The Woodland Weekly

Hello Woodland Families,

It was wonderful to see so many of you yesterday at conferences! We hope that your discussions were productive and you were able to gain a better understanding of how your child is doing so far this year. We know they've been working hard and we have been impressed when visiting classrooms.

We had our first whole-school assembly last week to discuss Unity Day and how it connects to our CARES values, especially Respecting All. At the assembly we defined respect as: treating people the way you want to be treated, being kind to yourself and others, and taking care of your surroundings. Being respectful makes people feel appreciated and safe, which is what we want for our school.

During the assembly the Specials teachers recognized three homerooms that have been very respectful so far this year. They've done great whole-body listening, they take care of classroom materials, they are kind and respectful to each other and to the teachers EVEN in unstructured times like lunch and recess. These three classes were:

• Kindergarten: Mrs. Giguere
• First Grade: Ms. Duquette
• Second Grade: Ms. Guyott

Congrats to those three classes for their amazing work! BUT wait, there's more! All of our other classes still have a chance to earn the BIG trophy for showing RESPECT this month, which we will award at next month's assembly!

Families, please keep reinforcing respect at home. We promise you will appreciate this message when they become teenagers!

Warm regards,

Emma and Kayla

October 25 - Half Day TODAY! Dismissal @ 12:00 (no PM PreK)

October 28 - Nov 1 - Spirit Week! (see below)

November 4 - Picture Retakes (see below)

November 11 - Veteran's Day, No School

November 13 - PTO @ 5:30 in Powder Mill cafeteria

November 20 - Trimester 1 Grades Close

November 25 - Turkey Trot (Rain Date Nov. 26)

November 27 - Half Day Dismissal @12:00 (no PM PreK)

November 28-29 - No School, Thanksgiving Break

During the month of November, preschoolers will continue to learn about their five senses. They will explore their senses of touch, smell, and taste. The children participate in daily Heggerty lessons that teach them to identify rhyming words, blend and segment syllables, and isolate initial and final sounds in words. The children will be introduced to numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10 and review numbers 1-6. They will practice showing numbers 1-10 on their rekenreks. Preschoolers will continue to practice appropriately holding their crayons and tracing letters and writing/tracing their names. The children continue to enjoy engaging in play with their friends during centers and recess.

ELA:

Over the next month, kindergarten students will learn about what makes a community. We will read books about the people and places in a community, and the ways in which we all work together to make a community strong. Children will write letters to teach others about our community, practice identifying and producing rhyming words, identify story elements such as character, setting, and topic/main idea. In small reading groups they will engage in foundational reading skills such as blending and segmenting sounds, sound spelling, and apply those skills into word reading.

Math:

Students will continue to work in Unit 2 of our math curriculum. This unit will have students answer “How Many” questions, count out, and compare groups of objects within 10. Students will also learn to write a number to represent a quantity. For example, a student will learn to write the numeral 4 next to a group of four objects.

Science/Social Studies:

Students will shift focus to a Unit of Construction. They will explore and engage in play centers while they learn concepts of stability. Students will conduct fun experiments to test their own building structures to determine if their buildings are stable. There will be opportunities to explore, and problem solve to figure out how to fix their structures if they are found to be unstable.

Students in Grade 1 are working hard!

In ELA, we will be working on blending and decoding short vowel words with digraphs (two letters that make one sound) sh, wh, th, and ch. We will be starting a new reading module all about animals. Both our reading and science texts will relate to the essential question of “how do animals' bodies help them to grow and survive”.

In writing, the students will write an informational booklet about an animal that they are interested in. Then, we will share and teach others all about it!

In math, we are continuing to read, discuss, and solve number stories. Students will practice showing their thinking through drawings and equations, both in addition and subtraction. First graders are learning to solve for the unknown part in a story, as well as show their thinking in stories that compare numbers.

In social studies, students continue to follow and expand their understanding of Woodland CARES. We are exploring fairness and justice within our family and school communities.

Second graders are enjoying the autumn season and continuing to progress in their learning! The current module in reading and writing is Module 3: Meet in the Middle. During this module, students are learning about working out conflicts and disagreeing with others in a respectful way. They have read about compromise and explored ways to settle differences. They are also writing a persuasive essay about an issue that may cause disagreement.

In math, students are working on Unit 2: Adding and Subtracting within 100. In this unit, students add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and the relationship between addition and subtraction. They then use what they know to solve story problems.

Second graders are currently wrapping up a science unit on properties of materials. This unit corresponds to the engineering standards for grade 2. Over the last few weeks, students have used the engineering process in a variety of hands-on activities that required them to use what they know about properties of materials to select the best materials for an intended purpose. For example, they were tasked with designing and building model sails for sailboats, and roofs for chicken coops! This unit will be capped by a visit from a real engineer! Later in November, Amazon mechanical and manufacturing engineer Megan Ryan will visit the second grade to discuss her work designing and building robots to work in Amazon's warehouses. This is a great opportunity for students to hear about the engineering process in action!

At the completion of this science unit, students will delve into geography in the next social studies unit.

Our Fall Fun Spirit Week is coming up next week! Show your school spirit by participating is as many days as you can!

For CHARACTER DAY, please follow the guidelines below:

• be sure your child's face is recognizable (no masks and no full face paint)
• leave props/weapons at home (toys, stuffed animals, swords, light sabers, bow and arrows, etc.)
• no scary/gory characters

We know kids LOVE to be an authentic character, but they can save those things for out of school.

Picture retakes will take place on November 4th. If your child wasn't here for picture day or you would like your child's photo taken again, please let your child's teacher know. You can click the image above to order prints.

The annual Turkey Trot will be held on Monday, November 25 with a rain date of Tuesday, November 26. Students are encouraged to raise funds, show their school spirit, and run hard! More information will be going home next month.