Friday, January 31, 2025

Weekly Update 1/31

  Important upcoming dates:

2/7: Half-Day - 12:30 dismissal
2/8: Daddy-Daughter Dance 6-8:30 pm (tickets on Payment Portal)
2/11:  Class picture day
2/14: Great Hearts Day - A celebration of Friendship (NO valentines)
2/17: No school - President's Day
2/21Birthday Book Club, Treat Friday, Spirit Wear Day
2/28: School Field Day
3/4: Kindergarten graduation pictures
3/7: Early Dismissal at 12:30
3/10-3/14: Spring Break

**Field Trip for Kindergarten is scheduled for May 9th - more info to come **

Check out what we learned this week:

Spalding

We continued to review the 67 phonograms and will use the rest of the year to practice and memorize them. Next week, we will learn the final three phonograms to complete our 70. Please continue with nightly practice, choosing 10-15 for the week to focus on. Choose some familiar for continual practice and some your child struggles with memorizing. This week, we also learned the final job of e                                                                  

Job 5: 

(shrug?) job 5

(shake head) no job e


Please encourage your child to begin writing words and sentences using their knowledge of phonograms to sound things out. Try not to spell words for them so they gain confidence in trying it by themselves. If they are stuck, help them hear the sounds by drawing the word out sound by sound. Remember, we are not focused on spelling in kindergarten but want the concentration on what sounds they hear and using a phonogram that makes those sounds. 


Literature:

Continuing with Mr. Popper's Penguins, we have been introduced to a new penguin named Greta. The Popper's had realized Captain Cook was lonely so now he has a friend. We enjoyed seeing how the family adapted to having 2 Arctic penguin pets We also read the Fairy Tale, The Wolf, and the 7 Kids. We discussed the importance of listening to our parents and how people can like different things and still be friends. In poetry, we talked about the poem Humpty Dumpty and learned it might have been about a cannon that fell off a wall and broke. In grammar this week, we practiced past, present, and future sentences with the words go, goes, and went. See if you can build sentences at home. 


Math

We finished up our unit on Measurement by taking a final assessment. Then, we took another cumulative assessment of what we have worked on this year, reviewing part, part, whole, teen numbers, and Measurement. We then began our new addition unit, returning to our previous knowledge of part, part, whole. We began to see how to use a picture to create a story and use cubes to count out how many we had. We are now working on basic concepts that will benefit students as they progress in math. 


History:

We continued our Unit on Africa by learning about Egypt where the children learned about hieroglyphs and decoded a message. They also learned about the vegetation in Egypt, how it is very dry, but right next to the Nile River it is beautiful rich green vegetation. We also learned about the country of Nigeria. The children were interested to learn about all the different animals that live in Nigeria. 


Science:

We continued our unit on pushes and pulls this week. The students understand that a push or pull causes any change in motion. We discovered the directions in which changes in motion can occur: left, right, up, and down. We also discussed the word collision and how that relates to a baseball and a bat. We played with bean bags to practice where motion starts, how it changes direction, and what makes it stop. We understood that a pitcher starts the ball's motion, the batter changes the direction of motion, and finally, the person who catches it stops its motion. 

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Weekly Update 1/24

 Important upcoming dates:

LOVE AND LOGIC Parent Class Event Details:

📅 Date: Tuesday, January 28th
 Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
📍 Location: Archway Lincoln MPR

 We encourage every parent to join us for this special evening. Please Sign Up HERE!

We know how important it is to support our students both in and outside the classroom, and we believe this evening will empower you with tools to do just that. Parenting doesn’t have to be perfect—just consistent, caring, and intentional. 

