fluffy! ;)

                                          We got to see the seals training session.

Grizzly Bear enjoying a watermelon

Gorillas lounging around!  The baby was laying on the mom!

Lounging around Polar Bear

Bison 

Lazy cats!

The ride back to CC! :)

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!  I know the weather wasn't exactly the best, but I hope the kids were able to get out and get a little (or a lot) of candy.

Halloween week was a busy week at CCIS.  Beside celebrating Halloween, it was also Red Ribbon Week.  Red Ribbon Week is a week dedicated to being Drug Free!  It was great to see the kids dressing up for the theme days and pledging to be "Drug Free!"

Wednesday of that week, TRAILS took a community trip to McDonald's and Berkots.  While at Berkots, we bought the ingredients for "Mummy Munch."  Below you will find the receipt (we added popcorn and granola) for Mummy Munch and some pictures from cooking.

Mummy Munch

4 Cups Honey Chex Cereal

16 oz package vanilla candy melts

1 Cup Autumn Mix (candy corn, little pumpkins)

1 Cup dry roasted peanuts

2 Cups mini pretzels

1. Place cereal, Autumn mix, peanuts and pretzels into a large bowl. Mix to combine. Melt vanilla candy melts according to package directions then pour into cereal mixture. Gently stir until well coated then pour onto wax paper or a silpat lined baking sheet to dry. Once dried, break up into pieces and put into cute Halloween cupcake liners or into little bags.

About 8 Cups

 Halloween was a fun party day for the kids!  We watched Hotel Transylvania and enjoyed out Mummy Munch.  For the afternoon, the kids had a choice of game rotations or staying to watch another Halloween movie.