Week 8!

Good morning! I hope everyone has been enjoying the first few days of Fall! It's finally starting to cool down and feels great outside! :)

We have a busy week ahead, and it's only four days:

Literature – This week we are continuing Owl at Home and working in our packets. We are also starting reading groups! We can’t wait to take turns reading aloud and sequencing stories in small groups. A huge thank you to those of you signed up to read with us! Homework is to continue reading every night from the leveled readers. Please bring your books back on Thursday this week since there is no school on Friday!

Spalding – In Spalding, we only have 20 words, as it is a short week. Our spelling test will be on Thursday.

Monday: call, long, love, then, house, year, to, I, as, send
Tuesday: alone, lone, one, has, some, if, how, her, them, other
Phonograms to practice: h, l, qu, y, z, ea, ew, ng, th, ui

Writing – We will do copy work and narration exercises from Caddie Woodlawn this week.

Grammar – In Grammar, it’s game week! Each day we will play a different game to review nouns and verbs.

Poem – “Autumn Woods” by James Tippett – we’ll be practicing this one in class for fun the next two weeks in honor of the beginning of Autumn! (Note: This one won’t go home to practice. We’ll send our next one home after Fall Break!)

Idiom – It at first you don’t succeed…

Math - This week we will work towards mastery of both writing and speaking our subtraction facts! We will solve number bonds and relate subtraction to addition based on our different "parts" and our "whole" of each number bond. We will also be practicing counting down from 10 and using a number line to help us solve subtraction problems. It's going to be a fun week with lots of math games and new concepts :)!

History - This week we are continuing our study of ancient Mesopotamia with the study of the Code of Hammurabi. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a seven and a half foot stone stele and various clay tablets. The code consists of 282 laws.  We will also read the classic epic of the world’s oldest and most important legend.  The Story of Gilgamesh was first carved onto clay tablets in Mesopotamia.  Its message is of compassion, forgiveness, and friendship and the story has echoed through the ages from its origins of over 5000 years ago.

Science – This week in science, we will be learning about environmental change and habitat destruction. We will discuss the negative effects of pollution and pesticides and also the benefits of recycling! We will also read a short biography on Rachel Carson and discuss her accomplishments.

(A quick note on History/Science: Recently we've begun alternating the days that we have History and Science, similar to what is done in the upper grades. On Wednesdays we do a little of each subject and it is more discussion based. By doing History on Monday/Friday and Science on Tuesday/Thursday, we have even more time to delve deeper into the material and spend more time polishing our projects, rather than rushing through each. So far it is working great, and we are loving the new schedule!)

We love music class! Last week we played a game called "Lucy Locket".

Have a great Sunday! :)

Homework Survey

Good evening,

Please take a minute to fill out this homework survey to help us know areas we can improve upon or areas that are going well for your child! We'd really appreciate any and all feedback! :)

Thank you!

Week 7

Good evening! I hope everyone is having a great Sunday! It's hard to believe we are already in week 7 and only 3 weeks away from Fall Break. We have some exciting things planned this week. Here's what's coming up:

Literature: We are starting Owl at Home this week! We will be learning about the author, Arnold Lobel, on Monday, as well as how to track where we are in a book using a bookmark. On Tuesday, we will learn a little bit about owls, and then we will begin reading on Wednesday! Please make sure your child has their book by Wednesday so they can follow along! We also have reading groups coming up soon! If you would like to sign up to volunteer, please click here. (Note: volunteers must be fingerprint cleared to work with us in the classroom!)

Spalding: We have 30 words as normal this week and will test on Friday! Please make sure your child is including all markings on the words Monday-Wednesday. We have noticed quite a few homework assignments missing these. The markings let us know that your child understands the phonograms and sounds being said in each word.

