Hello, First Grade Families,

Today we held our winter celebration. The children enjoyed a sweet treat of hot chocolate and looked at their favorite picture books. They had fun creating a winter craft and exchanging cozy winter socks. Tomorrow, we will hold our grades assembly in the sanctuary at 11:45. The children are excited to share some of their favorite songs and poems with you! Tomorrow will also be an early dismissal after the assembly. We wish our friend, Asher, and his family all the best! We will miss seeing him at school each day!

Last week we started our second Math Block and began learning the four processes: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The class has enjoyed our journey into Numerica, a magical land where the gnomes Percival Plus, Tamara Times, Moria Minus, and Duke Divide live. The students are using the set of colorful gems they each collected during our first Math Block to help them solve our math equations. The children were so excited they completed an addition problem that one child asked if we could stay in longer before playtime to do “just one more.” Learning math through stories enlivens the lessons, helping the students engage more readily and allowing the new concepts to live deeply within them. The class has also enjoyed playing math games in the afternoon using decks of cards to reinforce new concepts. We will continue our math block after the winter holiday before moving into our study of the vowels.

Announcements and Reminders:

Have a wonderful Winter Break!
Please remember to clean out and repack backpacks and check that rain boots still fit before the new semester.
Winter coats are required daily.

Upcoming Events:

12/20 Grades Assembly - 11:45 a.m. & Last Day of Fall Semester - Half Day
12/21 - 01/03 Winter Break (No School)
01/04 First day of Spring Semester

Warm regards,

Meredith