Ms. Nicky and Ms. Julie’s News: The students have really been enjoying our STEM unit of study on Pets. So far, we have explored what a pet is, what is involved in caring for a pet, and who takes care of pets. When we discussed goldfish, students had the opportunity to use prototyping materials to create the contents in a fish aquarium. We’ve also had a chance to discuss a lot of new vocabulary, including responsibilities, aquarium, veterinarian, and non-fiction. As you continue to read at home with your child, it is great for language development to stop and talk about unfamiliar words and their meanings.
We will continue our Pet Study when we return from break, and then will start in on a STEM Unit of Study on Weather towards the end of January.
STEM Profile of the Month: Creative
“I use my imagination while thinking, making, building, and doing things.”
Books to encourage Creativity:
-Just Line Around by Kinsy McVay
-The dot by Peter H. Reynolds
MakerSpace: We have had several opportunities to visit the MakerSpace over the last couple of months. Each time we visit, students get the opportunity to explore new things. So far, they’ve investigated things like the wind tunnel, hammers and screwdrivers, the magnetic wall, a conveyer belt, different types of materials for building, and a new robot called Dash. We will continue to go in there on a regular basis and encourage students to be risk-takers.
Computer Lab We have also been visiting the computer lab every other week. We have been focusing on a website called ABCya, which allows students a variety of choices to explore math and literacy concepts, as well as work on fine-motor skills. Once everyone becomes comfortable with maneuvering the mouse, we will explore other websites.
Movement The students love the movement exercises that we do at the start of each day. We utilize GoNoodle and YouTube videos a lot for these activities, as well as many songs from Greg and Steve and Laurie Berkner. If your kids need to get their wiggles out at home, I encourage you to utilize these resources.
MyOn: Congratulations to Charley in our afternoon class for winning the MyOn reading challenge! Charley read over 5 hours on MyOn over Thanksgiving Break. We will be having another challenge over Winter Break. Please check out this great resource for reading with your child. Congratulations, Charley!
Working With Your Child at Home: We have been working on rhyming a lot in class lately. While some of the students really seem to be understanding the concept, many are not. Some ideas for working on this at home are:
-sing songs that have rhyming patterns and stop and point out the rhymes
-read books that rhyme and after you read a page, repeat one of the rhyming words and ask your child to say the word that they heard that rhymed with it
-say a word and see how many different words your child can come up that rhyme (they can even be made up words)
MATHEMATICS: Our Big Idea for Math for the month of January is Patterns. Some ideas of things you can do at home to work on this skill are:
– Picture Frame Patterns – http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/craft-activities/picture-pattern
-Use objects at home that you can classify according to various attributes, such as size or color. Begin a pattern such as Big Block, Little Block, Big Block, Little Block….Then, ask what would come next.
Attendance: Please make every effort to bring your child to school every day. We are learning new things each day, so it is important that your child is here to take part in that. Kindergarten is just around the corner! Our afternoon class has received the award for an attendance rate of 95% or higher for the last 4 months. Great job!! We are seeing quite a few late arrivals. Please make sure that your child is arriving on time for school daily, as it is very distracting to the class to have students coming in tardy.
Important Dates
January 4: Return from Winter Break
January 7: PTO-sponsored Pajama Day
January 11: All-School Movement
January 14: PTO meeting (6:00)
Jan 11 – 15: Whole school expository-focused writing sample window
January 18: NO SCHOOL-Martin Luther King Day
January 21: Harvest of the Month Snack-Mandarin oranges