Thank you to everyone for your patience and diligence, as we navigate this inevitable first round of quarantining for the Smarty Spiders. I am so proud of how well the students have done with all of the health and safety protocols at school, and I am confident we are doing what we need to do to stop the spread! I hope you all have a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving!
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Our essential question this week was "How does your body move?" So we had so much fun doing exercises and dancing during our movement breaks all week. We even made body diagrams with sidewalk chalk! We worked on reading and writing those tricky consonant blends too.
We started music class, and it was AWESOME! Ms. Kjellander (pronounced shell-ander) is a fantastic music teacher. This week in Math, we have been continuing our work with using a number line to solve addition and subtraction problems. We learned about Veteran's Day for Social Studies, and we are finishing up a unit about "plant and animal superpowers" in Science. We had fun reading and writing about friends this week, and we welcomed our new friend Carolina to the Smarty Spiders family. We made a new class book called "Friends Are Fun!" Check it out on Seesaw!
This week and next in math, we are working on using a number line to help solve addition and subtraction problems and/or to PROVE our answers to those problems. For example, when students are solving 6 + 3, they should start at 6 and hop up three hops to land on 9. Now that students have their Math Journals at home, they will regularly have more paper-pencil math assignments on their remote learning days. In Wonders this week we worked on the short O sound, blending and building words like hop, stop, log, and frog. Next week we will revisit consonant blends with words like SPILL, SPIN, GRAB, GRASS, DROP, and DRIP. Students are encouraged to "tap" out the sounds in the word and blend them together. Please encourage your child to read for 15-20 minutes each day. Even reading the same book 1,000 times will help your child, as long as he or she is pointing to each word. If you need help procuring some "just right" books for your child, please let me know. Please look for a Signup Genius invite for a parent-teacher conference in your email! Now that I have gotten to know your children, I am really looking forward to meeting with you to chat about your child's transition into first grade and his or her progress thus far. Have a wonderful weekend! ~Jess Willard We had so much fun celebrating Halloween here at school! We made spider toys and illustrated spider stories, and each of the students became a storyteller in our Spooktacular Smarty Spider Storytelling Theater! Please have your students tell their spider stories to you if they have not already.
We worked on addition this week, subtraction word problems, and ordering numbers. Students used flashlights to read Halloween books and to find sight words that were hidden around the classroom. We watched a Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat show during lunch, and at the end of the day we had a dance party and special snacks. All of the kids were so appreciative and so kind to each other! I am so very proud of all the Smarty Spiders!! This week I was hoping to get everyone started on our new platform, IXL. I know it's been a little tricky for some families, and I have some helpful hints... Make sure you choose "Sign in with Clever" and "Login with Active Directory" and then carefully plug in your child's username and password. It's a good idea to let your child practice logging in independently. This username and password will be following them throughout their NBCS career. Your child should have answered some questions in the Diagnostic Arena. Make sure your child clicks on the STAR (it says "suggestions from your teacher"), and then clicks on another STAR (it says Keep your Real-Time Diagnostic levels pinpointed!), and then clicks the green bar (Step into the Arena). Do not help your child with answers, and if he or she doesn't know something, have him or her click "I don't know this yet" on the bottom right. This step is important to keep the questions coming at a just-right level for your first grader. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns! |
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