Language Arts

Language Arts continues to be centered around reading and discussing good books, reading and writing letters, knowing letter sounds, reading and writing sight words and writing sentences about our pictures. The letters we’ve focused on are b, e, g, h, l, n, r, and our newest sight words are go, we, to. Please add these sight words to the list you have at home and make sure to have your kiddos read and write them. With our books, we have been retelling the stories by putting events in order.

Math

Math continues to be about numbers to 30, patters, and shapes. We have learned new math games that help with understanding numbers. We’ve practiced writing numbers, counting by 1’s, 10’s and 5’s, and using new math vocabulary. Some of the words/phrases we are practicing include: more than, less than, equal to, most, fewest, some, none. This month I also introduced vocabulary that tells about placement: above, below, outside, inside, to the left/right of, behind, in front of. We continue to use the calendar to help understand the passing of time, patterns, and weather.

Character

The past few weeks we spent more time talking and reading about empathy, then introduced the idea of “inside” strength. We read a couple of great stories where the characters had to show a lot of inside strength: Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, Those Shoes, and Clyde Monster. In all 3 books the characters had to make tough decisions about how to show strength.

Expedition News

Since a large part of our expedition deals with understanding the SIERRA norms, we continue to work on them daily. Sometimes it’s via books, sometimes outside during recess, and sometimes within the classroom.

 

Students have been learning to draw self-portraits with Ms. Lobo, our art teacher and expert. We are in the final stages, and they are looking great!

 

The children have also been practicing their photography with our expert Carolyn Gallagher. As part of their final product, they will be taking a photo of a staff member and also drawing a portrait.

 

The next few weeks we will be practicing our interviewing skills, so that in December we are ready to go out and interview the SELS staff!

Important Dates

November 19-23: Thanksgiving Break all week- no school.

Snow Reminders

Please make sure your child has a pair of slippers or inside shoes that they can wear in the classroom. At this point, the easiest thing to do is have the children leave the slippers/shoes in class for the winter season. Currently we have children bringing extra shoes to and from school, while others are not remembering to bring them at all. Children do not wear snow boots in class because they get the carpet all wet, and since we are sitting on the carpet all day, we want to keep it dry!

Please remember, the shoes/slippers MUST have a waterproof bottom since children wear them to get to and from the bathroom. Some children have mentioned that their socks get wet, even while wearing snow boots. Parents might want to send an extra pair of dry socks to school.

 

Please continue to have your child practice getting into and out of their snow clothes at home. At this point, they are doing pretty well getting changed on their own, but most are very slow. By practicing they will get quicker, which means more time to eat and play outside!