The Week of January 2, 2023

 

Upcoming Events

No School- Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 16, 2023

Winter Sports Day

January 18, 2023

Winter Sports Checklist 

• Warm clothes: snow pants, boots, hats, mittens and neck warmers or a balaclava.
• Temps look cold- hand warmers may be a great addition.
• Have your child dressed in comfortable clothes: sweatpants, sweatshirts and warm socks. 
• A change of clothes. You never know when you will need them!
• Non-perishable lunch, snacks and drinks- quick and easy things students can eat on their own during lunch! An afternoon snack for school return is GREAT- they are tired and hungry :)
• Any equipment you are providing such as snowboards, boots, skis, goggles, helmets, skates, snow shoes etc. 

Early Release Day @ 11:30

January 25, 2023

Morning Meeting Share Day

Writers' Workshop

This week in writing, we began planning and writing our own nonfiction stories! Students used the shared writing book we created: All About Lizzy as a guide to writing their own books. Students are writing about a variety of topics, and have shown their knowledge of the different nonfiction text elements. Students are creating headings, key words, labels for drawings and diagrams. 

Spelling and Fundations

In spelling, we are continuing our work with suffix endings. Students are working on reading and writing words with s, es and ing endings. We are also learning to read words with r controlled vowels i.e. ar   car    er   her.

Students created their own gameboards and used them to practice reading and spelling different words. 

First Grade Math & Math Menu

In math, the first graders finished up Unit 3. Students worked to add teen numbers, and worked to write subtraction equations. Together we worked on the compare model for subtraction. Here is an example: Beth had 7 jelly beans and Jake had 2. How many more jelly beans did Beth have?  7-2=5

This can be very challenging for students, and we will continue to work on this concept throughout the year. 

Math Menu is going strong in our room and it is an enjoyable and helpful time in our day. Here are some students working on adding double digit collections. We are using groups of tens and ones to add collections together.

#Kindness Challenge with our Big Buddies

On Tuesday, we read the book Martin's Big Words with our Big Buddies. In honor of Dr. King we created a Kindness Wall. Students worked with their big buddies to write ways their Waterville community has been kind to them. 

Social Studies Unit of Study

Cultures Around the World

This week, we kicked off our next Social Studies unit of study on cultures around the world. We began by exploring our globe and the various features used to identify land and water. We explored various countries and learned to say good morning in different languages! 

In the coming weeks, we will work with the Kindergarteners, and the 2nd and 3rd grade class to research different cultures around the world. Each group will create a special craft to sell at our "Cultures Around the World Market".  We will begin to learn about resources, economic structures, and students will also create a display and poster to teach others.