What our Students are Learning

Ms. Newell and Mrs. Gillen

Pre-K: This week we introduced H, and we have had a lot of fun finding things in our room that begin with the H sound! We played a game where we had a whole group of objects that begin with E, F and H and we sorted them all out! We also have been playing a new game where we look and find all twenty-six capital letters on our papers…. It is challenging but we are all very invested in this game. In math, ask any of us the little poem that we say to remember how to write a 5! In our social-emotional work, we have been learning to speak up and use our words to advocate for ourselves.

Mrs. Courtot

This week in math some of the Viking Mathematicians worked on counting to 120 by 1’s , 5’s and 10’s. They looked for patterns as they counted. Some of them counted to 1000 and started to work on adding two digit and three digit numbers using their place value chart. Some of them used what they ate for Thanksgiving and learned about tally marks and made addition sentences by using how many students ate each food item. ( Turkey + Squash = ) All the mathematicians filled out a poster called Math About Me.It included their age, how old they would be in ten years and the number of letters in their first and last names. Some of them continue to write in their math journal and are working on writing two or more sentences with capital letters at the beginning and punctuation at the end. They continue to count the days in school using our place value chart and ten frames.

Ms. Bebell

7/8 Super Studies: The students practiced microscope cells this week by making slides of cells from inside their own cheeks and exploring our collection of prepared slides. While observing their own cheek cells, students were able to see the cell membrane, nucleus, and cytoplasm. They then had an assessment on cell organelles to match each organelle to its function. They ended the week with an introduction to our next unit on digestion. During boatbuilding class, they used saws and planes to trim the excess planking boards – now it really looks like a boat!

5/6 Super Studies: The students started their unit on Ancient Egypt this week. They read about the political and social structure and learned about the religious practice of mummification. They then mummified their own hot dogs and a lamb’s heart! It will take several weeks for their mummies to be ready for being wrapped in linen cloth and placed in tombs. On Forest Day, the class discussed the structure and geography of their own made-up civilization, and then we had fun experimenting with the strong winds with feathers, yarn, and paper.

3/4 Super Studies: In order to make comparisons with the life cycles of animals that we were studying last week, the students started learning about plant life cycles. They dissected flowers, learned about the genetic diversity of apples with taste tests, and examined various fruits and vegetables for seeds. On Forest Day, the class experimented with the strong winds with feathers, yarn, and paper.

Mrs. Ensworth

Morning meeting: K-2

Happy December was the theme of our morning message on Thursday. The new “December” poem by Maurice Sendak was also introduced. We always look for and find words and letter sounds in these poems.We started a new monthly weather chart and compared the weather we had in November to what we recorded in October. This week we started recording the temperature in the morning when we arrive and again at recess time. We compare to see if it got warmer or colder.A short read aloud called, “Perfect” was enjoyed as we talked about the fact that we don’t have to be perfect, just try to do our best. (A pencil and eraser tell this story)

Reading ALL levels:

All groups worked on RAZ kids one day this week which is an electronic reading program at each individual child’s reading level. After listening to and then reading the story themselves, comprehension questions are asked. Each child works at their own pace. The paper copy of “December” by Maurice Sendak was a delight to complete and color!

Reading: K

Our new books this week at Level B were, “Swim” and “Jesse.” We read words with the short vowel a in them and found the picture to match the word. We practice Fry words (sight words) weekly. We started a new skill with “making words” with individual letter cards.

Reading: 1st grade

This group continues to work with short vowel sounds and some long vowel sounds as well. New books introduced were, “Good Night Little Bug” and “Farmer Dan’s Ducks.” (Level D). These books focused on the short u sound. We practiced /u/ Words with whiteboards.

Reading: 2nd grade

In this group, we worked on the word endings “ed” and how to add it to different words depending on the vowel sound. The new book this week was “A lot happened today.” This book had many “ed” endings. We also started to learn about the endings, Ing/ang/ong/ and ung. A fun activity for this group was, “Reading the Room.”

Social Studies/Science: 1st/2nd

The unit of study this week focused on Rabbits:

Book 1: Rabbit or Hare?”, This book was told by Rabbit and Hare about their similarities and differences. Students had learning fun completing a HUGE Venn diagram and then their own paper copy. (North America) We then read this as a reader’s Theater piece.

