My Little Artists

On Saturday we all got to watch SpaceX launch 2 astronauts from NASA's Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. This week in art the students learned how to draw their own space rocket taking off into space. These came out amazing, and I truly enjoyed listening to all the children's videos. The excitement and smiles were priceless.

KINDERGARTEN NEWS!

What a busy week! You may have noticed that your eager learners have been given more and more choices regarding their learning and virtual assignments---and for good reason! Educational research points out the many benefits of Academic Choice. When given the opportunity to make choices, based on interest and learning styles, students feel empowered and confident. Likewise, they become more engaged; they think more creatively and tend to work with increased persistence.

Comprehension choice board encourage your super readers to enjoy stories of interest and then answer corresponding comprehension questions. Math choice boards are designed to offer a review of skills as well as mathematical challenges; and they're fun! This week kindergarten writers also chose topics and the types of books they wanted to write.

Offering even very young children opportunities to make reasonable decisions for themselves promotes autonomy, success and positive self esteem!!!

FIRST GRADE NEWS!

The first graders are back in full swing of things this week of school. They continue to reinforce previously learned math skills on the IReady and IXL websites. In Fundations, they have completed Unit 11 - Vowel-Consonant-E Syllables. They differentiated between closed and vowel-consonant-e syllables and built words with long vowels. Readers focused on using everything they know to get the job done quickly. They also investigated ways to make their reading sound GREAT…just like a reading star! These skills will help them to read more fluently, which will in turn help increase their reading comprehension. Congratulations readers… you are now a Reading Boss! Our first grade scientists learned how engineers study and observe animals to make new technology. They also learned about a special kind of engineer called a bioengineer. Students learned that bioengineers design things to help people and our environment. In Social Studies, students finished studying United States symbols, holidays, and national heroes. This week students began a new unit on “Our Changing World.” They will learn how people lived long ago in the past and how they live now in the present.

Second Grade News!

We are so proud of our second graders for their continued hard work and excellent work habits. Our second grade readers continued to work on their reading comprehension and vocabulary while reading fiction and nonfiction comparing texts and using reading strategies. In writing, the students learned how to share their opinions to persuade and how to use comparisons to express feelings in poetry. In math, we focused on collecting data using surveys and tally marks to create bar graphs, picture graphs and line plots. Exploring the seven continents has been our focus in social studies for the week, learning many new facts about each continent. Keep up the great work!

MUSIC NEWS!

Library/Media News

This week we are reading a story called The Serious Goose by Jimmy Kimmel.

For my bonus activity this week, I asked the students to send me their silliest faces. Faces they think would make the serious goose laugh.