OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:  JANUARY 12-16, 2026

Theme (science/social studies/literacy): This week we continue our theme on the states of matter. Students will work on the comprehension skill of sequencing, considering story elements you hear at the beginning, middle and end of the book. We will use the text we read before break, What's the matter in Mr. Whisker's Room? We will have an exploration time where students will get to explore centers related to the states of matter much like Mr. Whiskers did with his students in the book!

Writing: Students will begin the week doing some writing in their journals about their winter break! We continue to learn about using similes in our writing. Students will play a "Mingle and Match" game as they try to find a peer who has a sentence fragment that matches their half of the simile. Next up...learning about onomatopoeia and alliteration!

Language: The students will finish a learning check about nouns, verbs and adjectives. We have also been learning about plural noun spellings. This week we will learn the rule for adding "ies" to the ends of nouns to make them plural.

Bears: digraphs -ng, and -nk

Eagles: "r" controlled vowels -er, -ir, -ur, wor)

Heart/High Frequency Words: (Heart words don’t always follow the rules and we often have to remember their spellings “by heart”. HF words appear most often in texts) (Continued)

Bears: Review: by, my, see, one, once, two, does

Eagles/Seals: idea, if, important, its, keep, 

(Both grades are exposed and practice both sets of words) 

*In the next week or so, I will be updating you about your child's recent DIBELS "middle of year" benchmark assessment, as well as sending home some practice materials if needed!

Math:

2nd: The second graders are working on solving word problems using addition and subtraction. We will be adding two-step problems this week! Upcoming: adding two-digit numbers!

3rd: 3rd graders will review rounding and then work on subtracting two digit numbers. They will practice regrouping as well as subtracting across zeros. 

Both groups will be practicing math problems related to taking the MAPS assessment. 

Special Activities Last Week:  What an interesting week last week, with 3 unexpected snow days! Our two days together went quickly! Returning to school, we did take additional time to practice what it looks like and sounds like to solve problems peacefully with others. We started practicing saying "I can" statements, that encompass the kinds of students, teachers and school we want to be! The students made up motions for the first two statements! 

This Week: This week we'll dive back into the curriculum and reestablish routines together! We will also do some preparation for the upcoming MAPS testing. 

Announcements:

Marmot of the Week:  Kal (continued)

-January 5-First day back after break

-Swimming/Library dates for this semester: 1/30, 2/13, 3/13, 4/24, May TBD

-All School Center Dates: TBA

-Jan. 19 (Mon) Martin Luther King Day-No student attendance

-Jan. 20 (Tues) Inservice-No student attendance

-Jan. 23-Symphony field trip (JDHS) permission slip coming!

-Feb. 16 and 17-Parent Teacher Conferences

-Feb. 18-20 Winter Camp

*Please see ALL posted links for important information!