Monday: tooth, teeth, worm, day, eat, sits, sit, lot, box, school
Tuesday: belong, door, floor, yes, low, soft, stands, stand, yard, bring
Wednesday: tell, five, ball, law, ask, just, way, get, home, much

Phonograms to practice: f, g, j, k, w, au, aw, ck, wh, wor

Writing: In writing, we have copy work and narration exercises from Peter Rabbit.

Grammar: In grammar, we will continue our Question and Answer flow to name parts of a sentence. We will look at longer sentences and find the “heart of the sentence,” which is the subject noun and accompanying verb. We will also explore action verbs within poetry and stories this week.

Poem: “The Pasture” by Robert Frost – We will recite this week!

Idiom/Proverb: If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again.

Math: In math this week we will continue with subtraction! We will switch between using different hands on items and visuals as we learn all about how subtraction relates to addition. We will use what we have mastered during our addition practice to create subtraction stories and sentences. Our first subtraction test will be on Wednesday and I am excited for us to make more and more connections as we learn even more about number bonds and how parts and wholes relate to subtraction.

History: This week in History we will be studying the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, which means “the land between the rivers”.  The two rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates.  We will learn how these early citizens survived and thrived.  We will discover that many of their inventions have and are still being used today in one form or another.  Students will learn about their temple called ziggurats, and their ancient for of writing called cuneiform writing.

Science: This week in science we will be studying animals! We will begin by learning about food chains and the herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores that are a part of them. We will learn why all parts of a food chain are important. We will also classify animals based on their groups:  mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. We will learn what is unique about each group, and which characteristics animals have in common with each other.

Miscellaneous: We have our first healthy snack day this Thursday! We have been learning all about fruit and its benefits in P.E. Please join us in packing a piece of fruit to eat on Thursday!

Have a FANTASTIC week!

Week 6

Happy Friday!

We had a very busy day today, with our assembly and a birthday to celebrate! A few quick things for next week: Please try not to miss school Wednesday or Thursday morning. On Wednesday we will have our vision and hearing screenings in the nurse's office. Thursday is school picture day! A form went home yesterday to pre-order pictures. Our time is at 8:15, so please come to school with shirts tucked in and hair nicely combed! We also have Math/Phonics Night from 6-7:30 pm on Wednesday. This will be a great opportunity to see the curriculum in action, as you take on the role of student. :)

Our first assembly - Grandparent's Day

Responsibility Virtue Award Winners: Way to go, Lily!

Here's what we have coming up!

Literature: We are continuing Cinderella stories from around the world! This week we will read about Pear Blossom and Yeh-Shen (the Korean and Chinese versions of our classic tale). On Friday we will reflect on our favorite version of the story and decorate a shoe for Cinderella.
Homework: Please bring in Owl at Home this week if you have not done so yet. We will begin reading it next week!

Spalding: We have 30 words as normal this week and will test on Friday! Homework will be the same formatting as last week since it worked well; however, we will make the word break down a little clearer on the master page for which words need to be practiced each night.

Monday: live, live, hill, late, big, bag, beg, bog, bug (10 words)
Tuesday: mother, three, land, cold, hot, hat, child, ice, play, sea, see (11 words)
Wednesday: bird, cool, earth, feed, fur, green, oil, paint, pool (9 words)

Phonograms to practice: h, m, n, o, u, ai, ea, ee, oi, ur

Writing: In writing, we have copy work and narration exercises from Mary Poppins!

Grammar: In grammar, we will begin our Question and Answer flow. Students will learn how to use this flow to name the parts of a sentence, with an emphasis on nouns and verbs this week. For example, “Dogs played.” Who played? The dogs (dogs = subject noun) What did the dogs do? They played (played = verb)

Poem: “The Pasture” by Robert Frost – Please practice stanza 2. We will recite next week!

Idiom/Proverb: If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again. (This ties in nicely with our virtue of perseverance!)

