Winter Celebration and a Trip to Tanzania!

Learning highlights from the week:

Winter Solstice Celebration

Thursday, students enjoyed working in family groups of kindergarten-4th grade. We rotated through stations learning about light. Students listened to stories by the fire, went on a scavenger hunt, made bird feeders and suncatchers! Thank you to Mrs. Cowan for organizing this for our students and to families for donating the supplies. 

Math- First and Second grade students enjoyed math games and wrapping up their units.

Reading- Our W.O.W. word for the week was mischievous! Students read stories about mischievous characters and added the word to our WOW books. 

Writing-Friday Letter books did not come home this week. We will start them up again on Friday, 1/5/24. Please make sure your Friday Letter book is back by then. 

Science- This week we traveled to Tanzania and were amazed by the beauty and diversity of the Serengeti! We learned about the semi-desert grassy plain and the animals that inhabit the area.

 

Teamwork, The Great Barrier Reef and More!

Learning highlights from the week:

Math- First grade students are working on finding friendly combinations, doubles and partners to 10, when adding 3 numbers.  Second graders have been using number lines to solve addition problems while continuing to build their fluency with place value.  

Reading- We will continue to work hard on blending and segmenting words, and reading and spelling sight words up till the break.  Once we return in January, we will begin a unit on reading nonfiction texts however the hard work of decoding and sight words will continue.

  

Writing-Students have been writing postcards to our families in our Friday Letter books. 

Science- This week we traveled to Australia and were amazed by the beauty and diversity of The Great Barrier Reef!  The Great Barrier Reef is home to fish, 6 types of turtles, coral and more!

 

World Travel, Mapping Words, and Making a Nepali Dal!

Highlights From the Week:

• Math- First grade students have been using their understanding of partners to 10 and doubles facts to add problems with 3 digits.  (4+2+6=? WE KNOW 6+4=10, therefore 10+2=12)  Second graders are working on solving missing addend problems.  For example:

         65 + _______ = 100

  65 + 5 = 70

  70 + 30 = 100     So 65 + 35 = 100

• Reading- A few students are working on book clubs, reading a variety of genres ranging from mysteries, to realistic fiction stories about friendship.  Others are working on fluency with decodable readers. We also continue to work hard on blending and segmenting words, and reading and spelling sight words.

•  Writing-  Handwriting has become our writing time focus.   If your child struggles with letter formation, it will slow down their writing. In turn, this can make them lose interest in writing altogether. On the other hand, if they form their letters correctly, they'll be able to write more quickly and fluently.

• Social Studies - We took off on Air UCS on our flight to Nepal this week.  Since our focus is on landforms we have been learning about Mt. Everest.  We also made peace flags and Isla shared some  wonderful pictures of her family in traditional clothing.  Next stop Australia!

• Mindfulness- For the month of December we will be talking about empathy and peace. 

 

Mapping Sounds and Gearing Up For World Travel!

 

Learning highlights from the week:

• Math- First grade students continue to work on building 10 and some more using 10’s frames. The big idea here is that, for example:   10 + 4 is the same as 14.  This idea is the building block for place value. Second graders are now working on solving missing addend problems ( 36 + ___ = 60).  The idea is to use their understanding of partners to 10 and place value to solve the problems.  Example:  36 + 4 = 40… (6+4=10) so 40 + 20 = 60.  Therefore 36 + 24 = 60  This work will continue for the next few weeks.  

• Reading:  Many students continue to  practice sight words, identify the sounds of letters, and stretch out the sounds of letters in words. Next week their focus will also include work with blends and digraphs.  Other students began work on identifying and spelling long vowel sounds, as well as continued work on identifying the main idea and supporting details in a passage. 

•  Writing- We have wrapped up our unit on narrative writing and are using these next few weeks to focus again on handwriting.  We are working on recognizing tall, small and lazy letters, forming all letters from the top and using lines and spaces correctly. 

• Social Studies -  We will be studying landforms and to do so we will be traveling around the world to visit some of the most famous landforms on earth.  Our first stop is Nepal and Mt. Everest, then off to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef and finishing off in Tanzania to see the amazing Mt Kilimanjaro.

•  Mindfulness: We have shifted our class focus from a theme of gratitude to one of giving.  We are brainstorming ways to be helpful, kind and generous.  This will be our theme through the end of the month.  In that spirit, our annual food drive and gift card Drives are still underway.  Please take a moment to read this flier from  our guidance counselor 

Mrs Erickson.