December Updates

Well, winter has arrived in full force along with germ season. Please make sure your student dresses in layers and comes to school with snow gear. If your student is absent, please remind them to take ownership of their learning and check in with the teachers to see what they missed. Please also remind them of the importance of hand washing!

Please send your student with a warm coat as we are well into winter, and we get outside multiple times a day, every day.

Math

We are well into our third unit of the year where we are building on student understanding of fractions by exploring the operations of both multiplication and division. These can be challenging concepts for students as they have spent up to this point learning how these operations work with whole numbers. Fractions challenge what they know up to this point. Homework continues to be assigned on Mondays, and it is collected on Thursday during class. The purpose of homework is to build both independence and responsibility. If your student needs support, I encourage you to ask questions such as

When do you plan to complete your homework this week?
If they need help with a specific problem, ask them,

What do you know?
How would you start this problem?
What is it asking you to do or find?
Draw a model of the problem.

During our fall conferences, I spoke with many families about the importance of fluency with multiplication and division facts. Your students can practice these facts on Math Fact Lab and can access this program from any device using ClassLink.

Language Arts

We are in the middle of our read-aloud, The Benefits of Being an Octopus. This read-aloud allows us to have a shared literacy experience, so we have a common language we can use moving forward when talking about books. This is a fairly complex book that explores the impacts of poverty but is ultimately about finding your own self-worth and agency. Within this unit, we are also learning about plot elements, figurative language, and tons of academic vocabulary such as “protagonist” and “plot.” Ask your student about our Reverse Charades vocabulary review game. You might also talk with them about what they are learning about the interactions of the characters. We've been exploring how the characters interact differently depending on who they are with.

In addition to the vocabulary from the book, students are in leveled vocabulary groups using an online platform called Flocabulary. If they haven't shown this to you, please ask to see their color group vocabulary words video and lesson activities on Flocab. It's a fun and engaging way to learn even more vocabulary. Students take a pre-quiz before starting a unit and then, after completing the assigned activities, take a final quiz. They graph their progress for each unit. Most students recently finished their very first unit, so ask to see their Flocab graph showing their progress.

Most students have been doing an excellent job of being responsible and finishing their homework, many of them early. Most weeks, there is an "Extra Credit" option which, if they choose to do it, will earn them a 4 for their homework self-direction grade. I am pleased with the number of students taking me up on this opportunity. The extra practice only makes them smarter! If your student isn't reading at home, please help them make time for this important practice. Since we are doing a read-aloud, they don't get much independent reading time during school.

Thankful poems: Right before the Thanksgiving break, students wrote poems based on a mentor poem that we analyzed. Unfortunately, we ran out of time for most students to print them to bring home and share with you. Their poems are accessible on Google Classroom, and I encourage you to ask to see them. They were very heartfelt.

During Focus Block, I start with a short mindfulness activity so that students learn and practice these important self-regulation strategies. We've been learning a variety of mindfulness strategies and tools since the beginning of the year.

Students then work on assigned literacy skills on IXL while I meet with individuals or groups. IXL allows me to differentiate for specific literacy needs. For example, I currently have 3 levels of spelling being assigned through IXL. There is currently a December leaderboard going to add a little competition to this daily practice. Students gain points for correctly answering questions. You can ask them to see what skills have been assigned to them and their spot on the leaderboard. FYI: Students in Ms. Smith's Focus Block group are still being assigned work by me, and she and I are planning together to make sure we are targeting needed literacy skills.

Social Studies

We have completed our Science unit and moved on to our first Social Studies unit after the Thanksgiving break. This unit covers some information about indigenous people in the Americas before 1500 C.E. and why European empires wanted to lay claim to North America. Every few lessons, we focus on a new learning goal in the form of a question. When we have completed the lessons, we talk about what we have learned and answer the question as a class. This is kept on a pink paper in your student's binder. This week, we should finish answering “What changed and why when Europeans came to the Americas?” and begin exploring “How were the North American colonies diverse, and what caused their differences?” We will begin looking into this question by comparing the thirteen original American colonies and daily life in those colonies. You can support your student’s social study skills at home by talking about perspective when having conversations. It is also helpful to compare and contrast to look for similarities and differences in perspective.

Spirit Week

At the end of October, we had a phenomenal Spirit Week with the kids filled with fun and enthusiasm. Since we didn't do a November newsletter because we met with families at conferences, we are sending you the pictures to enjoy now.