January 12, 2024

Happy new year families!

I hope you had a restful winter break. This week we discussed new year resolutions and what some goals we might have for ourselves this year. We read the book The Wish Tree to inspire us and created ice ornaments to "hold" our wishes. The cold snap was also a great opportunity to talk about changes in matter (liquid to solid) and how quickly it can happen in below 30 temperatures!

With the weather being too cold for students to go outside, I hung the ice ornaments in our garden for safe keeping. Once the weather is a little warmer we will go out as a class to see them on display.

We also took advantage of the nice weather earlier in the week for a snow painting body break!

In mathematics we reviewed number bonds as well as the mathematical vocabulary "sum" and "addends". Students applied their knowledge of these into their January calendar. Grade 1s were encouraged to use place value to create their number bonds (10 + 2 = 12) while grade 2s were required to explore other ways to create the sum (7 +5 = 12).

In Social and Science we completed the third Sacred Teaching: Courage, as represented by the bear. Students were able to come up with many great examples of how they have been courageous in their lives. We also discussed that courage means doing the right thing even when it is hard, and having a growth mindset!

In writing we wrote about our winter breaks. Students were given sentence starters or frames to support their sentence formation. I loved reading about all the things everyone did!

In word work we began learning/ reviewing digraphs, which are two letters that make one sound. So far this year we have looked at "sh" , "th", "ch" "ck" and "wh". Ask your child what the actions and sounds are for these!

Words of the Week

each

she

how

will

other

about

out

Spicy words

never

farther

below

Grade 1s: at least the first 5 words

Grade 2s: all 10 words (spicy words are optional)

On Thursday students were introduced to a S.T.E.M. challenge - blanket forts! We talked about what blueprints are and why it is important for architects and engineers to create them to ensure they have a plan with materials that make sense. Students then created blueprints for their blanket forts and made them on Friday! I loved seeing their great creativity and problem solving skills.