Happy New Year !!Kindergarten Language Arts and Mathematics The Kindergarten students were excited to come back to school and began telling and writing about all of the things they received for Christmas and did over winter break. We talked about the new year and read a story about resolutions. Each student chose something they would like to do this year as their "New Year's Resolution". It took a few days for us to get back into our daily routines, but we are now back to work. The Kindergarten students are continuing to learn new letter sounds and are adding pictures to their sound books. Their hard work learning sight words has allowed them to read books with more words and less pictures!! We are also beginning to recall characters form the stories and information that we have read in these stories.In mathematics the Kindergateners have been continuing to skip count, compare numbers using the <, >, = signs, and identify and order numbers. They have been combining groups of objects in preparation for adding. They have been working very hard identifying and tracing/drawing the basic shapes. They will also continue working on writing their names, numbers, and letters of the alphabet. 1st and 2nd Grade Language ArtsThe first and second graders were excited to tell and write about their favorite thing that they received for Christmas or did over winter break. They are becoming real authors and illustrators. They wrote rough drafts, reviewed their writing with "the editor", and then wrote thier final copy and drew the pictures. They are continuing to work with nouns and verbs and will begin exploring the different verb tenses next. They are making progress reading both independently and aloud, as well as recalling information like characters, setting, and the main ideas from theses stories. They are begining to express their reasons for why they like or dislike a story that they have read or heard. 1st Grade Mathematics The first graders have been reviewing telling time to the nearest hour, half hour, and quarter hour. They have begun learning to read thermometers to tell the temperature. They are enjoying exploring the room to find things to measure with thier rulers. They are learning to measure objects around the room as well as line segments to the nearest inch. They are continuing to practice writing numbers and letters of the alphabet. 2nd Grade Mathematics The second graders are continuing divide objects into fractional parts and shade fractional parts of objects. They have enjoyed using the SMARTBoard to help count forward and backward by tens starting at numbers other than 10. They have been reviewing telling time to the nearest hour, half hour, and quarter hours. They will continue to practice writing numbers and letters of the alphabet. Bag of BooksI am continuing to send home the "Bag of Books". These are books that the children have chosen to "read". Please feel free to keep these books for several days and read them together with your child. When they are ready they can bring the books back and they will have the opportunity to choose new books to bring home.