Thank you for signing up for in-person parent-teacher conferences so quickly. If you'd like to meet with me regarding your child's 2nd trimester progress, please see my schedule, which you can find in your email.
We are looking forward to Monday, when we will have both "look-alike day" (school Spirit Day) and we will pass out class valentines. For look-alike day, please send your children in their new Grasshopper t-shirt that came home with them on Friday. We will all be look-alikes together. :) Also, please send your children with 24 valentines for the class. REMINDER: please only fill out the "from" section of the valentine, for ease of passing out, especially since we have PE on Monday-- our time for passing out valentines is a little shorter.
Language Arts
This week, we will focus on the sound ing as in ring, sing, and thing. We will be learning the sight word love. We are now up to 35 sight words. Please check the sight word link on the website (called "High Frequency Words") and make sure that your child knows the words we've introduced, as knowing these words is extremely helpful to writing and reading fluency.
Our stories this week will be valentines-themed and we will also have some non-fiction books about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
Math
We are continuing with Module 5 this week: Numbers 10-20; Count to 100 by 1s and 10s. We will be breaking teen numbers into "a ten and some ones," continuing to use number bonds and ten frames to model teen numbers as a ten and some ones, and continuing to reinforce counting to 100 by 10s and 1s, which we've been doing on a daily basis during calendar time. Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Art Vistas
We have an Art Vista lesson this Wednesday. It has been wonderful having these lessons in-person once again. The lessons always involve looking for a certain artistic feature in some lithographs by master artists, followed by a lesson that focuses on that feature for the children to encompass in their own art. This week's lesson will be on boats. Thank you to Agnieszka & Tiffany for presenting the lessons to our class.
Substitute on Wednesday
This Wednesday, I will be on campus, but not in the classroom teaching, as I will be completing assessments to prepare for parent-teacher conferences. The children will have a wonderful substitute, Mrs. Johnson, on that day, but I will be in & out of the room as well.
Kimochis/SEL
This past week, your child learned about being “excited” and the Kimochis® kotowaza or Japanese proverb—that accompanies this feeling: “Fun has to be fun for everyone.” This kotowaza inspires and encourages children to feel the positive energy of fun and excitement. Your child also learned how to control excited feelings. Play is an activity that is very exciting for young children. When children get really excited, they might engage in what is called “rough-and- tumble play.” Rough-and-tumble play helps children learn about their bodies. It can also serve as an outlet for active children and helps develop the frontal lobe of the brain, which is used to regulate behavior. This style of play teaches children to both display and read body language that indicates when play needs to change or end. Your child learned the tool called “Stop Hands,” which is a means to let friends know when the current form of play has gotten to be too much. Stop Hands nonverbally say, “I like you, but let’s play something else.” These are the four steps for Stop Hands: 1. Take a step back to make space. 2. Put up hands in a friendly way close to the body, palms facing out, fingers spread, to gently indicate, “Stop.” 3. Use a Talking Voice and Face to speak the person’s name. 4. Say, “Stop, let’s play something else.”
