Announcements
Next Week: There has been a lot of events to keep track of- and most take place next week!
-Just a reminder we have climbing next week. Please ensure that your child is wearing (or brings) a pair of shoes and clothes that are comfy to climb in (snow boots and dresses are not recommended). We will climb during our PE time of 1:45-2:35. If you have been trained, please sign up to belay. More belayers means that our crew has more time to climb and less time waiting in lines.
-Please join us for The Beat on Wednesday at 9-9:20 in the gym. Our crew will be presenting our expedition learning to the whole school, featuring our ABCs of Crew book made with Ms. Staci and a song with Ms. Liesl.
-And then my 2nd half of conferences will take place Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. My cheeks are sore from smiling- so many celebrations of growth from the first half of the year. Your child is welcome to attend this conference. If you have any outstanding questions or items that you would like to discuss, please email me so that we can set up another time. Our 20 minutes together flies by! :)
Planning Ahead: We have a lot of fun activities planned the last week before Winter Break. Thursday December 22nd, is our Winter Celebration, and we will have crafts, special activities, and a gift exchange with our buddies (all gifts are made in class). If you are planning to be out of town, please let the front office and me know ahead of time, so that we can plan accordingly for the supplies needed for each day.
School Newsletter: Check out all the updates and announcements in this week's school newsletter. School Newsletter Link.Thanks for staying updated!
Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities:
-If you are interested in being a lunchroom volunteer please sign up for our time 11:10-11:30 on this lunchroom sign up.
-Here is a classroom volunteer sign-up for days and times to come in.
Calendar
Weds 12/14 - The Beat at 9-9:20am (Our crew will be leading our all school meeting, sharing our learning from our first expedition titled We Are Crew, a song learned with Ms. Liesl, and their art from Ms. Staci). Families are welcome 9-9:30 in the gym.
Wed. 12/14 & 15 - 2nd half of Parent Conferences. Your child is invited to attend this conference. Here is the signup for reference:
Friday 12/16 - Community Reading 8:30-9am
Wed. 12/21 @ 9:00-9:30 - The Beat, Lower Elementary Drum Circle We are pleased to invite you to the REMS Primary Drum Circle Performance from 9-9:30 AM on Wednesday, December 21st in the Gym. This experience will be interactive, so be prepared to drum with us! (REMS will provide the instruments for you.) After checking in at the front office, there will be clear, designated areas for all to sit or stand. Our aim is to pack the gym full of music and community as our final celebration before winter break. Hope to see you there!
Friday 12/23 - Monday 1/9/23 - Winter Break
Crew Highlights
Learning Update:
Phonics: We launched a new unit this week,
Writers Tell Many Stories. We have studied the letter /
o/ closely and noticed it represents 2 sounds! We also are listening closely and practicing using the short o in the middle of words like
top, mom, log, etc. Consonants are easier for us to identify, so we practice noticing how our mouth "feels" when we make vowel sounds. We also added 2 new high-frequency words:
he, has. The updated list can be found here:
Updated HFW List Reading: We completed our unit Rules at Home and School with some. great reflection on the. main ideas of the books we read, the author's purposes, and how we built our vocabulary throughout. This was such a useful discussion and tied beautifully to our Expedition about being a Crew. In conjunction with Phonics, our new Reading unit is also Writers Tell Many Stories and the guiding question of "Why do people tell stories?" The first mentor text we are studying is called My Big Family and introduced our Crew to realistic fiction. We had great connections to the main characters' story of family coming to stay with him, his house feeling loud and crowded, and then quiet after everyone leaves.Other favorite Read-alouds this week have been: The Tiny Seed, How Many Cats?, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, and Snowmen at Night. Ms. Trena came to our Crew to read the Elf on the Shelf book to our Crew and introduce us to Sparkles, the REMS elf!
Writing: As we fix up our writing to "publish" (i.e. share with you at conferences), we noticed that we needed Cover pages! A cover page usually has a 2-3 word title that explains what the book is about, a picture and of course the author's name. We have continued editing our own work, this time with partners who give helpful feedback. I enjoy hearing our Crew ask each other questions and praise each others' efforts. Our scientific writing in Expedition on prairie dogs continues with labels, captions and sentences to explain what we have learned.
Math: We are working on lessons on Making 6, 7, 8, and 9 this week. We are using pictures, counters, and 10-frames to find the different combinations of numbers that make these numbers. Knowing all the ways to make a given total will allow your child to use multiple strategies to add and subtract moving forward.
Expedition: We have completed our Case Study on prairie dogs this week and how they connect to our learning about Crew. Check. out this awesome Venn diagram we created about our School crew and a Prairie dog crew! We have written several pages-worth in our Scientist notebooks that your child already has shared or will share with you at conferences. We will be looking at Community Helpers as Crew (first responders, medical professionals, etc.) next week as we bring this learning Expedition to a close. We also Drummed with our 4th grade Buddies this week, and it was great!
Wow! How exciting to have our new outdoor climbing wall installed over the weekend. Big THANK YOU for raising money during RAD for this new structure.
Here was our Venn Diagram with our final thoughts about comparing similarities and differences of how our class and prairie dogs work as crew.
Students picked one thing to write from each part of the Venn Diagram.
Some great learning and writing!
Ms. Staci is working hard to ensure everyone's ABC Book of Crew page is completed. We will be presenting these at The Beat.
Another great Wednesday of riding bikes. A highlight was our parade through the hallways!
Ms. Trena stopped by to introduce Sparkles, the elf.
Be on the lookout for Sparkles hiding around our school!
Our 4th grade buddies came to drum with us on Thursday.
It was such a big drum circle- I couldn't quite get everyone in one picture. :)
Have a great weekend,
~Ms. Lauren
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