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January Parent Newsletter 2025
Early Childhood:
It's hard to believe we are halfway through the school year already! I hope everyone had a wonderful break, and we are excited about welcoming everyone back and meeting new friends that are starting this semester. In January we will focus on kindness and what it means to be kind to others. We will recognize acts of kindness in our classroom by creating a kindness tree. We will begin our Author unit on Jan Brett and explore some of her stories this month. At the end of January we will blast off into space.
Warrior Preschool:
Kindergarten News:
Math- We have continued addition and subtraction. Using Gus the Plus and Linus the Minus. We have also introduced the concept of greater than/less than/equal to. Comparing numbers within 10. We have also talked about the different ways we can make 10, using the friends of 10.
Pathways- We have been learning about the following letters and their sounds- Oo, Jj, Ll, Rr, and Ee. We have continued to do segment and write, head shoulders waist and clap, and old word/new word. All of these are strategies that help us decompose words, and make new words, using the sounds we have learned.
Writing/Reading- We have continued our Unit 2 Informational Unit. We focused on the elements of nonfiction as well as holiday traditions around the world. Students were also able to become researchers and research an animal using the Pebble Go application.
Science/Social Studies- We learned about different holiday traditions around the globe. Specifically, how other countries celebrate Christmas. We researched the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Australia.
First Grade News:
Reader’s Workshop: This month we will be focusing on why readers need to ask questions as they read. We will work on reviewing WHAT is a question and question words (who, what, where, etc). We will also work on asking questions before, during, and after reading.
Writer’s Workshop: We will focus on using correct punctuation in our writing. After our punctuation unit we will work on our second personal narrative.
Math: We will continue working on fluently adding and subtracting numbers within 20. We will begin learning strategies about adding numbers bigger than 20. We will work on place value with numbers up to 100.
Social Studies: We will be reviewing rules/procedures. We will be setting goals for our New Year. We will also be learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and other famous Americans that we celebrate.
Second Grade:
Math: In math, we will continue to discuss strategies for addition and subtraction. However, we will be taking it to the next level in January by working with 3-digit numbers! Our hope for students as we are entering into the third quarter is that students are able to use efficient strategies - quickly and correctly. Strategies we will use for addition and subtraction are place value blocks, number line, expanded form and standard algorithm.
ELA: In our Reader’s Workshop we are wrapping up our unit on main idea, supporting details, and citing evidence. We will take a short break from our curriculum to focus on decoding skills that are essential for our students' reading foundation. Our next unit will focus on character traits, the lessons characters learn, and how it impacts the story. In writing, we are wrapping up our literary nonfiction unit. Our next writing unit will be a fiction story that focuses on friendship and character development.
Social Studies: We are starting our unit on properties of materials. We have several exciting, hands-on activities planned for students!
Third Grade:
This year is flying by! January will mark a dive into nonfiction in both reading and writing for third grade. Students will be writing list articles using research on a topic of student choice. In reading, we will focus on nonfiction text features and structures that will help us in determining key ideas. The next concept we will focus on in math is fractions, including identifying fractions, finding equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions. We will be continuing our science unit over organisms including their life cycles and where they get their traits from. Then we will move into our next social studies unit. We are excited to continue our learning after our break! Any practice you can continue to give your child at home with reviewing math concepts or comprehending what they read is always a great way to support them. Thanks for all you do!
Fourth Grade:
Happy New Year! As we ring in the new year, we will focus on academic goal-setting and positive peer relations. In ELA fourth graders will focus on plot, theme, summary, and point of view. Students will also create realistic fiction stories in writing. In math, we will continue our work with long division, then move into solving problems with area and perimeter. After that, we will begin working with fractions! In Science, students will focus on the unit Sound Waves and Communication. For Social Studies, there will be some review and preparation for our economics field trip!
We are looking forward to our field trip to the School of Economics on January 15th. It is sure to be a fun and educational experience!
Fifth Grade:
Welcome back to all our 5th graders for their second half of the fifth grade school year! Third quarter is always a rigorous time for us here in fifth grade. We are really working away on each academic speciality. We will be pushing our students to achieve their highest potential in each subject area. We know these kiddos will do a great job! We look forward to an incredible January with this group of young people!
ELA: In January we will finish our travel brochures before jumping into our next unit- fantasy! This is my favorite unit. Students will analyze story elements (plot), character traits and describe how the point of view of fantasy texts change the story. They will also be writing their own fantasy stories! This goes along perfectly with the books we are reading in our literature clubs. Ask your student about their books they are reading here at school in small groups every week.
