Valentine's Day Party

 This Friday, the 11th we will have our Valentine's Day Party. (snow date Monday 2/14) We will exchange cards and have some light snacks. Your child is welcome to make or purchase cards to give to everyone in the class. There are 14 students (and 2 adults. But often 3). If you would like to contribute anything to our party, please let me know. 

The invention convention has started. The children who chose to participate have until 2/28 to work on their projects, inventions, and displays. Not every child chose to make an invention. This is not a classroom activity. These projects are to be worked on at home. Your child went home last week with an instruction journal. Some will bring home a trifold poster board if they asked for one. Please note that this is an extracurricular activity and is not an assignment for class. if you have questions you can contact me, or Wil Crabtree who is in charge of the invention convention. wil.crabtree@sau24.org. I hope your child has fun making their creations. I am excited to see what their imaginations come up with.

We have finished our mid-year assessments. I was so glad to see the progress many of these kids are making. Because of that, we were able to open up enrichment sessions to more students. Those who made it in start this week. I'm so proud of how far they have come and continue to grow. 

Cold Temps!!

 Your child brought their chrome books home today in preparation for a possible weather day. There is no indication that there will be a remote learning day, however, the busses have been known not to start on extremely cold days, so we are airing on the side of caution. If we have school tomorrow, just have them bring everything back. If it is a remote day, they can log onto zoom through Canvas for 7:30. We practiced logging onto Zoom today, so hopefully, things will run smoothly. Even though we don't have outdoor recess tomorrow, we should the rest of the week. Please make sure your child is bundled up. Stay warm!!

Happy 2022

 It was so nice to see the kids again! I hope you had a great vacation. Our 1st day back was a mixture of starting new topics and making up for lost time last Wednesday. That meant we got to have our party! It was small, but the kids loved the treats and gifts we got. 

We are starting a new unit in science about sound and energy. The kids are learning about how waves travel and how certain energy is formed. 

In math we are learning how to multiply complex numbers. Things like 3x57, 22x35 etc...

Non-Fiction will be our focus this month in reading and writing. We will be doing biography research and creating a report about a person of interest and then we'll be working on a larger scale project for reading. The kids will be looking at the different components that go into a non-fiction text. After we have worked on that, they will be doing their own research and creating a digital presentation done at school and a 3D model which will be done at home. This will not happen though for a few more weeks. More information will come out when we get closer. 

Later on this month the children will be taking their mid-year assessments. They got to do it at the beginning of the year so it's nothing they haven't done before. This is to see if the children are meeting the goals we hope they've made at this point in the year.

Mask mandates have been lifted for now. If you would like your child to continue wearing their mask, they are more than welcome to. We are still staying in assigned seats and cohorts for lunch and recess. 

I have received many of the report card envelopes. I do still have some that have yet to find their way back to me. Please sign and return these envelopes so that I can reuse them next trimester. 

We've also been working on how to log into canvas to find how to get to zoom meetings and where to find the work should we get a remote learning day. 

Coming up: we have an early release on Friday the 14, and no school the following Monday- January 17th. 

Spirit Week!

This week is spirit week. I think we'll have a great time. I hope you can participate.

Monday is Sports day.
Tuesday- Twin Day
Wed- Anything but a backpack- Must be safe for school, fit on the bus, and not be alive. Basically a show-and-tell type day.
Thurs. - Holiday Day- We have a St. Patrick's Day theme
Friday- Beach day or PJ Day- Keeping in mind we will still be going outside
*I do believe the last 3 days of school the following week may also be themed, however, I am not sure of the schedule for that yet. Stay tuned. 

A few updates: Grades closed last week. Report cards will be sent home on Friday. Please sign and return just the envelope when you get it. 

Thanks to your generosity, our class collected 86 items for the food drive! 

Covid protocols are still in effect. Cleaning and sanitizing throughout the rooms is still happening, Popcorn is on hold indefinitely. We are under a mask mandate at least through the vacation. We have assigned seats in the cafeteria, recess is sectioned off into cohorts and the WMS Christmas Concert has been postponed.

It is getting cold outside. Please bring appropriate warm clothes for when we go out. Your child is welcome to bring a sweatshirt and winter coat and wear one or the other outside depending on the temperatures. When we get snow, and your child is planning on playing in it, they'll need snow gear, or at least, boots. Have them pack a change of shoes as well. And of course, please label your child's snow stuff if you can. So many ski pants and black mittens look the same. 

