Windmills by grades 1/2
Constellation
What are students learning…..
Mrs. Courtot’s K-2 Math
This week in Math the K-2 Mathematicians continued to work hard. Some of them continued to work on adding and subtracting to 20. Some worked on time to the hour and half hour and others worked on making change and counting money. The kindergarteners worked on subtraction to five and learned the words’ difference, minus and what the word subtraction means, to take away. We played our favorite game high – low and solved many number sentences. We read a book called If I were a minus sign. All the classes talked about the 100th day of school which is coming up soon. The students can bring in 100 of something. We will be doing fun 100th day activities on that day too.
Mrs. Thoner
ELA 3/4–Students continued their investigation of how various countries provide access to books to their children. This week we looked at Finland and Indonesia.
ELA 5/6–Students continued reading Gilgamesh. The focus has been on the hero’s journey and on legends of various cultures.
ELA 7/8–Students continued their study of Alexander Hamilton’s childhood and the history of slavery in the Caribbean.
Ms. Newell and Mrs. Gillen
Pre-K: This week we learned about Q. We learned about how shy it is and always likes to show up in words with its best friend U! Because we are learning the difference between letters and numbers, sometimes we do a little bit of both during our learning time to sort out these different shapes. There have been lots of interesting discussions on whether a shape is a 1 or a capital I or a lowercase L, and when we would expect to see these different shapes! In our social-emotional work we have been talking about working with friends who are not always our first choice to work with, and that we need to show kind feelings towards everyone.
Ms. Bebell
7/8 Super Studies–This week, the students began their unit on the reproductive system. During boatbuilding, the students started adding the inner gunwales along the inside edges of their boat.
5/6 Super Studies-This week, the students started planning their final project about simple machines, where they will be building Rube Goldberg machines. During Forest Day, the students explored their own “civilization” in the woods. They were able to track animals, build structures, and look for maple trees to possibly tap for sap later this winter.
3/4 Super Studies–This week, the students started a unit on coding. They worked on creating block code to create commands for a simple video game and then applied that kind of thinking to controlling the Spero Indi robots. During Forest Day, the students created yarn webs between trees in the woods and they are looking forward to seeing how these change over time because of weather and animals.
Celtic Stars
Ms. Baird
In kindergarten literacy this week, we worked on short a and short i sounds in cvc words. We read a few level C books and worked on mixed up sentences, where the students built the sentences from the books we read.
In first grade literacy this week, we worked on all short vowel sounds in cvc words. We read a few level E books and each student got to make sentences from the book from scrambled words.
In second grade literacy this week, we worked on how the silent e at the end of a word makes the vowel say it’s name, or makes the long vowel sound. We read a level H book, and made sentences from the book with scrambled words.
In science and social studies this week, we leaned about how wind is measured and what it does on land the stronger it gets. We played a jeopardy game to review what we have learned in our science and social studies class over the year.
Ms. Eaton
PK/K: This week students learned about water safety. Students discussed safety rules their families have regarding water and we discussed general safety recommendations. We read the book A Treasure At Sea for Dragon And Me by Jean Pendziwol, where a boy helps his dragon learn safety while at the beach. We began talking about bathtub safety and students started their Bathtub Duck safety book.
1/2: We continued to discuss safety with strangers by reading the kids health article and doing the “Safetyland” worksheet.
3/4: We continued learning about GERMS this week. Students grouped with a partner to do an acronym of GERMS using words to describe what we know about germs. We used our GloGerm kit to see how germs spread from place to place and viewed our hands under a black light after washing them to observe areas we may be missing.
5/6: Due to the delay on Tuesday, students missed their regularly scheduled health class. However we are continuing our nutrition unit and are currently discussing the American Heart Association recommendations regarding sugar. We’ve reviewed the current recommendations of a maximum of 25g of added sugar/day. We converted this into tsp (6tsp/day) and measured it into a plastic baggie. So far we have looked at a chocolate milk label, coke can label, and an energy drink label and measured out the added sugar in each of these products.
