December Newsletter 'Tis the season

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IMPORTANT DATES:

• December 10: MAP Math testing from 8:15-9:30 (Please be on time this day!)
• December 12: MAP Reading testing from 12:30-2:00 (Please don't schedule appointments during this time!)
• December 20: ALL SCHOOL Pajama day! We will snuggle up in our PJs and watch a winter/holiday movie with hot chocolate and maybe a winter treat!
• December 23 - January 6: NO SCHOOL Winter Break
• UPCOMING FIELD TRIP - Keep your eyes out for a permission slip coming home after winter break! We will be going to the Museum of Nature and Science on January 17, 2025.

CURRICULUM UPDATES:

• Math: We wrapped up our unit on addition and subtraction within 1,000 before Thanksgiving break. Your students are now able to compose and decompose tens and hundreds in order to subtract. Moving into Unit 4, we shift our focus to division! This unit is quite long so it will take us past Winter Break. The first two sections of this Unit focus on building an understanding of what division is and how it is connected to multiplication. After Winter Break we will explore multiplying and dividing larger numbers! I encourage everyone to have their students listen to our "Count by" songs at home during this unit. These can be found in our Google Classroom under the Math topic.
• Reading: Reading has been moving right along. We are in Module 5 which focuses on Teamwork! The kids have enjoyed this module so far because we have been reading realistic/historical fiction stories about soccer, track and field, and baseball. While reading, we have been focused on author's craft, author's purpose, and theme. The kids have started popcorn reading during class, so I am able to hear their fluency and some of them are adding reading with expression when it is there turn! For the last week and a half before Winter Break we will shift gears to study Winter holidays around the world. The kids will learn about Las Posadas, St. Lucia's Day, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Diwali, and Christmas. While researching and exploring, they will make a Book Creator that I am sure they would love to share with everyone over the break!
• Writing: The kids have been working hard on their fictional narratives! I have loved seeing their imaginations come to life and wacth their creativity blossom! I can't wait to read their published copies! Our next unit will focus on Personal Narratives. We will begin our unit brainstorming a bunch of different ideas of what we could write about. I encourage you to chat with your student about some fun, memorable experiences so they have some ideas for our brainstorming day!
• Science: Science has been a blast this unit! While it is a lengthy unit, it is full of fun, engaging, and interesting information. We have covered animal and plant life cycles where we compared and contrasted different animal's life cycles. We also explored inherited traits by identifying characteristics that would have been passed from parent to offspring. We moved our unit on to study spiders and the concept that they are born knowing how to weave their webs. We will wrap up our unit exploring animal adaptations and how they survive in different habitats.
• Second Step: We spent our time before Thanksgiving break focused on active listening and how to prevent ourselves from getting distracted. We are going to begin our next unit which explores emotion management. Here we will look at how to deal with big emotions and find strategies that help us when we do experience a big emotion.