Reading to a Stuffy and Choice Time!

Winter Break Reading Challenge-  

Snow is falling, books are calling! It is time for us to start our winter reading challenge. We are having a special reading challenge over our winter break.  Students brought home the information sheet.  Here is a copy if you need it!  Students should do 5 of the things on the sheet for 20 minutes.  If they do, they can add 2 stickers to our chart and pick a prize from the treasure box!  

Winter Break:  Winter break is Saturday 2/25 thru Tuesday 3/7.  We return to school on Wednesday March 8th.

Music/Art Night:  Keep an eye out for more information on our Music & Art night on May 10th.  Details coming soon.

UCS Night Out:  Enjoy a UCS night out at the lake monsters on Sunday June 6th at 5:00!  More details to follow.

 Learning highlights from the week:

 Math- First graders Are working on understanding place value.  They are learning that a 2 digit number is composed of 10’s and 1’s. They are building numbers and working on adding 10’s and 1’s. 

Second graders are also working on place value and using it to add and subtract.  They are working composing and decomposing numbers.  

Reading-  We are enjoying reading nonfiction texts.  This week we read about biomimicry.  Students learned we get great ideas from nature.  They learned that the idea from velcro came from a burr and reflectors came from watching cat eyes!  We also continue to work on our decoding strategies including consonant blends, VCe syllables (AKA Magic E), and R controlled syllables.  Several students started new books during our book clubs and are enjoying learning about new nonfiction topics.  

Writing-  We will finish up our information books after break! Our clay animals have been fired and look great!  After break we will make our habitats and start making our animal videos.  We will be inviting families in to see them sometime in March.  

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Cochran’s, Puzzles, and More!

Important Events:

Snowmotion Dates:  Our last Snowmotion date is next Wednesday 2/22.

Winter Break:  Winter break is Saturday 2/25 thru Tuesday 3/7.  We return to school on Wednesday March 8th.

Music/Art Night:  Keep an eye out for more information on our Music & Art night on May 10th.  Details coming soon.

UCS Night Out:  Enjoy a UCS night out at the lake monsters on Sunday June 6th at 5:00!  More details to follow.

 Learning highlights from the week:

Math- First graders continue to work on solving missing addend problems.  Example:  Sam had 6 marbles in a jar.  Sally gave him some more and now Sam has 11 marbles.  How many marbles did Sally give him?  They discussed how you can set the problem up as an addition problem (6+___=11) or as a subtraction problem (11-6=___). 

Second graders played a game called close to 100.  This is a great game to play at home with a deck of playing cards 1-9.  Deal out 6 cards and the student has to choose 4 to create 2 two digit numbers that  come as close to 100 as they can get.  Example:  

7

4

3

8

6

1

You can take 8 and 4 to make 84 and 1 and 6 to make 16.  

84 + 16 = 100

The objective of this game is to get students thinking about using place value to add two 2 digit numbers together to make 100.  

Reading-  We will be wrapping up our non-fiction reading unit next week.  We also continue to work on our decoding strategies including consonant blends, VCe syllables (AKA Magic E), and R controlled syllables.  Several students started new books during our book clubs and are enjoying learning about new nonfiction topics.  

Writing-  We will finish up our information books after break and have started our clay animals! 

Mindfulness-  Our theme for the month of February is Kindness.  Kindness to self and kindness to others. 

 

Global Play Day, 100th Day of School and More!

We had a busy week this week, including an early release day, the 100th day of school, Buddy coming in to sing with us AND Global Play Day!  It was a fun change of pace and a great way to spend a Friday.  Reminder, we go outside in all types of weather.  Please send in snowpants, boots, hats and gloves or mittens everyday.  I do have a few extra things, but we have been needing more than what I have.

 Learning highlights from the week:

 Math-  First graders have begun to solve missing addend problems.  Example:  Sam had 6 marbles in a jar.  Sally gave him some more and now Sam has 11 marbles.  How many marbles did Sally give him?  Students have talked about how to set up this type of problem in an equation ( 6 + _ = 11) and next week we’ll discuss how this can be turned into a subtraction equation.  

Second graders continued to build their understanding of place value through 100 by drawing out Place Value blocks, writing out the number of 100’s, 10’s and 1’s and then writing the numbers in expanded form.  

Example:  329 is the same as     

Is the same as 3 hundreds, 2 tens and 9 ones

Is the same as 300+20+9

Reading-  We will be wrapping up our non-fiction reading unit in the next 2 weeks.  We also continue to work on our decoding strategies including consonant blends, VCe syllables (AKA Magic E), and R controlled syllables.  Students are reading nonfiction texts in their book groups. 

Writing-  We are working on our animal research books.  Each student selected an animal and is writing details all about that animal.  

Mindfulness-  Our theme for the month of February is Kindness.  Kindness to self and kindness to others.  Today during our all school morning meeting we read the book Jake the Growling Dog.  A story about kindness and friendship,