Week of December 4th-8th

Hi Families,
It was a pleasure to meet with you all for parent teacher conferences. It is hard to discuss all of the strengths and areas for growth in adequate detail within such a short amount of time, so if you have any follow up questions or concerns, please reach out.

This short week of school was busy as usual, but students are showing great growth in their ability to follow routines and expectations. They seem to have collectively figured out the rhythm of the day and are often ready for the next lesson before I am!

We’ve had two really fascinating Special Guests recently. Before Thanksgiving, Jason Hall, Charlie’s dad, shared his love of music and the trombone with the class. On Monday, Gabriela Hortopan, Stefan’s mom, taught students about genetics with a very informative presentation. Students love these enrichment opportunities coming from their own families. Family members are always welcome to join us to just read a story –whatever you feel comfortable doing. We have more slots after the new year: Special Guest Mondays.

Important Dates

• Monday, December 18th: Special Guest Adam Fisch, Zev’s dad, will share about Medicine and Pathology.
• Thursday, December 21st: Class Winter Party from 1:00-2:05 pm. 
• December 25th-January 1st: Winter break. Back to school January 2nd. Happy Holidays!

Important Notes

• Ms. Kimball’s Class Winter Party: Thursday, December 21st from 1:00-2:05 pm. Sign up to volunteer to either lead an activity or support the activities: Ms. Kimball’s Class Winter Party Sign Up. FYI, students have a bonus Music class after the party from 2:15-2:40pm, which is why the party doesn’t run until dismissal time..

Here are some highlights from this week:

Community Building
This week we launched our next unit in our Second Step social/emotional learning curriculum on Empathy. We learned how to identify feelings and practiced making facial expressions to match our feelings. 

Literacy
We continue our informational unit on Bugs. This week, we focused on adaptations. Students read a complex text called, “Bugs’ Weird Bodies,” and learned new vocabulary words related to bug adaptations, such as, “mandible,” “proboscis,” and “mimicry.” Students then read about their own bugs’ physical adaptations from our library of bug books. We also continued practicing finding the main idea and identifying key details of our informational texts. 

Phonics and Foundational Skills
This short week we learned about the spelling patterns “tch” and “dge.” Students practiced reading and spelling words with those patterns, which are found at the end of words with short vowels. We learned that the letter “j” is never used at the end of English words, so if students hear /j/ at the end of a word, they need to use “ge.” However, they need to use “dge” if the /j/ immediately follows a short vowel sound. We learned that the added consonant “d” in “dge” helps protect the vowel from the “e,” which would make the vowel say its long sound if there was only one consonant separating it. Compare the words “page” and “ridge.” For word study, we practiced reading words with the “ew” sound and finding them in bug names.

Writing
This week students worked on taking notes about their bug’s physical characteristics and how they help the bug survive in its ecosystem. Students began filling in their graphic organizer addressing our third research question (What physical characteristics help my bug survive in its ecosystem?). Some students also practice summarizing our informational exemplar text, “Bugs’ Weird Bodies.” Definitely not an easy task!

Math
We continued in Unit 3  on Measuring Length. This week we measured long lengths and learned about the need for a larger unit of measurement: the meter stick. Students measured large “reptiles,” modeled with tape on the floor, in partnerships, and learned strategies to improve their accuracy. We then worked on making sense of measurement story problems, drawing diagrams to represent the problem and determining whether to add or subtract based on which part of the diagram was unknown.

Social Studies
This week we learned more about Maps. We learned new vocabulary words, such as “compass rose,” and “cardinal directions.” Students learned how to use a map and cardinal directions  to help them get to a specific location. They then made their own maps of the classroom and made a set of steps using distance and cardinal directions to find a classroom object.

​​Thank you for taking the time to read the update! Please reach out with any questions.

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