Weekly Newsletter

We have been talking about what it means to be kind, sharing examples of how to show kindness, and encouraging each other to be kind in some way each day. We hope our acts help to spread kindness everywhere!

Todd and Peggy’s book, Kindness to Share from A to Z, was the perfect book to read for our discussion. Each letter in the alphabet gave an example of a kind act.

After reading the book, we shared examples of how to be kind. It was impressive to hear such young children share examples of kindness. Most were their own ideas, and not examples from the book! The following were our ideas of how we could be kind: helping people get their dog if it’s running away, giving someone a flower, taking turns, helping a cat not get rained on, adopting a dog, playing with a little sister, giving someone a valentine, sharing, letting someone play with you, caring for animals, helping someone build a tower, inviting someone to play with you, and giving someone a lollipop.

Preschoolers have become bird detectives. They have been watching for birds out of our front windows with binoculars. This spurred an idea to make our own binoculars to bring outside to look for birds in nature. Once the binoculars were ready, they were so excited to try them out. First the children heard birds singing and then they saw them flying. The children noticed that some of the birds were camouflaged in the forest, while others had bright colored feathers and were much easier to spot. They also realized that if they were quiet and listened to the birds singing, it gave them a clue of where to look in the trees to find the birds. They recently brought their binoculars home to see if they could find different types of birds where they live. We will have a birdwatch check in at the beginning of our morning meetings to see which types of birds are being spotted.

Preschoolers are also practicing being kind friends. We are talking about taking care of each other and helping when someone is in need. We have been talking about how hearts sometimes symbolize love and friendship. In that spirit, the children made stained glass hearts for the window to display their love and friendship.

In our social skills program, we are wrapping up our mini-unit about thinking strategies for handling problems that put us in an uncomfortable feeling yellow zone.

The Rock Brain strategy is helpful when we are having that feeling of being stuck. We learned that the antidote to rock brain is “super flex” thinking, where we just think of as many possible solutions as we can and not even try them or worry about if they will work. Just the act of generating many possibilities can help us get unstuck and lead to maybe trying a solution later. We role played thinking of many solutions to common problems, such as wanting to play one thing and your friend wanting to play something else.

The Circle of control strategy is accepting that some things are just not within our control, such as the weather or other people’s actions. And when problems come up that we can’t control, it is best to spend our energy figuring out how to let go or work around the problem, rather than fighting against it.

We talked about how these strategies are not just for kindergarten but for all of life and will help the kids handle problems at any age.

The month of February is a wonderful time to spread some KINDNESS! Each day we pull a heart from a mystery bag that has a “random act of kindness” challenge written on it for our class to try. Some examples of hearts pulled recently were “let someone else go first” and “help your family set the dinner table.”

This past week first graders received another adopt a cow update from our special calf Celestial! Celestial is now 4 months old and is the same height as a second grader! She is 38.5 inches tall and weighs 315 pounds! She gained 101 lbs and added 3.5 inches. First graders were surprised to learn that calves get vaccines just like kids and this is to keep them healthy and safe from harmful diseases. At the start of our adopt a cow project a wall full of Celestial updates was created. Each time we receive an update or new pictures, we add those to the wall. It’s also fun for first graders to check on their overall height prediction and see if Celestial’s current height has surpassed their initial prediction. Next time you’re in the first grade hallway check it out!

Wishing you and your family a restful February vacation!

Second grade had a fun day celebrating our friendships and sharing cards. We made mailboxes and snacked on special treats to end our day. We’ve been focusing on kindness this month and learning how we can work together and celebrate each other. Each day we’ve been shouting each other out when we notice a student being extra kind. We’ve also been working hard on creating our own story problems in math. We created a background, made a plan, then wrote our own problems. Afterwards, we had a chance to solve each other’s problems using skills we’ve learned to solve story problems. In science, we’ve been studying what seeds need to grow. We currently have seeds in soil by the window and seeds in soil in the closet. We were shocked that our seeds in the closet have sprouted quicker than our seeds in the window. It has been so fun to check on the seeds each day and observe the changes. In social studies, we are learning about maps. Do you have different maps at home we could look at? If you want to send them in, we’d love to check them out! In our phonics program, we’ve been learning about magic e words and open and closed syllables. This is helping us to decode and encode (write) multisyllabic words. Finally, in our ELA time we’ve been learning

about the steps of fossilization. As we wrap up that unit, after break we’ll be writing a narrative piece on paleontologists. To kick this new unit off, we got the chance to have a Zoom meeting with a real paleontologist. All of the second graders in the district joined the meeting with Dr. Goswami who is a paleontologist for the Natural History Museum in London and were able to ask questions about her work.

Third graders had a great time helping their little buddies make Valentine’s Day cards on Wednesday. They also enjoyed Mr. Luke’s reading of Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch, and celebrating the special day with yummy treats and cards amongst themselves. Third graders received from the teachers a homework pass which can be used for one night instead of doing homework. These have come in handy in years past, especially when baseball season makes evenings very busy.

In math third graders have been discovering various techniques for solving single-digit multiplication problems. Below is a picture of the strategies they’ve figured out so far. It would be beneficial for you to discuss it with your child and ask them which one is their favorite.

This week before February vacation, I am sending a friendly reminder to return any overdue library books. Returning library books means that other students can enjoy them, and that your student is eligible to check out new books on their library day. Please help your child to bring back their books on their class’s library day until they can remember by themselves. You can pack bags the night before, leave a note on the fridge or door, or designate a special place in your home especially for library books. I know firsthand what a juggling act it can be to remember ‘all the things’, especially in the rush of the morning, so I appreciate your help!

• 1st Grade - Friday

• 2nd Grade - Friday

• 3rd Grade - Monday

• 4th Grade - Wednesday

• 5th Grade - Wednesday

• 6th Grade - Monday

Check out this image from our math curriculum, Bridges. You’ll see many different representations of multi digit numbers. The representations include expressions, base ten blocks, and words. What is the rule to be in the circle? Can you draw another example that belongs inside or outside of the circle? Email me your ideas! :) aprew@mtrsd.org