1/31: Treat Friday, Birthday Book Club, Spirit Wear Day
2/7: Early Dismissal at 12:30
2/8: Daddy-Daughter Dance 6-8:30 pm (tickets on Payment Portal)
2/11:  Class picture day
2/14: Great Hearts Day - A celebration of Friendship (NO valentines)
2/17: No school - President's Day
2/21Birthday Book Club, Treat Friday, Spirit Wear Day
2/28: School Field Day
3/4: Kindergarten graduation pictures
3/7: Early Dismissal at 12:30
3/10-3/14: Spring Break

**Field Trip for Kindergarten is scheduled for May 9th- more info to come **

Check out what we learned this week:

Spalding

We are so close to knowing all our 70 phonograms. Keep reviewing 1-67 by picking 10-15 at a time. Recognize which ones your scholar struggles with most and keep them in rotation for a few weeks to help them memorize as you do the cards. Remember, reviewing cards should be a nightly activity, and it is perfectly fine to tell them the sound if they are stuck and have them repeat it after you. We talk about using three senses to practice: sight (reading the phonogram), sound (hearing ourselves say it), and (touch) using and feeling our mouth/tongue to make the sounds. We also learned a new job for silent e. 

Job 4

Job 1, 2, 3, 4

Syl-la-ble----CHeck!

Every syllable needs a vowel.

Math

We extended our learning of measurement from length, to height this week. We discussed the vocabulary terms; short, tall, shorter, and taller. We also started to measure objects (length and height) with nonstandard units. We measured with hands, cans, and blocks mostly. This is always a fun way to introduce measurement as the kids use silly objects to measure. At one point the scholars rolled up a piece of construction paper and searched the classroom for taller and shorter objects and then shared their findings with their peers.

History

This week we learned about the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The children learned about his life and how he believed all people should be treated equally no matter what they looked like or where they were from. Race is a difficult discussion to have with children, so we always emphasize it's what is on the inside that counts. To display this, we had two plastic eggs. They were the same size, but different colors. We talked about the differences and then we opened the eggs to find what was inside. There was a paper heart to represent love and kindness, a rubber band because everyone can be flexible when different situations arise, an eraser because we all make mistakes and can learn from them, and finally a penny because everyone has value. The children enjoyed this lesson and had a lovely discussion about the different people that made the Civil Right Movement possible. 

Science

Our Push and Pull unit continued investigating how various 3D shapes will move. We played with our playdough and explored how it reacts when we push and pull on it. We realized that the motions of pushing and pulling play a significant role in our daily lives.

Friday, January 17, 2025

Weekly Update 1/17

 Important upcoming dates:

1/20: No School - MLK day
1/22: Class celebration:100th day of school -- Birthday Book Club, Treat Friday, Spirit Wear Day
2/7: Early Dismissal at 12:30
2/8: Daddy-Daughter Dance 6-8:30 pm (tickets on Payment Portal)
2/11:  Class picture day
2/14: Great Hearts Day - A celebration of Friendship (NO valentines)
2/17: No school - President's Day
2/21Birthday Book Club, Treat Friday, Spirit Wear Day
2/28: School Field Day
3/4: Kindergarten graduation pictures
3/7: Early Dismissal at 12:30
3/10-3/15: Spring Break

**Field Trip for Kindergarten is scheduled for May 9th - more info to come **

Check out what we learned this week:

Spalding: The children are becoming so confident with the Spalding Phonograms! As a reminder when practicing, please focus on 10-20 cards only. Choose some they are confident with and some that need extra practice. Please go through the set only twice, telling them the sounds when they are stuck to help them begin to retain it. Phonogram cards should be quick and simple. We have also continued talking about the jobs of silent e. We have rhymes we will learn to help us identify what the other letters are doing when we read. 
Job 1  (ex: time)                        Job 2   (ex: have, blue)
Vowel, Consonant, E                   English words don't end in v or u
Jump 1, Scare 1, Job 1                Job 2

Literature:  We read more of our chapter book Mr. Popper's Penguins and got to the chapters where Mr. Popper receives a gift from a famous explorer. Can you guess?? The children were delighted to hear about a penguin as a pet. Mr. Popper named the Penguin Captain Cook after the explorer, but also after the sound the penguin made 'gook!' We also learned about prepositions and how they are the linking words between the subject and action of a sentence.