Math: We will start off our math week by reviewing everything we have learned about addition so far with some interactive games and new activities. I'm looking forward to seeing how much everyone has learned about addition facts within 10, number bonds, counting, and all other important addition skills. On Wednesday, we will take a cumulative addition test which will allow us to demonstrate what we know and also move on to a very new and exciting unit - subtraction! Many of us have already been so excited about subtraction and have demonstrated our "take away" knowledge, so I can't wait to keep learning together.

History: This week in History we will be learning about ancient history and civilizations from long ago. Students will become aware of where they fit on the historical time line and learn about how people from the past learned to exist with things that surrounded them. They will learn about the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and also realize how we still have those basic needs today.

Science: This week we will continue to learn about habitats and the plants and animals that live in them. The class will learn about two different water habitats: ponds and oceans. The students will study the different ocean zones and learn about how the environment changes in deep water. We will wrap up our habitat unit by completing the world habitat mobile and discussing similarities and differences between all habitats covered.

Have a FANTASTIC weekend!

Week 5!

Good morning! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend of rest and relaxation. Can you believe we are already a month into school? Time really does fly when you are having fun and learning lots of new things, of course :)! We are diving right into this second month of school, here's what's coming up: 

Literature: We are continuing to study stories from around the world, but this time we are comparing Cinderella stories! We will be reading the Western version that is very familiar and comparing it to the Egyptian version (Rhodopis). We will also read a story called “Billy Beg,” a Cinderella story with an interesting twist – a male main character! J

Spalding: Due to the holiday on Monday, we will only have 19 words this week! There will be two old words “have” and “are”. These will help us to review jobs of silent final e and apply job 5 to a new word. Our Spelling Test will be on Friday as normal! Please note that the phonograms on the sheet going home every Monday are the phonograms we are testing on Fridays (on the back of the Spelling Test). Please have your child practice the sounds of these two phonograms each night! We will also move to writing our words 3 times, instead of 2. For the third time, your child may copy the words without markings. Please dictate the words as though it were a spelling test so that the words are practiced and memorized for the first two columns. (This means it should not be completed during study hall after school; math and reading can be done during this time instead!)

Tuesday: today, look, did, like, six, boy, book, by, have, are

Wednesday: had, over, must, make, street, say, come, hand, ring

Writing: In Writing with Ease, our stories this week come from the Grimm Brothers: “The Frog Prince”.

Grammar: We are very excited to learn a new jingle this week, as we begin our study of verbs! We will be learning about action and linking verbs, with more of an emphasis on action verbs this week. Students will identify verbs in sentences and create phrases with subject noun and verb pairs. We will play some sorting games with nouns and verbs to get students up and moving as well!

Poem: We are beginning a new poem this week called “The Pasture” by Robert Frost. We will study stanza 1 this week, stanza 2 the following week, and practice the poem in its entirety and recite at the end of the 3^rd week. (Recitations on September 22 and 23)

Idiom: Review of our first three idioms: Sour Grapes, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and Golden Rule

Math: This week we will practice writing addition sentences and stories and students will work together to create their own numbers stories. We will also be moving towards even better mastery of addition as we practice our addition facts and begin to commit number combinations for numbers 1-10 to memory. I'm looking forward to using many different visuals and hands on activities this week to help everyone stay engaged and enthused. 

History: This week we will finish learning about the landforms of the earth.  We will discuss and recognize the equator, northern and southern hemisphere, and the prime meridian.  We will read a book about our individual location on the globe, and then do an activity in relation to the information.

Science: This week we will study habitats and the plants and animals that live in them. We will be focusing on polar regions and rainforests. We will review some of the habitats that we have learned about so far, and we will find similarities and differences between them. We will also continue to add on to our world habitats mobiles!

 Here's to another wonderful week!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We gained our last letter in "Responsibility" (our August virtue of the month), so we got a special treat at the end of the day! Since we have been studying habitats in science and learned about the underground habitat and earth worms this week, we ate dirt cups!

Here is a video we watched about earth worms!

Have a fabulous 3-day weekend! :)