Ms. Julie
K-2 writers continue to work on forming legible upper & lowercase letters, with special focus on writing names with only capitalizing the first letter of the name, and using lowercase letters for the other letters. A conversation I had with two of the writing groups this week inspired me to share some terms/concepts that might be helpful for adults at home to discuss:
Alphabet: Alphabet is the word/name for all of the letters. Letter: Each letter has a name, like “A” or “B,” and represents a sound (or sounds). Uppercase letters begin sentences and proper nouns. Uppercase is typically easier for younger learners to master writing independently. Capital letters are another name for uppercase letters. Lowercase letters are the most common, but vary by font, which can be confusing for young learners. Lowercase letters are trickier for younger learners to master, as the smaller circles and arcs require strong fine motor control.
PK/K students enjoyed letter sound and leaf scavenger hunts, playing “Grumpy Mama Owl” and demonstrating ways to be kind during Explorations this week. In Geodes, students finished up their Explore South America unit, and started the Experience Museums unit with the wordless book Clay Army.
PK/K classroom is accepting donations of:
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gently used legos, figurines, baseplates, etc.
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thin white cotton gloves (to handle our museum “artifacts”)
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graham crackers, goldfish, cheerios,etc to have on hand for snacks
Mrs. Courtot
This week in math the Viking Mathematicians continued to work on building their math fluency. They have been practicing adding and subtracting to 10 and 20. Counting to 100 by tens and writing numbers from 10 to 100 ( by tens) . They do the calendar every day and work on today, yesterday and tomorrow. They are counting the days in school on our place value chart. They have been working on their number words and color words. They continue to work on e-spark to work on the areas of math that they need to work on. They enjoy free ipad day and games on Wednesday . They enjoy playing war, Candy Land Math Swatters with number flies and fly swatters.
Ms. Newell and Mrs. Gillan
This week the Pre-K has been choosing one letter and then matching pictures and saying words to hear if they start with that letter sound! Sometimes our teachers are sneaky and put in words that don’t start with that letter sound and it’s our job to correct them! We’ve also been working on rhyming words in our songs, and making up silly rhymes for our names! In math, we have been choosing a number from 1-10 and then counting out lots of small objects that match that number. We have also been playing a “Get the Bear to the Honey” board game and counting the dots on dice! In our Social-Emotional work we have been noticing the difference between Marching Feet (during songs and games) and Marshmallow Feet (when we need to walk quietly in the halls).
Mrs. Porter
3/4/5/6/7/8 SEL – the students reviewed and discussed the definition of bullying (hurtful, intentional, repeated behavior and a power imbalance between the bully and the target). We discussed different types of bullying, including physical, emotional, verbal and cyberbullying. We talked about the steps in responding to bullying behavior: tell the bully to stop, walk away (dont bully back), and telling a trusted adult. We also discussed the importance of standing up to bullying if you witness it happening to someone else and not being a bystander. Different scenarios were discussed as examples.
PK/K/1/2 SEL – The book One, by Kathryn Otoshi, was used to review the definition and response to bullying and to demonstrate the importance being an upstander, rather than a bystander, if you see bullying happening to someone else.
Mrs. Thoner
3/4 ELA- As a follow-up to reading Rez Dogs, which is written in the style of free verse poetry, students worked on reading and writing rhyming poetry. They also continued their study of idioms and other types of figurative language.
5/6 ELA- Students have continued their close reading of Chains. They have also started to develop character worksheets which will be used as they write an original narrative.
7/8 ELA- Students have been working on creating individual children books about part of the Narrative of Frederick Douglass. They have also had good discussions around interpretation of the text, and what Douglass really meant when he said …..
They continue to work on their stories for Ellen Writing.
Ms. Bebell
7/8 Super Studies
The students have been learning about how more groups of citizens have gradually been granted the right to vote over the course of US history. They also prepared posters about political parties to share with the younger classes to help them prepare for our Mock Election next week.
We had our first boatbuilding class of the year! Eric Blake showed the students around the WoodenBoat campus and the Brooklin Boat Yard. Students will be doing boatbuilding on Wednesdays from 10:30-12:00 for the rest of the year.
5/6 Super Studies
The class has begun their unit on weather. They started by doing a pre-assessment on the water cycle and drawing clouds in their nature journals as they observed the changing sky after a storm. They are also practicing skills for reading an informational text by identifying key features in the text and finding where to find specific information as they need it. On Forest Day, the students journaled about evidence of fall and continued developing their forest civilization.
3/4 Super Studies
In preparation for next week’s Mock Election, the students have been learning about what a governor does and the three branches of government. They have been reading about the branches in small groups and discussing and writing about what they have learned. They have also been working as a class to complete an online simulation about preparing to be an informed voter.
Mrs. Sproul
3rd grade math. Students are learning about area, what it is and how to measure it. We measured shapes using square tiles and they learned how to use multiplication to to quickly determine the area. They were assessed on their ability to find the area of a shape.
4th grade math Students are continuing their work with understanding fractions. They are learning how to know which fraction is bigger. Again, this is a very hard concept to fully grasp and they are working hard at it. They were assessed on their ability to state which fraction is larger.
5/6 math Students are working on multiplication of fractions. They are specifically working on multiplying non unit fractions. They are learning how to conceptually draw them and figure out the product that way as well as doing it mathematically. They were assessed on finding the product both ways.
7th math Students are finishing up on proportions and unit rate. They will be taking a test on proportions early this next week. We also spent some time on multiplying and dividing fractions as it seemed to be slowing them down in figuring out proportions.
8th grade math Students have continued their work on similar figures. Toward the end of the week we worked with similar triangles which will lead them into working on slope. They were assessed on their ability to determine if various shapes were similar and if they were, they had to explain how they knew.
Algebra
Students are continuing on the work with linear equations. They are learning how you can use various rules to solve the problems and they do not have only one way that works. They are working on writing equations when given a situation (word problems). They were assessed on their ability to do this.
Mr. Kennerk
PK/K Students made construction paper jack-o-lanterns 
1/2 Students made construction paper jack-o-lanterns with scissors, crayons, and glue. We also drew a spiderweb and a spider.
3/4 Students polished off their gridded map project of Maine with some nice lettering and a compass rose.
5/6 Students did a grid of an image and replicated it, and then they chose both medium and motif to make each one it’s own.
7/8 Students did a grid of an image and replicated it, and then they chose both medium and motif to make each one it’s own.
Ms. Mindy Eaton
PK- In pre-k this week we learned about friendship and what each student looks for in a friend. They listed kind and unkind actions and how to respond to various situations.
1/2- In 1st and 2nd grade this week we talked about food groups! Students are beginning to learn about the “my plate” recommendations and categorizing foods based on what “food group” they are in.
3/4- The students were introduced to food labels and when/why people use food labels. Students each did a scavenger hunt looking at 5 pieces of various food labels. We compared these labels to see which were high in sodium, which were high in sugar, saturated fat, calories, and discussed reasons why things may contain more of each nutrient than other products.
5/6- This week we continued discussing food groups. Students filled out a “my plate” template and we discussed how many servings of each food group they should be getting each day. I handed out a daily food log as homework for them to choose a day (either weekend or weekday) to complete it to see how their nutrition compares to the recommended standards.
7/8- Students finished up working on their presentations and we will begin presenting next week.
