Our First and Second Grade Class: December 2021

Friday, December 17, 2021

Almost There!

Happy Friday, Everyone!

I hope you all have had a great couple of weeks! The kids are doing so well, despite the excitement of the season. This will be the last newsletter of the year due to the short week next week.

Speaking of next week, we will be celebrating the shortest day of the year on Wednesday (see attached sheet). For our Day of Darkness, kids will be doing all kinds of activities. I am really looking forward to all of the activities and fun next week!

We have had a great time outside, despite the crazy weather. I am really looking forward to the snow over the weekend! Be sure to have your child’s snow clothes ready to come in on Monday. I am sure the sledding hill will be back open in no time.

If you are looking for beginning reader books for your kiddos, here is a place where you can find them for pre-readers and beginning readers:

https://dogonalogbooks.com/pre-readers/

https://dogonalogbooks.com/step-1-books/

The kids have started to use the iRead online platform during literacy time as one of their stations. They have also done work building words using letter magnet tiles and reading/writing their sight words. They are all doing a super job!

Again, we know screen time is a sensitive subject for some families and we are sensitive to it as well. Stations run 15 or so minutes for both literacy and math, meaning that your child’s screen time will be spread out over up to two times during the day totalling roughly 30 minutes. Sometimes kids will only get one, other days they will have none.

We have continued our hard work on counting and playing with dot cluster cards to practice and deepen their understanding of numbers and their general number sense. Some of them have also gotten a chance to start using iReady, the online math learning platform. The program assesses their math understanding and then gives them good fit work. We are able to track how they are doing on skills, assign specific assignments and monitor their progress.

We hope you all have a safe and happy break!

Take care,

Ben and Honi

Important Updates:

Drop-off is now be at the front door. We think our kindergarteners are ready to walk in with the big kids! Pickup will still be out of our back door. If your child is able to independently buckle, please let us know if you’d like your child picked up at the pick-up circle instead.

Conversation starters:

*What did you do in PE, Art, Library, Spanish and Guidance this week?

*How does the morning message start (Good morning, friends!)?

*What morning center is your favorite?

*Try "partner counting" with your student (you say 1, they say 2, you say 3, they say 4....).

*What did you play at recess?

*Look at the new photos in our photo album. They are great conversation starters!

Other Reminders

Class Blog

You can check out the blog here for the newsletter and resources

Pictures

The folder with class pictures can be found here.

Class Gear

Please remember to send in all the tools for the kiddos to be using as we go through the year (change of clothes, raingear, camp chair, etc.). Sneakers are the best daily footwear for students. If you need help getting any of those, please let us know, the school will be happy to help.

Book Order Information

With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS).

Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/XLZX8

Class Code: XLZX8

Friday, December 3, 2021

Happy December!

Welcome Back, Everyone!

It has been a wonderful week back here at school! The kids settled back into their routines and have had a great week of being kind, working hard and having fun! We watched a great little clip called “Caine’s Arcade”. The kids are ready for some cardboard on Monday, I can assure you!

The kids have done a super job getting used to our routines about getting ready to go outside. They are getting quicker and quicker getting their stuff on and making sure their clothes are hung up to dry when they come inside from recess. Getting more independent with these tasks is necessary to ensure as much time outside as possible! We have suggested to kids to get a stopwatch and practice at home getting dressed on their own to see how fast they can go!

We introduced some new words this week: love, and, and is. They are doing a super job picking up on their new words and reading them in some of our beginner reading books. We are also practicing writing these words using magnet letters. They are doing a super job! We also read a couple of great books, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins and Lots of Latkes.

We will be starting literacy stations over the next couple of weeks. Stations will include reading, letter writing, sound practice, online platform practice using iRead and word building and sorting. We will also be extending our math station options by including a station to practice skills using the online platform iReady. Both of these are endorsed by our district as acceptable learning tools.

We know screen time is a sensitive subject for some families and we are sensitive to it as well. Stations run 15 or so minutes for both literacy and math, meaning that your child’s screen time will be spread out over up to two times during the day totalling roughly 30 minutes. Sometimes kids will only get one, other days they will have none.

Next week we will be working on our math number books. Kids will be working on writing numbers, writing number words, drawing pictures and filling in tens-frames on their numbers 1-10. In math time we worked on dot clusters, making the number 10, counting to 20 and back by ones, counting to 100 by tens and using connecting cubes to build numbers.

We hope everything is going well with you all, please let us know if you need anything, have any questions or want to chat.

Have a great weekend,