Friday News for the Week of January 4-6th

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope your New Year was filled with wonderful times spent with family and friends. I’m looking forward to the full year of 2017!

I spent my Christmas Break in Florida with my family. It was the first time in 3 years that my whole family could spend some time together. Here’s a picture we took at the beach on our last night together!

The students returned back to school ready to learn! This week we reviewed some procedures, make some new year resolutions, and learned a really difficult math lesson!

Reading: While I was in the States, I bought some more Pete the Cat books! I read them to the students this week and we all enjoyed them.

Writing: We wrote about our Christmas Break as well as we made new year resolutions. The students wanted to work hard on things like, “Help my mom and dad at home” and “Get 100% on all my spelling tests.” I was proud of the students and their goals!

Math: We did a class graph to see how many students traveled during Christmas Break and how many students stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve.

This week we did an extremely hard math lesson for 1st graders, but they stayed focus and worked REALLY hard! I was so proud of them! It’s a good strategy to know, and I know they will learn about it more and more as they get older.

Bible: After finishing the Christmas Story, we jumped back into the story of Moses. We reviewed up to the story of Moses and learned about the 12 spies that went into Canaan. Only 2 came back to say that they can go into the land, and the other 10 said that it would be too scary. The people listened to the 10 and so God did not let them go into Canaan, the Promised Land, because they didn’t trust him. Wow!

Pictures from Fun Friday today:

My best friend who lives in Hungary came to visit me in Okinawa! She stopped by the classroom today to help out. I enjoyed sharing 1st grade at OCSI with her!

Next Week:

January 9th - Kite Day:

This is a regular day of school for the students. From 10:00-10:45, the 1st and 2nd graders will go outside on the soccer field to fly kites. Parents are invited to come to help your child fly kites. Please bring or send a kite with you child on January 9th. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

Bible Memory Verse: “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Spelling Words: go   no   so  boat  coat  rode  home  hope  old  told  give  said

Upcoming Events:

Jan 17-19 - OCSI School Spirit Week!!

Elementary students: Are you ready to dress up crazy for Spirit Week?

Here’s the themes for the week:

 Tuesday, Jan 17 - Pajama Day! - Wear pajamas to school! (Make sure it’s still in dress code!)

 Wednesday, Jan 18 - Crazy Hair and Hat Day - Wear your hair crazy or wear a crazy hat!

Thursday, Jan 19 -

Kindergarten-2nd grade - Character Day - dress up as a book character

January 19th - Character Day:

This is a regular day of school for the students. Students need to come to school dressed up as a book character. Costumes don't have to be over the top extravagant. Some ideas could be Clifford, Pete the Cat, Curious George etc. Please also make sure your child bring the book with them to school that day (If they need to, they can check it out from the library beforehand). At 9:15 the students will parade around the school. Parents are welcome to come from 9:00-10:00 to watch the students parade around the school and return to their classroom for some activities. Also, feel free to send a change of clothes with your child if their costume will get in the way with the rest of the school day.

• 1/16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - No School *
• 1/19: 2nd Quarter Ends
• 1/20: Teacher Work Day - No School for Students*  
• 1/23: 3rd Quarter Begins
• 1/26: 1st Semester Report Cards Issued
• 2/20: Presidents’ Day - No School *
• 2/21: Progress Reports
• 3/13: OCSI Holiday - No School *