Our Elf, Ben

For the past two weeks we have had an Elf on the Shelf watching over our classroom. In the afternoon when we all go home for the day our elf, Ben, travels to the North Pole to report to Santa on our behavior. So far all reports have been good!

Every morning when we come back to school Ben is hiding in a new spot. Some mornings we find that he has been mischievous, like the time he moved our behavior magnets into a smiley face and another time he switched everyone's STAR cards, which created some confusion. A few times he left us treats like candy canes and gelt (chocolate Hanukkah coins). He even gave us a dreidel to play with. Here are pictures of Ben around our classroom.

Can you find Ben in this picture of our classroom library?

Hint: He's in a very red area of the photograph.

In four more days when we go home for winter break Ben will return to the North Pole to live with Santa until next year. We'll miss Ben!

Reflex Math

Hey Lipsky Team!

Here's a fun website that will help you improve your math fluency. Fluency, just like in reading, means doing something with ease. So in math it means that you can add and subtract numbers easily, without using your fingers, drawing pictures, or really having to think about it. Just like when you were little and learned to walk, now you don't even have to think about how to put one foot in front of the other!

Go to Reflex Math and click on the launch button in the upper right corner. Type in the username: lipsky and then click on your name. Everyone's password is abc123. Here's an example of when it is teaching you about addition and subtraction fact families.

Practice at home to get faster at adding and subtracting. Later in the year we'll practice our multiplication facts.