Book 2: Draw a Rabbit, In this book, students were given seven specific directions to draw a rabbit. They were quite pleased with the outcome. Australia is where some of the oldest charcoal drawings have been found.

Book 3: The Hares and the Frogs, a Fable gave students a brief introduction to this genre. Aesop’s fables originated in Greece.

Book 4: Young Hare, the artist Albrecht Durer (Germany) shared watercolors he painted.

End of the Day: As we wait for buses to be called, students are listening to the story, “My Father’s Dragon.” We are almost through the first book of three.

Mr. Kennerk

Art- The grades created festive holiday arts and crafts. The 7/8 grade class did a fabulous jobs self motivating, delegating, and bringing their Craft Fair creations to life for their trip fundraiser.
Music
Student across the grades began rehearsals for the Holiday Performance coming up on December 15th. We are sing traditional Christmas songs and some select songs from the first trimester.
Library
I am happy to announce that we sold over $2000 at our Scholastic Book Fair. This has earned our school library over $832 to purchase books and library supplies from Scholastic.

Ms. Wilson

– K-2 students created a classroom compound word book, creating illustrations for the two small words and the compound word they created. K-2 students listenes to 2 variations of the Three Little Pigs to explore and identify: characters, setting, sequence, plot/problem & conclusion. Kindergarten & First graders practiced writing uppercase and lowercase letters using dampened sponge cubes on slate boards. The small sponge cubes promote and strengthen the child’s pincer grip, while adding interest to the task of refining letter formation.

PK/K classroom spent time in the afternoons in restorative circles to explore and better understand how our actions impact others. We are working to be more inclusive and thoughtful of others, and have agreed that saying: “You and you are my best friends, but YOU are NOT my best friend” is unkind… even though it is saying something kind to TWO friends, adding the “NOT my best friend” is hurtful. We have agreed that at school we will be friendly to everyone, and to let teachers and adults at home know if someone is being unkind or unsafe. Teachers and adults at home can help when they know there is a problem.

Kindergarten meteorologists of the day have begun recording the outside temp four times during the day: upon arrival, at snack recess, lunch recess and at dismissal. We are entering the time of year when the wind chill / real feel temperature will determine whether we have inside or outside recess. Last year the “real feel” needed to be 19 or above. Please label any accessories that may be discarded on the playground, gym, bus, etc…

Mrs. Thoner

3/4 ELA:

Students read and re-read The Wild Swans as retold by Karen Mockler (original by Hans Christian Anderson). They worked on their abilities to make inferences from given passages.

Students also worked on composing sentences and paragraphs using proper mechanics and spelling. They will be composing their own retelling of a fairy tale of their choosing as a culmination of our unit of fairy tales and fables.

5/6 ELA:

Students finished their reading of Chains. They also worked on narrative writing. We had lessons on figurative language, passive and active sentence structure, and analyzing themes.

7/8 ELA:

Students continued reading To Kill a Mockingbird. They also continued on their individual narrative writing for Ellen.

Mrs. Sproul

3rd math –

The students are starting a unit on adding and subtracting within 1000. We looked at different ways to add including using the expanded form of the numbers as well as using the partial product algorithm. We did some of this last year but we are moving on to larger numbers so they were reintroduced to the different strategies. They were assessed on using their choice of strategy.

4th grade math

The students are continuing their work with mixed numbers. It is fascinating to see the different ways they can manipulate fractions! Each student has their own way of doing it and they can all come to the correct answer. They are really learning to think through challenging problems. They were assessed on subtracting mixed numbers.

5th and 6th grade math

The students are starting a unit on multiplying and dividing multi digit numbers. They did some of this last year, but they are working with larger numbers. They started they unit by working with estimating and then worked some with partial product models. They were assessed on both topics.

7th grade math

The students continued their work with integers but as we moved into fractions with integers it quickly became apparent we needed more work with fractions so we will be taking a side trip and explore more with fractions before we resume with integers. They were assessed on integers and fractions.

8th grade math

The students are working with proportional and non proportional relationships with graphs, tables and equations. It is really exciting to see them begin to put all the pieces together and they get so proud when they figure out something on their own. They are thinking and discovering a lot in class and it is fun to watch! They were assessed on using different methods to find the equation of a line.

9th grade math

The students are working with inequalities and learning how to solve the equations and graph them. They were assessed on both solving and graphing.

News & Updates

What are the students learning…..12/5/22