Math:  The children are enjoying learning about measuring in our new Chapter. We have measured using our connecting cubes, and comparing the lengths of things being introduced to longer, shorter, taller, and smaller. We don't always need a ruler to measure!

Science: We've enjoyed learning about Pushes and Pulls this unit. The children learned how to change the direction of where something moves, by aiming, hitting it, and applying force. the children watched a demonstration of soccer goals to learn about changing the direction of pushes.

History:  In History, we traveled to the continent of Africa. We learned about some of the different terrains in this huge continent and some of the different animals that make Africa so special. We also learned about the country of Kenya and learned there are over 60 languages spoken there, and that many large animals live on the savanna, where there are 2 seasons. Wet and Dry.  

Monday, January 13, 2025

Weekly Update 1/10

 We hope you enjoyed some family time over the break. Thank you for meeting with us to talk about how your scholar is doing and goals that we have for the remainder of the year!

Important upcoming dates:

1/11: Grandparent Bingo Night
1/20: No School - MLK day
1/22: Class celebration:100th day of school 
1/31 Birthday Book Club, Treat Friday, Spirit Wear Day
2/7: Early Dismissal at 12:30
2/8: Daddy-Daughter Dance 6-8:30 pm (tickets on Payment Portal)
2/11:  Class picture day
2/14: Great Hearts Day - A celebration of Friendship (NO valentines)
2/28Birthday Book Club, Treat Friday, Spirit Wear Day
2/17: No school - President's Day
2/28: School Field Day
3/4: Kindergarten graduation pictures
3/7: Early Dismissal at 12:30
3/10-3/14: Spring Break

**Field Trip for Kindergarten is scheduled for May 9th- more info to come **

Check out what we learned this week:

Spalding
We have now learned phonograms 1-58, 60-62, 67. When practicing, please focus on 10-20 cards only. Choose some they are confident with and some that need extra practice. Please go through the set only twice, telling them the sounds when they are stuck to help them begin to retain it. Phonogram cards should be quick and not something you spend a long time on. We have also started talking about the jobs of silent e. We have rhymes we will learn to help us identify what the other letters are doing when we read. 
Job 1  (ex: time)                        Job 2   (ex: have, blue)
Vowel, Consonant, E                   English words don't end in v or u
Jump 1, Scare 1, Job 1                Job 2


Literature

We are reading a new chapter book called Mr. Popper's Penguins and have enjoyed four chapters. We learned Mr. Popper loves learning about the Arctic and Antarctic. He heard over the radio that a surprise would be coming to him sent from Antarctica, and the family was gifted a penguin. Now, they need to learn how to care for it. We also began our unit about Fairy Tales. We have read the traditional Goldilocks and other fun versions. We continue to practice hearing and retelling the story from the beginning, middle, and end. We are working at giving as much detail as possible and going in the order of events. In poetry, we heard the poem Hot Cross Buns. We learned that people would say this while trying to sell the buns. In grammar, we talked about action words. We had fun doing movements and trying to figure out what their opposite action might be.          

Math

We wrapped up Chapter 7 this week. The students were assessed on their teen number identification and formation, along with ascending/descending order of numbers 1-20. We also began Chapter 8, shifting our focus to measurement. We began comparing objects using vocabulary "longer" and "shorter". We discussed the importance of lining up the objects we are comparing at the same starting point to collect accurate data. 

History

This week in history, the children traveled to Africa! We learned about some countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco. We also learned about some of the wildlife that live on the great continent. The children learned how to play the game Mancala and did very well taking turns and putting one bean at a time in their containers. 


Science

This quarter, we began a new unit to learn about motion. We started by focusing on pushing and pulling. We discussed that pushing moves objects away from us and pulling moves objects closer. We explored how we use push and pull motions while we play at recess and what happens when our push or pull meets resistance. We investigated the difference in movement from a flat, smooth service to movement across sand.