January Updates
Dear Parents,
Boy has our class been busy, busy, busy!
We have officially finished meeting all of our Super Kids! To celebrate, we had a Super Kids party for the class and everyone came dressed as their favorite character, so be on the lookout for those photos soon! Now that we have introduced all of the Superkids, we will start the Superkids Club. This is where the class will focus on blending letters to form new sounds that will help teach us reading skills, as well as segmenting sounds with spelling. We’ll also focus on comprehension with reading and will also work on more detailed writing assignments. There will be a new packet of words and information coming home this week, so be sure to check your child’s folder!
January had us working on our addition skills in math and I’m just so proud of these young minds! With each new lesson, we’ve met together as a group to go over each concept and within minutes it is clear that everyone is grasping it. We started out learning horizontal addition then last week introduced vertical addition and no one skipped a beat! We will move to subtraction soon as well in the upcoming weeks.
In science, we finished up our lab on observation and data and moved on to hibernation! This unit had us learning about all types of animals from penguins, to bears to ducks. On Monday we did an experiment in the lab where we had a bag of ice and a bag of blubber (homemade, don’t worry). Each child had an opportunity to put one hand in ice and at the same time, keep their hand in the blubber, while both bags floated in cold water. It was a unanimous vote that blubber definitely keeps our animal friends warm in frigid temperatures!
In social studies, we finished up our unit on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The class was very attentive when we played his, “I Have a Dream” speech and worked hard to come up with their own dreams for our country. This week we began our lesson on Mount Rushmore and the Presidents that are displayed on the mountainside. I have to say that social studies seem to be the favorite out of all subjects- the class is so full of questions and stories about Presidents. Our handwriting assignment this week was to write about what they will do when they are President. Mrs. Barlow is in the process of working on that board out front, so keep checking back to see what these awesome future leaders have to say!
Our weekly specials have also been keeping us on our toes. In art, the kids finished their cardinals (which you may have seen up around the classroom) and are in the process of working on another masterpiece. Mrs. Barlow will be sending these projects home soon! Technology class has been keeping our fingers typing and the kids are getting pretty fast. Before you know it, they’ll be typing up their own letters to the editor! Mrs. Goodson is teaching basic tumbling practices in P.E. and I’ve heard that even Mrs. Barlow is joining in on the fun. We’re still going outside for recess too and the past few weeks both classes have been enjoying playing soccer against one another on the field. It’s so great to see them get out and play, even if it’s a chilly winter’s day!
Also,
Look out for Information about what to bring for our Valentines party! Please make sure you send your child to school with an old shoe box wrapped in white paper by February 8th as we will be working on a class project together. Parent/Teacher conferences are coming up the week of February 18th as well and I look forward to chatting with you all face to face! Please be sure to sign up on our class Shutterfly account.
With love,
Ms. Porto and Mrs. Barlow