We have a week and a half left until the winter break. We have this week and 3 days the following week. Vacation begins on Thursday the 23rd. 

It's December

Welcome to the holiday season. We have many interesting events planned to learn about the holidays. We are finishing learning about the Native Americans that lived in our area by researching a topic the children want to learn about and writing a research report. We will be learning about the different holidays celebrated in December and end it with a holiday activity day like we did for NH Day. 

In math, we are learning about patterns. The children are learning different ways to label a pattern and they are looking at shapes, repeating patterns, and number patterns that have different rules to add or subtract by. That can prove to be a bit challenging.

In reading, we are continuing to read a story together. The children have been doing comprehension questions on Canvas. These activities help them navigate their way around Canvas so that when they have a remote day, they know what to do. We have been exploring many different concepts such as the author's purpose, character traits, inferring hidden meanings, comparing and contrasting characters, vocabulary, and many other skills. 

                                                                   

The school is holding a canned food drive through next week. If you are able to donate any nonperishable food items to our drive, the community will benefit greatly. There is also a challenge to see what class can bring in the most items. 

As you know, Covid has changed the way we are doing things in school. We are wearing masks full-time for now. Popcorn has been postponed until cases decline. We are staying in our cohorts for recess and lunch and we are not working with partners and doing centers in the classroom the way we usually do. I know this is unfortunate but I appreciate the resilience the kids have and their flexibility. We will let you know when some of these changes can be relaxed.

Report cards will be going out soon. Grades close on Friday and report cards will be sent home on the 17th. For more info about grading, you can look at the grading section on the pages on the left-hand side. 

Food Drive

 

We are holding a food drive for the local food pantry. If you are able to support this, please have your child bring in non perishable food items this week. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Kids Create the Schedule Day

In our class, I really try to help the kids understand that we work together as a team. Our success and achievements can be the result of team efforts.  When we go to our UA's, lunches, etc... I want the kids to demonstrate respect to those classrooms and people we walk past. We have been keeping track of compliments we've received from adults who have seen us in the halls or at things outside of the classroom. Yesterday, we received our 20th compliment!  That was our goal. When we reach 20 compliments, the kids were allowed to choose a class reward. They voted for "Kids Create the Schedule Day!" Therefore tomorrow, the kids are running the show. Together, we looked at the things we typically did on Fridays and made a list. They added some extra things like indoor recess and team-building game time, but they created a schedule together that kept in line with our academic day while incorporating a bit of lightheartedness to our activities. They knew that we still needed math and reading times. They planned what we would do, to keep that balance between academics and needing to keep our Friday routines while finding some additional time to just have some fun. I'm very proud of their attitude and consideration to not just those they see in the school, but to themselves, our class, and their responsibilities. 

Other Happenings...

Thank you to those who scheduled a conference with me. I enjoyed meeting you and learning more about your child. If you haven't met with me and would like to please email me or call the school. 

We are completing our unit in science about the environment and the role people play in taking care of the planet. We will be working on a Thanksgiving unit to learn about the tribes and crops that are in and around N.H. 

In math, we are working on factors, factor pairs, and multiples. All these things tie into multiplication and division. It is really important that the children know their multiplication facts. We are working on this in class, but any additional support you can give at home to help them would be very beneficial.

We have been reading a story called There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom. It's about a boy who has no friends because he pushes everyone away. One day a new kid comes and he and this boy form a weird alliance and are starting to become friends. You can ask your child to summarize what's happening and ask questions along the way. This will help their recall, and depending on the questions asked, it helps build a deeper understanding and forms connections along the way.

We are going to be practicing for our class spelling bee. I'll be sending home a list of some words to help children practice and get used to spelling some challenging words. We will have our spelling bee in class this week. The winner of this one goes onto the grade level spelling bee, and then on from there. For more practice, you can download a spelling app from Scripps-  http://spellingbee.com/word-club

I am going to add a page on the left called Cool Class Websites. These websites are websites the children use in class that boosts skills and will help them practice. The children normally access these sites through Canvas on their Chromebooks, but that's not so easy to do at home. Hopefully, this will allow children to easily access learning websites that we utilize in class. Look for it in the upcoming weeks. 

Your child went home with a drawing they made in class as part of a PTO fundraiser. If you choose to order anything, the deadline is Monday. You can only order online and the info for the website and your child's art code are listed on the bottom of the form.

Lastly,