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)

2/28: Birthday 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.