Important upcoming dates:
Check out what we learned this week:
Spalding
We have learned all 70 phonograms and will spend the remainder of the year reviewing and practicing them. Please continue supporting our practice by having your scholar tell you the sounds from the cards and giving them the sounds when unsure. Also, stress giving them the sounds and having them practice recalling the letters on their paper without seeing the phonograms. These essential skills help them develop their reading and spelling independence for 1st grade! Please encourage them to seek out their phonograms in the books they read and start writing sentences by sounding out and determining the phonograms that work.
Literature
We have now made it halfway through Mr. Popper's Penguins, and they have added ten baby penguins. They have also decided to take the penguins on tour around the country. We are excited to read what happens. With our unit on Fairy Tales, we read the story Little Red Riding Hood this week and discussed the importance of following directions and listening. In poetry, we read Little Miss Muffet and found all the rhyming words. We also talked about how to be brave and face our fears. We also began our new monthly poem, Rain, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Please remember to practice this at home as well. In grammar, we worked on using have, has, and had in sentences. We continued talking about how sentences tell us when something will or has happened. We also continued our practice of retelling stories by remembering the author's words and describing the pictures the illustrator drew.
Math:
We took a hands-on approach to introduce our addition unit to the students by incorporating number bonds and manipulatives. We began by emphasizing the concept of combining two groups to find the total, relating back to our previous learning of number bonds. Then as we moved forward we used tangible objects like counters, blocks, or other manipulatives to help us act out the addition equation and find the answer. Physically moving objects will help make the learning of addition more concrete to our students and is an essential step in Singapore math.
Science:
This week, the students applied their push and pull knowledge to create an obstacle course! We brainstormed ideas as a class about how we could implement barriers and different surfaces into our course to ensure it had different types of motion. In addition, we related our knowledge of pushes and pulls to other everyday items in which we use these forces, such as pushing a grocery cart or pulling open the refrigerator. We also enjoyed investigating push, pull, and force with a mini golf club. We set up a target area to see how well we could make the ball stop in the correct location.
History:
This week the children learned all about Symbols of the United States. We discussed the Statue of Liberty. The children learned that the Statue was a gift from France in 1885 and was designed by Gustav Eiffel (famous for a certain tower in Paris!) We also learned that the statue has 354 steps to the top, and 25 windows are in her crown. Another symbol we discussed was the White House. We learned this is where the president lives and it has 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 different levels! The children have enjoyed learning about the symbols of our country.