Weekly Update January 17, 2020

January 17, 2090
Hi all,
The highlight of this week was studying about Martin Luther King, Jr. and learning the significance of having this Monday, January 20th as a holiday from school. We watched a video and separated facts from opinion about his life along with exposure to some of the vocabulary surrounding the life work of MLK, Jr.
We also celebrated the 100th day of school by stringing 100 pieces of cereal. Our math focus this quarter is adding ones and tens with regrouping. (36 + 48 can be broken into 30 +6 and 40 +8)
We continued our study of the characteristics of mammals to include marine mammals. Each reading group read informative pieces about Orcas and Sharks and then wrote facts about them comparing and contrasting the features of mammals and fish for our Informative Writing process.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST is our LEARNING CELEBRATION/STEM FEST – each of the classes will have a table with the work the children have been doing recently. We have our animal classification unit work to display including paper mache mammals, writing, and a paper ‘quilt’ of animal classification criteria.
SAVE THE DATE – February 14th 12:40-2:30 – We’re having a State Birthday Celebration along with Valentine’s Day/Friendship Celebration. All the first grades are working together to create centers with engaging activities. We need parent volunteers and I will send out a Sign Up Genius shortly. If all the slots are filled, come anyway. We can double up on adults per group. Children may bring a Valentine for each child in the class, if they like. It’s a good opportunity to practice printing carefully – Here are the names of our classmates: Andrew, Austin, Caleb, Caroline, Cooper, Devin, Elona, Emma, Graham, Hudson A., Hudson S. Jane, Johan, Josh, Kellen, Lucas, Mya, Milo, Selah, Zerah – 20
WEATHER REPORTER OF THE DAY – It is our class’ turn to be weather reporter of the day next week. I asked the children who was interested and we put their names in a hat to draw our 4 candidates. Those children have a paper in their mailboxes to fill out. They need to tell a joke, the temperature, and have a word to describe the weather that day.
The Spelling Bee was engaging and we are proud of our representative, Mya and alternate, Hudson S. It takes courage to stand before a crowd and spell. It ties right in with our attempt to have weekly spelling words to practice. The words are based on our phonics study. If the list is too long for your child, practice the first 5 words and get them all correct. You can add a few more words as you have time during the week. We also practiced ABC order with our words. Next weeks’ words are – saw, paw, draw, haul, sauce, caught, fawn, lawn, launch, and author.
Ms. Gregersen