7/8: Students began learning about nutrition. They learned about what “MyPlate” is and discussed the importance of fruits and vegetables. Students learned that they should consume approximately 1.5-2 cups of fruit each day and 2-3.5 cups of vegetables each day. Students were encouraged to observe how closely they follow these recommendations throughout the week as we will talk more about it next Tuesday.
Ms. Julie
This week K-2 Writers practiced grace and courtesy while listening to each other’s writing.
When a student shares, others will:
-Look at their writing
-Listen to what they are saying
-Have a quiet mouth
-Keep body still
-Give a compliment or ask a question by raising a hand and waiting to be called on by the student.
A favorite writing prompt for students this week was sharing something they love to do, or something that they are very good at. We are working to identify and use upper case/ capital letters to begin a sentence, and to use punctuation marks at the end of a sentence.
PK/K students made playdough that turned out a little too sticky to really use, but we enjoyed integrating flour into the sticky mess to make workable dough. Kindergarten meteorologists have been tracking and recording the temperature and the chill/ “real feel” temperatures, and noticed that on days it is sunny with no wind, it is warmer & that it is often warmer at the lunch recess than it was when we arrived. We are very curious about all the numbers on our school’s weather station and will be starting to record additional stats this week. We discussed why we have “late starts” and “early release” days at school, and about the possibility of a snow day on Friday. We all agreed that we wanted a snowy SCHOOL day, because we all want to play with our friends at school!
Mrs. Sproul
3rd grade math–We had a short week this week and the students worked more on multi digit subtraction. We finished that section on the unit and they will take a short quiz on this at the beginning of the week. Please be on the lookout for some exciting ways to practice math facts at home.
4th grade math –We had a short week this week and the students worked again with fractions. We will keep circling back to them to solidify them in their minds. Please be on the lookout for some exciting ways to practice math facts at home.
5th and 6th grade math–We are working with decimals and spent time looking at one thousandths value comparing it to hundredths and tenths. We looked at it on grids and compared it to equivalent fractions. They were assessed on showing the decimal on a grid. Most of them are doing well with their math fact practice at home.
7th grade math–We continue to work with expressions and equations and I am really stressing how to use algebraic notation. That way if they get the incorrect answer both of us can look back at their work and see what mistake they made. It also prepares them for more complicated problems. Even though they can do some of them in their heads it is important to learn the correct way to “show their thinking” .
8th grade math–We worked more with linear equations and using different strategies to solve them. We are also focusing on using algebraic notation so they can catch any mistakes they may have made. They were assessed on solving some equations.
Algebra–We were hopeful to finish up the unit on two variable statistics, but mother nature did not agree with us. We have one more day of lessons and review and then we should be ready for the unit assessment.
Mr. Kennerk
PK/K–After exploring the letter O in ELA, we traced circles and overlapped them into a Vinn diagram. We then talked about primary and secondary colors and applied combos into the diagrams.
1/2–In ELA, students read about Piet Mondrian, a Dutch Art theoretician who focus on primary colors, so we replicated a famous painting of a windmills lo in blue and red.
3/4–Student completed a block focusing on Celtic knots in enhancement of the Norse myths they are experiencing every Friday.
5/6–We started a neighborhood/town scape with cardboard and TP/PT rolls. Students teamed up or went solo in their endeavors. This complements the skill of mapping that we practice frequently in conjunction with Super Studies or ELA content, yet we are stretching out into a 3D scape. *Sorry, no images yet available.
7/8–Students have laid down the foundations of a chalk piece by composing the colors in a movement around the paper and blending it in with their fingerprints. The next step will have them observing how to bring an image from the natural movements left by smudging, and the endeavor to tease out of the movement a definitive image. I’ve done dozens of these…this is what I found in my last.
5/6 –Students completed their compass construction of an ancient symbol found within many different cultures including Ancient Greece.
Vitruvian Human (Di Vinci) Interpretation
2023 B-Team Round Robin Schedule 1/28/23
Calendar
January
1/26 Basketball practice Girls 3-4:30 PM, Boys 4-5:30 PM
1/27 Teacher Workshop Day—No School
1/28 B Tourney in Brooklin
February
2/1 Basketball game home vs DISES 4PM
2/17 Early release at 12:30PM
2/20-2/24 VACATION
