Keeping Up With Kindergarten
It was another busy couple of weeks here in Kindergarten!
In Mrs. Lakeway’s Reader’s Workshop, we finished up our unit on Retelling and moved on to reading Nonfiction books. We talked about what the word nonfiction means and did a book sort with our table teams. We also began reviewing some nonfiction features like photographs, table of contents and captions.
Ms. Staruch’s class finished their unit on “then” and “now”. We compared the two non-fiction texts we have been reading Farming: Then and Now and The Old Things. We wrote our opinions about which text we liked better and whether or not we would want to live in the past. We are so excited to start our new unit on predicting change next week!
During Fundations, our classes have practiced tapping out “consonant, vowel, consonant” words. Some “CVC words” are big, cat, zap, bag. We also started talking about specific cvc words, like word families. Cap, lap and nap belong to the -ap family. Please ask your child to name words in the -ap, at, ad & ag word families!
Our mathematicians have been busy stretching their brains! We have started to learn about different addition strategies. We talked about using counters, drawing dots, using a numberline and “counting on” to help us solve our addition sentences!
We are so happy to welcome Miss Quigley to our Kindergarten team. She is a student teacher from RIC and will be working in Mrs. Lakeway's room until May. Room 1 has had a blast getting to know Miss Quigley and showing her our Winsor Ways!
This week and last week’s sight words: one, two, three, four, blue, black, yellow, white
Learning and Fun in Grade One!
We began our week in Social Studies, by reading nonfiction books about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream for equality. The children were quite surprised and amazed to hear that there were segregated schools, playgrounds, bathrooms and water fountains over fifty years ago. Our study on MLK continued throughout the week.
It was “Up, Up and Away in grade one” this past week. Our first grade scientists also became engineers. You may ask - how could
that be???? Each student designed and tested their very own parachute. Students learned about air resistance and how a parachute interacts with air. It was an experiment that was enjoyed by all. Be sure to ask your child how they designed their parachutes.
Math is becoming a bit challenging for some of our first graders. This week we learned the concept of ten more and ten less using place value. We have also been comparing numbers to 100 using symbols to denote greater than >, less than <, and equal to =. These symbols can be tricky for our first graders, so be sure to review them at home along with ten more and ten less. A quick tip is to remember for these symbols is – the alligator mouth always eats the larger number. A 120 chart will be sent home in their homework folder as a resource for them to use.
In Fundations this week, we have been learning about long vowels - words with vowel, consonant, silent e (as in hope, safe, Pete, pine, mule, and rule). Your child should be comfortable reading and writing these long vowel words. A fun game to practice at home could be “Add the magic e”. Start with a short vowel word – cap – add silent e = cape, etc. Trick words for this week are: friend, other, another.
As the flu season is in full swing, we are washing the desks and spraying with Lysol each day to keep the germs at bay. Many thanks to those families who donated tissues, hand sanitizer, and wipes. It certainly is appreciated. We hope all our Winsor families stay well and healthy this season
Please Note: The 100th Day will be on Wednesday, February 5th, 2020 but we will celebrate on Friday, February 7th (due to Sports day on Wednesday). More information will follow
Have a great weekend and enjoy!
What's New in Grade Two
For a short week, we were very, very busy!
As readers, we focused on themes and lessons in reading. We read Library Lion, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, Dr. DeSoto, and You Are to Me to learn about various themes and lessons from each text. In doing so, we made a list of possible themes. For example, helpfulness, friendship, courage, perseverance, safety, leadership, and loyalty. We are looking forward to exploring more fictional texts next week.
As writers, we worked on suffixes, prefixes, r-controlled vowels, and glued sounds. We had a blast with building words from a Boggle board. In addition, we are drafting narratives on the Chromebooks. Some of us have already written a couple chapters.
In math, we connected our Boggle work and calculated our scores. We used the scores for the 12 words to generate a number string. In order to find the sum, we applied our prior knowledge to make it easier. Hunting for sums of 10, doubles, and skip counting helps us to solve problems that involve several addends. Please keep your eyes open for any Mad Minute math tasks. These should be saved in a safe place and practiced daily. Math fact fluency is essential to solving more complex problems.
As always, thank you for everything you are doing at home!
Have a great weekend!
Thrills in Third
It sure has been a thrilling week in 3rd grade! In science, we continued experimenting with water to see how much water a sponge can absorb and what happens to natural materials when rain falls on them. In math, we began the very exciting topic of fractions. Our focus this week was to get a feel for what fractions are by using fraction tiles. We also discussed unit fractions. See if your child remembers what a unit fraction is. In reading, students have been working hard researching a famous person. They will be writing a report on their famous person next week. Ask your child who they are researching and what they have learned about them. We were very excited to attend the school spelling bee this week as well. The students got a preview of what is to come in 4th grade. We even had our own 3rd grade spelling bee! Have a wonderful weekend!
Learning More in Grade 4
Fourth graders have been learning a lot about fractions! We have talked about equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, and how to compare fractions. They are using benchmark fractions, like ½ to compare other fractions. We will continue to work with them next week too!
The children have been reading and writing nonfiction pieces. They have talked about what makes a good summary of informational text. They read some different pieces and chose the best summaries. They will begin to write summaries soon!
Students have been having an electrifying time in science! We conducted experiments that made closed circuits. They lit light bulbs and made small motors go. We learned about which materials conduct electricity and which ones are insulators. The students will have a test on this next week.
The Fabulous Five
In reading workshop, we are concluding our Poetry Unit. The students have learned about analyzing a poem for symbolism, point of view, and author’s message. We have moved on from making concrete meaning of poems to unpacking symbolic language in a poem. Ask your child about “The Lighthouse” poem that we read and interpreted in class and to explain how the interpretation of this poem can have more than one message and symbolic intent. As we conclude our poetry unit, we are using our critical thinking skills and deepening our understanding about author’s message through our written responses,.
Our current math unit focuses on the domain of Operations and Algebraic Thinking. The students have learned to use order of operations (PEMDAS) to simplify expressions with more than one operation. They realized that following this set of rules allows them to reach the correct answer when evaluating numerical expressions. The students also gained practice in writing verbal phrases as mathematical expressions that contain more than one operation. In this unit, the students analyzed the relationships found in patterns and used those relationships to draw conclusions about data. They extended their learning to understand that expressions are often used to represent patterns and to solve problems in real-world situations. Finally, the students really enjoyed learning about coordinate planes and how to name and plot ordered pairs. They ended the unit by using coordinate planes to compare numerical patterns graphically.
In social studies, the exploration race is on as we sail into our Explorers of North America Unit. The students worked in small groups to research reasons why the Europeans explored: for new land, commercial trade, money and riches, spices and fine silks, and new trade routes for a better life. We also learned how most Europeans in the 1400’s
knew little about the world outside of their own villages and took dangerous risks to discover new lands across the oceans.
We are concluding our biography unit in writing workshop. It is exciting to learn about the legendary and interesting people the students researched as they present their biographies.
Winsor School News and Reminders
Please attend our Wellness Celebration on Wednesday, January 29th at 5:30pm at Smithfield High School. Please also encourage students to make a postcard. The forms and waiver came home last week. The winning postcards will be presented at the Wellness Event. The event at the high school will have some movement, so please wear comfy clothes. We are looking for a strong Winsor group- so please join us!
Congratulations again to our Spelling Bee winners: Luca Savastano and Ella Hangwerger. They will be competing in the district bee at LaPerche in early February. It was an awesome bee! We are so proud of the efforts of everyone.