Welcome back!

      It's strange to return from vacation to a remote learning day, but teachers are looking forward to greeting students tomorrow morning for an in-person day of learning. It was busy in the days leading up to February vacation, so I didn't get a chance to create a blog post before vacation. Therefore, today is a double dose of information and pictures!

     Before vacation students were learning about and reviewing money/coins in math. They were able to see and hold all the common US coins, while also sorting and counting with them. Check in with your child and see how much they remember about pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. In literacy, students continued to do lots of partner reading and word study work. It's exciting to see how much each of them loves books. Before vacation students were also able to earn a classroom celebration for positive behaviors and have a pajama day! It's always fun for students to wear something unexpected to school and show off a bit more of their personality and preferences.

  

Unified Arts Update:

Art - We painted images of bamboo three weeks ago and then the week before vacation turned them into wall banners. We also folded red envelopes to hold some colorful money. All of this was in celebration of the Lunar New Year (sometimes referred to as Chinese New Year).

PE - We did skating, skating, and more skating! The ice has been great lately. Some of the teachers have gone skating with the group, and even Mr. Spence (one of our school custodians) has gotten on the ice with our class and shown off his impressive skating skills.

Enrichment - The weather was too cold for rocket launches three weeks ago, so we were weather delayed again. Instead, we watched an interesting episode of Weird, But True about building rockets. The week before vacation, however, we were finally able to launch our rockets in the gym. It was very exciting!

Music - The last time we had music class students heard a broad range of music from Louis Armstrong to Bruno Mars and practiced rhythm along with them. They were also introduced to the piano as a percussion instrument.

Our snow day before vacation and the extended February break prevented us from having Spanish and Library in recent weeks. If you have noticed that your child has had the same library books for a while, that is why!

Whole School Celebration

     This week we participated in a school-wide celebration. Every class in the school keeps track of positive behaviors, and when enough positive behaviors have been tracked in the whole school, we all get to celebrate. This time the celebration was a winter play day, so students got an extra 30-minute chunk of ice skating time! Our class has been loving ice skating in PE, and they were so excited to get another chance out on the ice rink.

     Student academic time continues to be strong with explicit instruction, practice time, game time, and some fun thrown in too. Our consulting OT, Christine Peterson, introduced students to a fun iPad game that makes practicing handwriting and proper letter construction way more fun and interactive.

Unified Arts Update

ART:  We used the other half of our watercolor paper to create paper lanterns. Some students brought their lanterns home already while others will be bringing them home at a later date as they are currently hanging from the ceiling of the classroom.

PE:  Students enjoyed skating one day this past week as well as sledding one day (since other classes were using the skating rink for the Winter Play Day Celebration).

ENRICHMENT:  Our rocket launch was delayed due to weather, so students added a few more touches to their rockets and watched a video all about NASA rockets.

MUSIC:  Students practiced some rhythm exercises and then began learning about woodwind instruments, specifically the flute. Some students really enjoyed hearing the flute music!

LIBRARY:  Our reading of Red Clover Nominee books was paused and students were able to explore with mini robots while waiting for their turn to pick out new library books.

SPANISH:  Students learned more Spanish words for different foods and practiced previously learned food words as well as previously learned number words.

     We also had a student earn a Good Citizenship Award in our classroom. Congratulations, Calvin! This is only the second time this school year that this award has been given. It is for going above and beyond to help classmates, teachers, and the larger school community. We are looking forward to awarding this to another student when we see them go the extra mile for others.

Reading Celebration!

      We had been reading through the illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone during our read aloud time for the last several months. We finished it last Friday and spent some time on Monday and Tuesday of this week (it's long!) watching the movie version of it. It was great for students to see another interpretation of it - they were able to get a picture in their own minds from the author's words, view an illustrator's interpretation, and then view a filmmaker's interpretation. Outside of our reading celebration, students continued to work hard this week on individual reading, partner reading, math games, and writing. 

     We not only work hard, though. We play hard too! When the weather was below zero, we had to move recess inside, but there were lots of fun games and toys for students to choose from. When the weather was above zero, students loved getting outside and playing in the snow.

As for Unified Arts classes:

     Art - We made folded paper fans out of half of the watercolor picture we painted the week before.

     PE - We went ice skating last Thursday and then did indoor disco bowling on Monday because it was below zero.

     Enrichment - We continued working on our paper rockets. They should be ready to launch this week!

     Music - We continued our exploration of different instruments around the world.

     Spanish - We reviewed Spanish words for colors and counting by 10s in Spanish. Then students reviewed and learned more Spanish words for different types of food. 

     Library - We read another Red Clover nominee book and constructed seed packets. Students should have brought these seed packets home with real flower seeds that they can plant in the spring!