Weekly Newsletter

We are seeing a rise in illnesses this week. Please continue to let me know if your child is feeling unwell for attendance reasons, so I can get you appropriate guidance for their return, and it’s also helpful so I can be aware of illness trends in the community. Thank you!

Please keep children home until fever free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medication, until they are vomit/diarrhea free for 24 hours and able to eat normally. If coughing or blowing nose very frequently they should stay home until it improves. Remember when testing for Covid-19 it’s always advised to re-test in about 48 hours as false negative tests are common in the beginning of an illness. Resting, drinking lots of fluids, washing hands frequently and staying home when sick are all helpful ways to feel better faster. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions: lalmeida@mtrsd.org

This week we are talking about animals and how they are getting ready for winter. We have been listening to a variety of stories about hibernation and migration. We read, Time to Sleep, by Denise Fleming, Hibernation Station, by Michelle Meadows and Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead. We also shared our thoughts about what we would do if we were animals getting ready for winter. Most wanted to sleep like bears or fly south like birds to where it was warmer, specifically Florida! A few friends wanted to stay for winter and adapt, just like deer. We wonder what you would choose to do?

Preschoolers have been very excited about our kindness week. They are asking what the kindness focus of the day is each day. Children have been very kind to each other and teachers have been “catching” them and writing what they saw on kindness hearts for the bulletin board. Similarly families have been sending in notes about all of the kindness that is happening at home. Children are helping siblings, saying very kind words to parents, asksking family members how their day was, just to name a few. We will finish up our kindness week by making thank you cards for special people in our school community and making painted macaroni kindness necklaces to share with each other. The children are so happy to spread their kindness!

In math third graders are using their newly acquired rounding/estimating skills to check their answers to problems. They like to see if their answers are “in the ballpark.” The dream is for them to decide what the ballpark is before solving the problem, and then checking in with that idea after solving the problem, but that is a lot to hold in your head. So, we are taking baby steps to get there. This week we will also be introducing the algorithm solution technique for solving addition problems, which will be further explored and mastered in fourth grade.

With our buddies this week we used a two-step procedure to decorate wooden snowflakes to decorate our classrooms. In between the two steps, both classes heard a story called The Tomten, by Astrid Lindgrėn, which introduces us to a magical little friend who helps the inhabitants of Scandinavian farmsteads through the long, cold winter nights.

In the month of December, during ELA, students will be researching their expert group animal and its defense mechanisms. Be sure to ask your kiddo what animal they are researching: armadillo, springbok, monarch butterfly, or ostrich. They will be close reading informational texts and web pages about their expert group animal. In the second half of the unit, students will synthesize information from their research by writing an informative piece detailing their expert group animal’s physical characteristics, habitat, predators, and defense mechanisms. This piece will serve as the introduction to their performance task, a choose-your-own-adventure narrative, which will be written in Unit 3. Their research in this unit will also serve as a resource for writing narratives with scientifically accurate details in the following unit.

Math in Our World is an important activity that bridges the connection between in school mathematics learning and real world mathematics experiences. Check out the example below and check out the Math at Home website for more examples! :) aprew@mtrsd.org

THANK YOU to everyone who donated a book to the library in our recent effort to add some new titles to the collection. In addition to time, kids need exposure to a variety of books to build and maintain a love of reading. Students are always asking if the library has this or that book, and I love to be able to tell kids YES. Thanks again for your support!

In other library news, we will be doing a variety of offline and online coding activities in the library throughout the month of December to celebrate the worldwide Hour of Code! Here are some of the books we will read to kick off this compelling topic:

Come join us next week for our Winter Concert! The performance will include instrumental groups and all students from Pre-K through 6th grade will be singing the music they’ve been working on in music class! The concert will be held in the gymnasium at 2pm on 12/15. We hope to see you there!