Because we are prepping for our school-wide spelling bee in February, we won’t be doing our typical spelling lists and tests for the next 4 weeks. Instead, we will be using the spelling lists I sent home last week (titled SCRIPPS National Spelling Bee list) to practice during the week and then do classroom spelling bees each Friday. The classroom bees will be very simple and lowkey and allow three chances to spell each word correctly. I will do my best to make sure they are not stressful and that the children are able to learn and also enjoy the process. I will send out regular spelling lists again after February 22nd.

I sent home a list with each child in the class, but if you have lost yours or would like another copy, please let me know and I’m happy to send another one home. Thank you and please let me know if you have any questions!

This past week was STEM week and the children LOVED it! We got to see the 6th and 8th grade science fair projects, learn about caves and rock stratification as well as do hands-on chemistry, but I think the two things they loved most were the pop-up planetarium and the Scales and Tails reptile show. More than anything, we wanted the kids to come away having a new appreciation and excitement for science, technology, engineering and math, and I think we succeeded!

If your child has not yet brought in their STEM-related home project, please complete that and bring it to school this week! Our 3rd graders will be displaying their projects on Wednesday, the 2nd graders on Thursday and the 3rd graders on Friday of this week in the hallways and we have already begun showing our projects in the classroom, which has been a lot of fun! We will continue with that this week.

Upcoming Events:

School-Wide Chili Cookoff on Janaury 29th – see school newsletter for more info!

Fun Run on February 1st – more details coming!

NOTE: If you are practicing spelling at home and your child is in a group where I have written “beginning sound only,” this doesn’t always mean just the first letter. For example, this week the orange group is learning the sp, sk and sm blends. In order to get credit for a correct answer on their test at the end of the week, they will need to write the first TWO letters of the word. Also, this week I am repeating the yellow group’s word list from last week since no one did well on the test. In all cases, this was because they didn’t understand or write the second letter of the beginning sound. For example, many students wrote “qw” at the beginning of words instead of “qu.” Please let me know if you have any questions!

Pink Group (beginning sound only) – fox, can, hose, deer, fan, horn, cow, dice

Red Group (beginning sound only) – cat, hand, chair, cake, heart, chop, coat, hat, chin

Orange Group (beginning sound only) – spoon, skate, smile, smell, spear, skip, spill, smoke, skunk

Yellow Group (beginning sound only) – wheel, quilt, twin, key, whip, quack, twelve, kite, quite, twenty

Dark Green Group – chop, hole, hot, stove, come, hose, joke, rock, rose, some, broke, spot

Green Group – froze, coal, show, stock, coach, lose, Rome, long, oat, row, blow, globe, close, loaf, know, mow

Blue Group – soon, good, cool, could, groom, foot, roost, noon, hook, tool, proof, wool, fool, brook, stool, should

This week is our school-wide STEM week. We have multiple special activities every day this week including hands-on chemistry, a planetarium show and more. It should be a fun and exciting week for the children!

The 6th and 8th grade science fairs will be open for parents to walk through on Wednesday from 2:30-4 in the junior high gym.

Our STEM-related home projects are due this coming Friday, the 18th. As a reminder, 1st graders are researching a scientist, 2nd graders are working with the scientific method (can be a traditional science project) and 3rd graders are looking at laws of motion and forces and/or simple machines. Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

This past week, we focused again on reestablishing classroom norms and returning to our full curriculum. Second- and third-graders began using Steck-Vaughn as a reading comprehension curriculum and they will be focusing on the six areas of comprehension (facts, main idea, sequence, context, conclusion and inference) as they read texts throughout the year. We reorganized some of our spelling groups as well as our Dyad Reading partners and also began our second round of Math-U-See assessments. It was a busy week!

Because of all the information I need to pass along about our upcoming STEM week, I’m keeping this short and sweet!

With STEM week this week (more on that in another post), our time to practice spelling in class will be limited, so please try to practice at home!