SS: 2nd Semester is all about Immigration. I absolutely love teaching this unit. It is important to understand that the different cultures we have in our country make our country all the more better! We will learn about these different cultures that make our country beautiful, as well as learn about Ellis Island and the process it took to get into America. At the end of the school year, students will go through a LIVE Simulation of Ellis Island. Who will make it into our country....wait and see! :)
Science: In January we continue on with the idea of Matter but we use this information in the form of plants and animals….How is matter transferred from one living thing to another? What makes an ecosystem thriving? Food webs, producers, consumers, decomposers, plants, animals….you name it….we will learn it!Math: Welcome back to a new year full of fun and mathematics! This month we will continue to hone our skills of adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. Some focus areas will be subtracting fractions with regrouping involved and simplifying our answers. These are really tall orders, but we have been marching ahead strong here in Room 113!
Sixth Grade:
Math- The month of January focuses on Geometry. Starting this month we will be reviewing the concepts of basic area, leading into surface area and 3D shapes. We will also be exploring the volume of different shapes.
ELA-Readers and writers will focus on reading informational text and writing an informational piece as we begin the third quarter. We will learn strategies to think deeply about the ideas shared in informational texts to infer, summarize and determine the main idea. For writing, we will learn how to use text features of informational books and websites to approach it strategically as we research a real world topic to write about.
Technology & Innovation
Happy New Year! I am excited to start off 2025 with a bang. I also wanted to provide an update from my family as we will be welcoming Baby #2 in April! Once the baby has arrived, I will be on maternity leave for the remainder of the school year.
Kinder—Students will be exposed to multiple robots and challenged to problem-solve and figure out how to get their device to the correct destination.
1st - Students will be participating in a Google Slides boot camp to understand the basics of putting together a presentation.
2nd—Students will continue their work with Code.org and understand how to debug or fix errors in a string of code.
3rd—We will be starting our final stop-motion project, where students will write a short story and create it using our Stop-Motion app. They are welcome to bring in little trinkets from home, but they must understand the responsibility of taking care of them and know that we are not responsible if they get lost or broken.
4th - It’s Battle Bots full force! We will be building our bots, testing out their designs and preparing for the tournament!
5th - We will be working on some Digital Citizen work and discussing our Online Identity through a self-paced project.
Library:
Happy 2025! It’s so good to see everyone back at school and it sounds like everyone had a good winter break. This month students will be enjoying stories that focus on the themes of making resolutions, Winter, Arctic animals, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Chinese New Year.
Kindergarten is working on finishing the last 2 books of their Building Block Nominees for the year and students will be voting for their favorite book. I’m so excited to see what their favorite is! The winner will be announced in April and everyone is excited to see if their favorite book is the winner.
1st - 6th grade have until March to finish reading their award nominees for the year. So keep reading! A winter reading challenge was sent home before break to help motivate students to read. These are due back to the library by the end of January for a small prize.
January Virtual Author Visits:
These author visits have been purchased with funds from our book fairs. Thank you for your continued support of our children. ❤️
K-3: Melanie Watt - author of The Scaredy Squirrel series (January 30)
2-3: Mac Barnett - one of my FAVORITE author/illustrators! He’ll be sharing his series The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (January 14)
4-5: Cece Bell - author of the graphic novel El Deafo (January 21)
Art:
Warrior Preschool and Early Childhood: Our littlest Warriors have been working in different art centers. These centers encourage them to use a variety of materials and improve their fine motor skills. Some of our most recent center options have been cutting practice, fingerprint stamping, dot markers, hole punching, and gluing.
Kindergarten students most recently practiced drawing from observation. They rotated around the tables in the art room and practiced drawing a variety of objects set up at each table. This will be the gateway to Kindergarten classes gaining access to our inspiration station with a variety of still life objects available for them to draw.
1st grade artists are still working hard on their clay projects. They created a winter-themed plate, and got to choose whether to make their plate look like the face of Santa or a snowman. After 2 weeks of dry time, we have begun the glazing process, and should finish glazing next time they come to art class. Then it’s back in the kiln one last time for these festive creations!
2nd graders have also been working on their clay projects. They created clay rockets with lots of cool textures stamped and rolled into them. They completed the process of painting them with acrylic paint and I added a picture of each student inside the window of their own rocket – they look awesome! These projects are currently in the display case outside the art room and look “out of this world”!
3rd graders have spent the last several weeks preparing for their art show, and should be so proud of what they created! Most recently, 3rd grade learned about Positive and Negative space and ways to use it in their artwork.
4th graders also spent the last several weeks preparing for their art show, and should be so proud of what they created! Most recently 4th grade practiced drawing still life photos from observation – it was a lot of fun!
5th graders have been learning more about advanced materials and art techniques. Their most recent lessons have included learning how to use chalk pastels, and how to use a grid drawing technique. These students are embracing these new techniques. These students are embracing these new techniques and materials during their choice work time.
