Week 30: 03/30-04/03

Happy Saturday KC! 

I talked to most of you this week and it sounds like remote learning is going well minus a couple kinks. My hope is as we work through another week your family can find a routine that works well for you and your child. I know it's not easy but y'all are doing a great job carrying the classroom into your homes. 

This week is will have another packet to complete as we work hard to get our Google classroom set up starting the week of April 6th. Thank you for being flexible and patient as we find the best way to serve your kiddos! 

Our Monday meet-up is back! This week we will have a meet up on Monday at 9:30 and again on Thursday at 9:30. Our meeting Monday will be less formal, a story time and show and share (if time allows), Thursday will be a tutoring session. I plan to take any questions y'all might have and run through a couple Spalding, Math and phonemic awareness lessons if time permits. Look for the meeting invites being sent out later. 

And last but not least here's a look at what we will be learning:

Spalding: We will continue to review all phonograms while adding the remainder of our learned phonograms to homework. 

Sight Words: This week we will review list 7.

Literature: This week we will explore A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. We will learn about A.A. Milne’s as an author and his inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh. We will explore three different stories ,"We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh, and Some Bees, and the Stories Begin,” and "In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets into a Tight Place,” and "In Which a House is Built in Pooh Corner for Eeyore."  We will speak to the virtues represented, explore Pooh’s character traits, and find examples of friendship in the story. Our poem is Peter Piper.

Math: This week students will be reviewing both addition and subtraction together.  We will explore fact families which include addition and subtraction equations.  Students will also be introduced to simple story problems.

History/Geography: This week we will be exploring the continent of Africa. Students will learn that the African Savanna is a unique habitat and that many animals live there. They will learn that Nigeria is a country in Africa that has a fun tradition.

Coach Warren sent me some fun pictures of PE before Spring Break. You'll have to ask your kiddos what was going on, whatever it is looks like fun to me :) 

Week 29: 03/23- 03/27 (Remote Learning)

Wow, what a whirlwind the last couple of weeks have been. I know these circumstances are not ideal but I am glad we are all in this together, doing our part! 

We are good here in the Howard household, doing our best to stay busy, healthy and positive. Here's some fun we had during Spring Break. 

Feeding the burros in Oatman. 

Eating WAY too much ice-cream. 

We officially entered the stage where "I can do it by myself" applies to everything, even picking out clothes :) 

And Harper had her first limo ride to celebrate her Papa's birthday!

The classroom may look more like your dining room table this week and for that we appreciate your ability to be flexible. You should have received an email on Friday with instructions on how to get your child's remote learning packet. If you did not, please reach out to me so I can make sure you have what you need to complete the work for this week.

Here's a look at what you will be doing this week:

Spalding: We will continue to review all phonograms . Our spelling words this week will all be review starting at the beginning of our spelling list. Each day students will practice 5 phonograms and 2 spelling words. We are keeping it light for the time being to get back into the swing of things. 

Sight Words:  We have now learned all the sight word lists we will teach in kindergarten! Each day students will practice a list 1-5 before they complete their daily reading.

Literature: This week our story will be Mouse Soup. You each should have a copy at home with your classics to keep. If not there is an uploaded version on the remote learning packet website. We will discuss the problem and solution of the story and observe how the mouse outsmarts the tricky weasel. Our poem will be the Muffin Man.  

Math:  This week we will finish our unit on counting back and review some topics from the third quarter.  We will work on subtracting with a number line, number bonds, and addition/ counting on.  We will also begin a math program called Rocket Math.  Students will be timed and asked to answer addition or subtract sentences in that time frame.  We recommend that you review these when they are sent home and work with your child on any math facts that they are struggling with.

History and Geography: We will begin a unit on the continent of Asia this week! Students will learn that it is the largest of the seven continents. We will explore the country of China as well as what a Chinese character is. We will talk about many Asian animals and will focus specifically on Asian elephants this week. *Note completing history is optional for half-day students, full-day students will be expected to complete these assignments. 

And here's some cuteness I saved from before we left for Spring Break.

Congratulations to our February Virtue Award winner, Emma! Way to exemplify the virtue of Friendship.

Practicing our spelling words and reading Mike Mulligan!

Volunteer Breakfast (THANK YOU!)

Please join us on Friday, March 27th from 7:50-9:50 am in the MPR for a catered breakfast and coffee bar as the Arete staff and teachers say thank you for your contributions to our community. RSVP Here, can't wait to see you there! 

Week 28: 03/02- 03/06

Can you believe just one short week separates us from Spring Break?
Harper and I are ready for a week of R&R.

 Here is what we have going on this week.

Spalding: We will learn our last three phonograms ti (cue: tall), si, ci (cue:short). We now know 70 phonograms!  Please be sure that you are also going back to the alphabet and reviewing the first 26 phonograms, especially all of the vowel sounds. Our words this week will be: your, out, time, may, into, him, today, look, did, like.

Sight Words: We will introduce our last and final list, 10, the words are:  long, down, day, did, get, come made, many, part, over. We have now taught 100 sight words! Look for the list to be added to your child’s sight word ring by the end of the week. 

Literature: This week’s story will be Mike Mulligan.  Students may bring in their copy of Mike Mulligan on Monday. Please hold off on reading the story ahead of time, we would like to enjoy the story for the first time as a class family. We will explore the importance of hard work and discuss the virtues Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne display. Our poem will be I’m a Little Teapot. 

Math:This week we will continue our unit on subtraction. We will focus on teaching your scholar how subtraction is a whole minus a part. This will be demonstrated through number bonds, and various tangible examples. In the afternoon we will continue working on subtraction through fun games such as “Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar”!

Science: This week we will be learning all about frogs! We will begin the week by focusing on the lifecycle of a frog and how it grows from egg to tadpole, and tadpole to frog. We will talk about the parts of a frog as well as what an amphibian is. Students will create a mini booklet to share about the lifecycle and they will make their very own frog mask with a fun tongue!

We had a lot of fun last week making bread! We worked together and it turned out awesome :)