Welcome back!

Worktime

The students came back ready from break and focused. This week for work time students have learned more practical life works that focus on multi-step directions, fine motor skills, and concentration. Many more kindergartners have received language work plans and moved up to a new language work plan. The kindergartners have been learning about place value through golden beads and a work called birds-eye-view. It has been wonderful to come back and see all the growth that is happening!!!
Africa

This week for Africa students have learned more about Kwanza traditions, the candles (kanara), and weaving a Kwanza mat. The students have also learned about different geographic locations and important mountains, landforms, and rivers in Africa. On Dec. 20th we will have our final African celebration during the morning. If you have anything to share or bring in please let us know!!!





Readers Workshop In readers this week we have introduced a little bit about non-fiction. We compared the differences between fiction and non-fiction books. We also looked at the cover page to get ourselves ready for the book. We focused on thinking about what is this book going to teach us and then reflecting what did we learn. We talked with a reading buddy, " What is the main idea, and how do you know? We will continue non-fiction through January delving deeper into features and information non-fictions offers.

Writers Workshop: This week in writing, we have been continuing our great work on our all about books. We focused this week on doing a quick sketch and then trying to add words. We have also zoned in on trying to stretch our topic over multiple pages, making sure each page has a clear focus. We then learned about headings (tells us what each page is about) and how we can add headings to our own writing. Our next goals will be to continue to learning about how to add diagrams, captions, table of contents, and editing.

Student of the Week: Mateo has been working very hard this week. He finished his work plan and really pushed himself to do some challenging math. He was motivated and driven this week to keep up with his work. Mateo has set great goals for himself and is trying to meet those goals. He always comes to school with a Can do attitude !! He has been a great 1st great leader and role model. WAY TO GO Mateo!!!