6th Grade 3D Art students this quarter did an AMAZING job in class! They worked so hard, stayed focused, and weren’t afraid to try something new! Most students are wrapping up their level 2 projects currently. Level 2 included the options of wire sculpture, Kumihimo (7 strand braid), plaster masks, soft sculpture (making a stuffy), 3D room, cardboard relief sculpture, recycled sculpture, and an explosion book. I am excited to teach 3D art again next quarter!
Group B Clay Club is in progress and will meet each Monday that we have school through February 3rd.
PE:
K-2nd grade: This semester we have learned new games, exercises, and team building activities. We finished with balloon volleyball and stations that included climbing, basketball, bowling, volleyball, and more. As we go into the next semester we will be doing more team games and building on some of the skills we have been working on. These games will include skipping and galloping movements, upper and lower body strength movements, throwing and kicking. The objective is to break a sweat and work as a team while having fun doing so!
3rd-6th grade: Last month we finished the semester with volleyball and holliday games. We will start the semester off with Warrior Workouts as students continue to try and meet their individual fitness goals that they log each month. We will continue to do that monthly until April. We will be doing the pacer run and other fitness testing in March (some students say they WANT to do the mile but I am unsure if that will be an option yet). Some of the units coming up will be basketball, soccer, team handball, and archery (5th and 6th only). 6th graders will also be creating their own games that some of them will get to teach to their classmates. I look forward to seeing their creativity! I hope that everyone had a great break and is ready for the 2nd semester!
Music:
Hello Horizon families and welcome back! Here’s a little bit about what will be happening in the music room as we kick off our Spring Semester:
Kindergarten: Kindergarten will begin learning about a new set of musical opposites, high and low. In this unit students will be learning and practicing to recognize high and low sounds and the sounds different instruments make. In this process students will also learn about moving from high to low sounds and singing these sounds.
1st Grade: 1st & 2nd Grade have begun working on music for their upcoming music program! Their program will take place on March 18th at 6pm at the PAC. Please make sure to mark this date in your calendars and be on the lookout for more information. I’m so excited for you to see what we have been working on this year in music!2nd Grade: 1st & 2nd Grade have begun working on music for their upcoming music program! Their program will take place on March 18th at 6pm at the PAC. Please make sure to mark this date in your calendars and be on the lookout for more information. I’m so excited for you to see what we have been working on this year in music! 3rd Grade: Now that our yearly music performance is over, students will be moving on to our Recorder unit! Please be on the lookout for a letter sent home about purchasing a recorder for your child to use and practice at home. It is important students have their own instrument, as practicing at home is an important part of this unit! As we begin our Recorder unit we will be learning about the Musical Alphabet and begin learning how to recognize these notes on the music staff! 4th Grade: Now that our yearly music performance is over, students will be moving back into musical concepts such as pitch and rhythm! We will then move into our first look at the ukulele!
6th Grade: In our 6th grade Music Composition Class, we are jumping right into music creation as students are challenged to create their own instrument with things that they find at home. After students present their new instrument they will create a short song using rhythm and/or pitch on the instrument. I’m so excited to see what they come up with!
Choir: The Sunset Singers will begin rehearsals for the Spring semester on January 7th! This semester we will be preparing for our annual Smithville elementary music festival. The students will be learning 6 pieces and get the opportunity to work in a festival type setting while being cliniced by all 3 elementary directors in the district! Our festival will take place on April 15th, please save this date now if you have not already!
Counseling:
January counseling lessons will focus on resilience and perseverance (grit).
These skills play a crucial role in both academic success and life challenges. Perseverance empowers children to push through setbacks, tackle obstacles, and achieve long-term goals, even when the going gets tough.
Perseverance is more than just persistence. It involves the ability to stay focused and motivated, even when faced with difficulties. Studies show that children who exhibit perseverance are more likely to:
Develop a growth mindset: They believe that their abilities can improve with effort and practice.
Overcome challenges: They understand that setbacks are a natural part of learning and personal growth.
Build resilience: They become stronger and more adaptable in the face of adversity.
Achieve long-term success: Perseverance helps children stay on track to achieve their goals, even when progress is slow.
Perseverance is not just about "never giving up" but about approaching challenges with a mindset that failure is not final, and effort leads to improvement. By fostering perseverance, we are helping our children build the tools they need to face life's obstacles with resilience, optimism, and the confidence to keep moving forward.
Lesson topics may cover: critical thinking, growth mindset, goal setting, learning & growing from failure, the power of ‘yet’.
Executive Functioning - flexibility
Reading Interventionist:
Brrr! What a chilly “Welcome Back!” The Reading Resource team sent home letters regarding reading support for AMI days. Each letter included a grade level sight word list that students can review and study. You can see which words your child can read easily. Only mark or work on the words students have trouble recognizing. I am always available for questions or support hahnd@smithville.k12.mo.us. Bundle up and enjoy your time together!
The Reading Team
Denise Hahn
Kim Roske
Tiffani Miller
