Happy New Year!

 Greetings A-3 Families!  Happy New Year!!!

It's been a while since I have posted, as we had our holiday season and remote learning time.  Now that we are back into the swing of things, I hope to bring you up to speed on where we are at and share some pictures.  (Be sure to scroll to the bottom).

First of all, I want to commend all of your children (& your family support) in making our remote learning time successful.  As I worked with the kids this week, it was very apparent to me that the kids have stayed on track and absorbed the lessons from the remote period.  Yay!!!

The kids are also doing a magnificent job of staying the course on days that I am absent, as I am still needing to take some days to help my father.  Ms. Hartlett has truly become a part of our classroom and the kids move seamlessly between us.  

Conferences are just around the corner - I'll be posting a live link via email Saturday 1/23 morning at 9:00am.  This will be a Zoom conference, like the fall.  We will have 30 minutes together.  Since it is Zoom, we will need to respectfully adhere to our time frames.  

Here's what's going on in the classroom:

Stand up for Justice - This past week, in honor of MLK Day and the Inauguration, we have had a very special mini-unit focusing on standing up for justice.  A team of teachers, including our new SEL coach and librarian collaborated on lessons, activities and books to lead us in dynamic conversations.  There was a wonderful hum in the classroom as kids spoke up for what they believed in and were able to voice positive connections. Be sure to ask your child about this.  

Reading & Writing - Both our reading and writing units are focusing on non-fiction informational texts.  These units go hand in hand and compliment each other as kids learn about the structures of main ideas, subtopics and details.  The kids have been reading expository texts and articles.  They are learning to identify the different structures authors use to share information.  In writing, the kids have chosen a topic they feel they know a great deal about and are working with different structures and techniques to articulate their knowledge.  Soon, the reading will shift into more narrative texts and we will even head into a focus of reading biographies.  The writing will take a turn into persuasive essay writing. 

Math - We are nearing the end of our first Multiplication/Division unit - "Understanding Equal Groups" We are in the midst of connecting our knowledge to practices with some games and activities to help them see the relationship of the fact families.  After taking the unit post assessment, I look forward to offering the kids a mid-year math assessment to check on retention of knowledge thus far.  This will be instrumental in supporting their progress report.  Our next unit will be - "Cube Patterns, Arrays and Multiples of 10" helping them to utilize their multiplication skills in the world of geometry.  

Science - We are continuing our study of Weather & Climate.  As we learn to identify different weather patterns and clouds, we have learned a bit about predicting weather and storms.  Next week we will ask the kids to become a meteorologist.  They will have a chance to record a video of their predictions - a sort of precursor to future WGST moments.  

Social Studies - We have recently wrapped up our Native American studies, though we will continue to refer back to it often as we continue to delve into other aspects of American history and how the cultures interacted and adapted.  Our next venture will to look briefly at the Age of Exploration (and Exploration in general) to usher us into the study of Colonial America.