December

Hold On

Now that Fall Break, Conferences, Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and a host of other events have past us, we now have the holidays with which to contend.  We have four solid weeks before Winter Break and an ambitious schedule of academic content to complete.  Teachers ask for parents' assistance in keeping students focused on school, maintaining a consistent schedule, and ensuring healthy habits (eating, hygiene, sleeping, etc.) for the duration of the holiday season.

If you have travel plans that require your student to miss school days prior to Winter Break, please let teachers and the front office know as soon as possible.

Mixtures and Solutions

• We will begin a new science unit with a focus on physical science.  Specifically, students will explore mixtures and solutions. We will begin with definitions and properties of mixtures, and determine the difference between a mixture and solution.  Students will be able to separate both mixtures and solutions into their component parts, using filtering and evaporation. Students will learn about dissolving a solid in liquid and we will define vocabulary terms such as solvent and solute.  Students will test for solubility of a solution and how to saturate a solution.

• Following that, we'll turn to the concept of concentration of solutions and discuss how concentration and solubility are related. Conservation of mass is a central concept that students will be introduced to and they will see several examples.  We will conclude with different types of chemical reactions.

• This particular unit involves the use of a lot of materials in a hands-on approach. These concepts are challenging in the abstract. Seeing and creating concrete examples of the concepts is paramount to learning these concepts with any depth. Therefore, attendance in class is crucial to gain the full experience. Absences should be minimal during this unit, as much as possible.

American Colonies

Our focus has turned to the period of U.S. history known as colonization.  This period includes the time period following exploration of the Americas, including its impact on native people's civilization and culture.  

We begin with making the connection between the exploration of the Americas and the factors that led to colonization, including the ongoing effects on indigenous people already living in partnership with the land in North America.  We'll focus mostly on the English, French, Dutch, and Spanish colonies and the motivation for each.  Special emphasis on the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies will help us establish the major themes of colonization:  change, conflict, and diversity.  After that, we'll take a broader look at the thirteen original colonies by region:  New England, Middle Colonies, and Southern Colonies. All content will continue to honor and explore multiple worldviews.

Social Emotional Learning

Willow Creek is committed to teaching the whole child and has created a focus this year on teaching Social Emotional Learning lessons in the classroom. The program Second Step was adopted by the district and will be in use to guide instruction and discussions throughout the year. Students will learn to have empathy, manage emotions and solve problems in order to promote positive relationships with their teachers and peers and increase their feelings of school connectedness. Studies have shown that as students feel more connected to their school and peers they have more positive academic self-concepts, more motivation for academic success and more overall engagement for learning. Each month we will highlight for you a brief focus for the month to allow for continued conversations at home.  The Home Link pages will be linked to this section to support the discussion at home. 

December

• • Disagreeing Respectfully

    • Home Link

  • Responding with Compassion

    • Home Link

  • Introducing Emotion Management 

    • Home Link