Weekly News
9/29/25-10/3/25
This week, we had our Friday Quaker Meeting in the gym with our Galaxy (grades 5-6) buddies and the rest of Guilford Campus. In Choice Time, we made stained glass windows, mosaic castles, and puppet shows. We also had a preview of what we will be doing next week. If you would like to volunteer to help during Choice Time, please click this link and sign up: https://calendar.app.google/hiwUskQL4193MtGM7
In Literacy, first graders continued to review the sound patterns we already know and practiced reading fluently in our Skills readers. We have been learning how to identify a noun - try doing a noun hunt at home! In Knowledge, we continued our study of the human body systems: skeletal, muscular, digestive (there were quite a lot of giggles about this one!), and circulatory. We have a few systems left to learn and then we’ll talk more in depth about how to keep our systems working properly.
Second graders spent this week working on more tricky words (could, should, would, there, said, says) and the tricky spelling of “S,” which can have a /s/ or /z/ sound. We also talked about the -ed ending and the three sounds it can make (/e+/d/, /d/, and /t/). We finished reading “The Cat Bandit” in Skills 1. Next week we begin Skills 2; we are making so much progress! In Knowledge, we started studying Early Asian Civilizations. So far we have discussed the Indus River Valley Civilization and are beginning to learn a bit about Hinduism.
In math, first graders started Topic D. We are working to understand what the equals sign means conceptually and on furthering our addition fluency. Our first graders have very strong number sense - if you want to help them keep developing their understanding of the concepts behind addition, ask them a math fact (6 + 2) and then ask them to tell you how they know or what their strategy was for finding the solution.
Second graders continued working with tape diagrams and number lines to help add and subtract efficiently in Topic D. We took this a few steps further by learning how to compare with different unknown word problems by using measurement contexts. Continued practice with this at home will help your student next week when we see how much we have learned at the midpoint of our module.
Critter Corner Update!
Shadow and Mr. Fuzzy Cheeks would like to thank our Rainbow friends who have brought in items for them. They have really enjoyed the toys (toilet paper tubes) and leftover veggies that some of you have donated! Now the guineas would like to ask our parents for more donations. They are getting low on bedding (paper bedding) and food (guinea pig food and timothy hay), and they would really appreciate it if their Rainbow friends would like to donate to their food pantry and care package. Thank you, families!
Field Trips
As a reminder, we have planned and confirmed our first field trip for the year! On Friday, Oct. 17, from about 10:00-1:30, we will celebrate the end of our Castles unit with a trip to Gateway Gardens. Students will enjoy a medieval picnic, act out fairy tales on a stage, and explore the gardens.
Halloween Field Trip
After the Lower School Halloween parade, Sunrise (Kindergarten) and Rainbow (grades 1-2) students will visit Friends Homes to share some cheer with the residents. They will parade through the halls and then students will receive goody bags with special treats. They will leave campus around 10 a.m. and return before lunch. This is a cherished tradition for Sunrise and Rainbow, and we are looking forward to it!