Dear Great Horned Owls Families -
We just completed our first month and our new children together with the returning students are gradually acclimating to their daily work cycles. They are still searching for the ideal balance between chatting and completing follow-up work. This is all expected from the younger children who are transitioning from the first plane of development to the second plane. The older children have already made this transition, but for some odd reason are looking to repeat it. Maybe some additional reminders at home might assist them in refocusing and return to being more productive in class (thank you in advance for your assistance).
We have finished all the great stories except one which they’ll be receiving in the first week of September. For the new students and really for anyone who needs it, there has been a lot of cursive practice. High frequency sight words and short vowel sounds have been a great focus for our new children. Other students are returning to grammar boxes to learn the use of different parts of speech. The writing has been through the numerous birthday cards the children have been making for August birthdays. The bulk of the practice has been through research and presentations. Within the first two weeks of school we had six presentations on various animal researches.
Understanding the periods in the international place value chart and basic relationships between numbers has also been an important work. Some new students have come in like gang busters and are working daily to master math facts at speeds where I need to ask them to give me the opportunity to provide lessons to other students. I also remind them to follow more of a balance work cycle. Besides arithmetic, some have gotten lessons on geometric solids, basic geometric concepts (congruency, similarity, and equivalency), names of different fraction families, and drawing out some of these concepts.
We are also covering the Continental Drift theories and tying this back to the Coming of the Universe and the development of Earth. We’ve discussed Fundamental Needs for humans and the gifts given to us (hands, love, and a brain). For the students who have been in our classroom for the last year, we continued our Middle Ages stories. We began with the story of Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain and Henry the Navigator, Prince of Portugal. They learnt how the speed on water in “knots” came about. The younger children are starting with their own family tree before we start with the story of the nomads.
In science, some children worked on making a suspension using chalk with water and then using a filter to precipitate out the solid. Another demonstration was mixing vinegar with whole milk. The vinegar reacts with the milk by drawing out the fat and making it into “curd” while the rest of the milk becomes more “watery”. We are now ready to do our first real experiment and construct basic solar ovens. This will run in parallel with a story about a girl in an African village who is looking to help her family to cook in a more ecological and less taxing manner.
Going Outs
Our first going out was to the Ironwood Library for a presentation on all the resources and workshops that the library has to offer. The children then had a section by section tour of the whole library. I expect other Going Outs to be happening organically by children who have a particular interest in mind throughout the rest of the year.
Hikes
We’ll start having hikes once a month starting in October through next April. To prepare for those hikes, your child will need to bring a water bottle, hiking shoes or closed toe shoes with a good grippy sole, day pack to carry a snack or binocular, a hat/sunglasses to protect them from the sun, and sunscreen applied. We’ll try to do a warm-up walk to the Desert Foothills Park before our first hike.
Scholastic Books
We definitely try to promote reading and researching chosen topics by using books. At the same time, we limit the number of books in the classroom so they will look beyond the classroom and use outside resources: the local library and experts via going outs.
Reading at home is not only promoted but necessary to acquire the majority of vocabulary a child needs to learn. They need to learn, on average, about 3,500 words per year starting in first grade. For this reason, I provide Scholastic Books flyers as another way of promoting reading. Here is the direct link to their website to facilitate ordering books for your child:
Place an order of $25 or more and you can pick a FREE $5 book (use code READS at checkout) to add to your reader's TBR pile!
Family Order Due Date: 09/13/23
SHOP OUR CLASS PAGE: https://orders.scholastic.com/NBTGC
SHOP FLYERS: https://clubs.scholastic.com/all-flyers/
Invite relatives and friends to help your child discover the pure joy of reading when you share our Class Page link. Every order benefits our classroom, helping me earn FREE books and resources that every child can enjoy.
Thanks for your support!
Library
Thank you for those parents for signing up to take children every two weeks to the library.
Wrist Watches
One of the important skills we teach students is how to tell time. For this reason we are asking you do not have your child wear digital watches to school. We highly recommend an analog watch to help them practice and master their telling time skill.
Games at home
Over the years parents have asked what else they can do at home to help their child. I always say they need downtime and to enjoy activities with friends and family members. I highly suggest board games, card games, or any games your child enjoys. Many indirectly teach important skills social and academic settings: patiences, understanding rules for fair play, strategical thinking, pattern recognition, mental math, word retrieval, cooperation, geometrical manipulation, deductive thinking, listening comprehension, etc. Here is a short list of games I’m familiar with and would recommend:
Boggle, Scrabble, SpellingBee(New York Times), Rory’s Story Cubes, Sequence for Kids, Headbanz, and Dixit.
Sequence, Yahtzee, MasterMind, chess, Rush Hour, and card games.
Birthday invitations
We are asking birthday invitations, playdates, any type of invite be made outside of the school. The children are entering the socialization phase (2nd plane of development) and are eager to make new friends or to work with different people. This is a fragile time where they want to feel included and hearing they were not invited to a party can be very hurtful.
If your child wants to bake or bring a treat to the classroom, please let us know with a few days of anticipation so we can apprise those families who have children with allergies. This way they can send in a treat their child can enjoy during the celebration.
For those children who had a birthday in July we are inviting them, if they wish, to celebrate their birthday in September. For those in June, we’ll look to celebrate in May.
Keep in mind if you are excluding your contact information from the Family Directory via SchoolCues, your child may not be readily invited to either birthday parties or possible playdates.
Allergies or dietary restrictions
If there are any changes for your child concerning allergies, dietary restrictions, please make sure you update this as soon as you know. This must be done with the front office.
Pictures
Keep in mind that if you are restricting picture taking of your child, they will not be either in the Keystone Yearbook or in my updates.
Thank you,
Ms. Bahareh and Mr. Jess
August Birthdays Celebrated:
Aloe, Ari, Nora, and Evelyn
September Birthdays:
9th - Mateo
13th - Sydney
17th - Camden
July Birthdays:
8th - Tanner
18th - Ella
Important Upcoming events:
Wednesday, September 6th (10-11am) - Parent Volunteer Training Make-up
Wednesday, September 6th (6-7:30pm) - Community & Classroom Meeting
Wednesday, September 6th (starting at 9:15am) - Vision and Hearing screening
Thursday, September 14th - Early Released Day/No Extended Day Care/Staff Development
Friday, September 15th - School is closed/Staff Development
Wednesday, September 27th (6-7pm) - Board of Directors Meeting
Friday, September 29th - Fall Festival Tickets on Sale
Enjoy the Pictures:
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