Pink Group (beginning sound only) – tub, gum, nut, pot, tie, goat, nail, pen

Red Group (beginning sound only) – horse, shark, sock, ham, seal, shed, ship, soap

Orange Group (beginning sound only) – sun, tent, star, six, stem, stick, sink, tie, stop, top

Yellow Group (beginning sound only) – wheel, quilt, twin, key, whip, quack, twelve, kite, quiet, twenty

Dark Green Group – dish, five, gift, hike, flip, swim, nine, give, mice, spill, rich, prize

Green Group – trade, Spain, clay, nail, shape, past, glass, raise, brave, stray, grain, taste, aid, stand

Blue Group – boy, point, soil, joy, moist, toy, choice, enjoy, coin, decoy, hoist, ploy, spoil, oil, soy, joint

Hello, families! I hope you all had a wonderful winter break!

I am a little behind in sharing our classroom news, so let me back up to the week before break. We spent that week doing our typical academic work, but also threw in some fun! We did a mini-unit on “Holidays Around the World.” We learned about how Christmas is celebrated in Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands and the United States as well as Hannukah traditions. The children particularly loved learning how to play dreidel and all about the “6 White Boomers” that pull Santa’s sleigh in Australia. We also made holiday ornaments–thank you to the parents who came in to help us create them!

Our two-day week after break went very well. We reviewed our classroom expectations and spent time team building and settling back into our routines. This coming week we will dive fully back into our curriculum.

Upcoming Events

January 10th – On January 10th from 6-7:30 PM, MMA will be screening the documentary SCREENAGERS for all interested parents, students and friends of the school in the Junior High commons area. SCREENAGERS – The average child in America spends more time consuming electronic media than going to school, with many teenagers going online “almost constantly.” In SCREENAGERS, physician and filmmaker Delaney takes a deeply personal approach as she probes into family life to explores parental struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Through poignant and funny stories along with insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, SCREENAGERS reveals how tech time impacts kids’ development and offers solutions on how adults can empower kids to best navigate the digital world and find balance.

January 11th – NO SCHOOL

January 14th-18th – STEM week – We will be having multiple workshops and activities celebrating science throughout the week, including our popular Scales and Tails presentation.

January 18th – STEM home projects are due. Please contact me if you have any questions about what your child needs to do or see my prior blog post for details.

January 21st – NO SCHOOL

Over the Christmas break, I redid our spelling groups based on how the students were understanding their previous spelling lists. Most children have stayed in the same group, but some have been placed in new groups. I will go over this with the effected students tomorrow in class so that they know which group they are in from now on. I don’t anticipate readjusting groups again this year.

Pink Group (beginning sound only) – bug, mop, man, six, bell, sun, road, rain

Red Group – pig, pill, wig, lip, mill, hill, dig, zip, rip

Orange Group (beginning sound only) – shot, cheese, whip, thorn, ship, chick, whale, thumb, whiskers, thirteen

Yellow Group (beginning sound only) – broom, block, grapes, glass, grill, bridge, grass, brush, glove, blanket

Dark Green Group – last, mad, page, came, face, sack, what, grass, ask, make, base, snap

Green Group – wait, read, need, toast, mail, deaf, pea, moan, sheets, meant, cream, throat

Blue Group – jar, earn, torn, horse, hoarse, worst, core, serve, boar, bore, snore, march, sir, spur, snort, search

Red Group – run, cut, tug, sun, rug, nut, bug, bun

Orange Group (beginning sound only) – thumb, wheel, thorn, whistle, think, whale, thimble, whip, thirteen

Yellow Group (beginning sound only) – crab, cloud, frog, flag, crib, clip, frame, fly, crown, flashlight

Green Group – when, dead, trees, each, sled, death, queen, steam, reach, head, east, street

Blue Group – turn, sure, curve, purr, turkey, cure, purse, burst, pure, curse, purple, curb, hurl, church, hurt, burn

Good afternoon, parents! Today 3 pieces of paper went home: an invitation to the Winter Concert this coming Monday, a flyer about an awesome summer camp called Camp Invention that is doing special early bird pricing right now (a great Christmas present for your child!) and also a copy of our new class pledge.

Every morning after the Pledge of Allegiance, we will be repeating our class pledge. I developed it after talking to other teachers about similar pledges they use to reinforce positive behavior and remind their students about their responsibilities.

Ms. Christina’s Class Pledge

I am the boss of me and no one else.

I will treat others the way I want to be treated.

I am the boss of me and no one else.

Today we did an activity where we talked about examples of how we should and should not behave. Your student should have either written or drawn a personal response to our class pledge. I am hopeful this will help us all to be mindful of our behavior and think before we act.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for all you do!