January 26th, 2024

Hello families,

This week in Social Studies students completed their honesty sketchbooks page which consisted of designing and creating a bookmark that represents their ideas about being honest.

In Science students worked in small groups to create infographics about composting. Their group received an excerpt of writing in which they needed to research and record the important information on their infographic, ensuring it is eye catching, clear, and informative. Groups began their rough drafts this week.

In math we have been focusing on addition strategies and a little bit of subtraction within number bonds. As we discussed different math vocabulary, we added it to our math trees in the classroom!

In writing we completed another free write. It is great to see the creative stories that students are coming up with! I love seeing students using the "G.U.M." strategy to first record their ideas, and go back to edit later. Grade 1 students also received their "Words, Words, Words", personal dictionaries!

During Daily L.A. the "read with teacher" station has been exploring nonfiction texts and focusing on comprehension. Students are also now independently using the Montessori green materials during the "word work" station as well as their spelling tic-tac-toe in the " spelling practice" station. Great work room 8!

In other word work students were introduced to the Words Their Way program. This is program that supports phonemic awareness within reading and spelling. Each student received a sheet based on their literacy level to sort and glue into their books.

Words of the Week
many
then
them
these
so
some
her
would
make
like
Spicy
write
number
between

*Thank you for practicing these at home with your child! I am seeing a big difference in many students' spelling. Spelling check-ins are sent home on Fridays*

As a class we took a tour of the classroom to review the expectations of Responsible Work Choice and the Montessori materials on the shelves. I am noticing that some students are always choosing the same material or activity during this time so I thought I would review how to use the materials to encourage some different choices.

In gym we continued with floor hockey and took part in some relay races to create a funny face, and mini hockey games. At the end of the week we have been taking part in "Fitness Fridays" to embrace healthy movement and allow students to try different exercises.