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Trimester 1 Parent/Teacher Conferences - Friday Dec. 12
Click the appropriate link below to sign up for a conference with your child's contact teacher.
2nd grade families - Sign up with Mandy here.
1st grade families - Sign up with Samantha here.
Weekly News
3/23-3/27
We started our animals unit in Choice Time! First the students had a chance to create upcycled decorations for the classroom. Then this past week they did centers for life cycles, animal riddles, different types of teeth, and animal tangrams. If you’d like to volunteer to help with choice time, please sign up here.
In Literacy, first graders learned about the silent w in wr- words, practiced spelling 2-syllable words, and continued working on suffixes and fluency. We are wrapping up Unit 5 this week and moving on to Unit 6! In Unit 6, we’ll learn more silent letters, parts of speech, hone our skills with tricky spellings, and continue building our fluency and reading comprehension. In Knowledge, we continued our unit on Geology, learning more about volcanoes and minerals. After this short unit, we’ll be doing some persuasive writing practice.
Second grade literacy spent the early part of the week reviewing “to be” verbs, plural versus singular spelling of nouns, titles(Miss, Mr., Mrs., and Ms., and punctuation and capitalization in grammar. We then introduced the ‘al’ spelling of the /aw/ sound, for example: salt, hallway, and walrus. We wrapped up the week by finishing the Skills Unit 4 with an assessment on the skills taught during Unit 4wsq. Next week we will dive into Skills Unit 5. Buckle up!
In math, first graders finished Topic A! We did a quick lesson on telling time to the half hour (though we got more practice during learning groups) and we spent some time making and breaking groups of 10 to make 2-digit numbers. Next week we will start Topic B which will continue honing our understanding of place value (18 < 81, 2 tens = 20 ones).
Second grade math class worked through Topic C by learning how to partition circles and rectangles into equal parts and labeling them halves, thirds, and fourths. While these shapes can be divided into equal shapes and parts, we also learned that equal parts of identical shapes can be different shapes. Towards the end of the week we began learning about time. Currently we are learning about A.M and P.M and reading analog clock times on the hour and half past each hour. Telling time on analog clocks are fun activities to practice at home with your student.
…Critter Corner… Shadow and Mr Fuzzy Cheeks are doing great and excited about spring! They are in need of a little TLC so if any of our parents are interested in helping out, they could use some extra bedding and/or food and hay if anyone is interested in donating to the class pets. Thank you!
3/17-3/20/26
Happy Spring! Finally! We hope everyone had a wonderful spring break! It was great to see everyone’s smiling faces back at school this week! We started back to work quickly as you will read in this week's newsletter!
In Literacy, first graders learned about the suffixes -er and -est (which tie in with our math unit as well!) and practiced reading and spelling two syllable words and words with inflected endings. In Knowledge, we did started our unit on Geology, beginning with a few lessons on the layers of the Earth and how heat, time, and pressure change the Earth’s surface over time.
Second grade literacy spent the early part of the week reviewing “to be” verbs, plural versus singular spelling of nouns, titles(Miss, Mr., Mrs., and Ms., and punctuation and capitalization in grammar. We then introduced the ‘al’ spelling of the /aw/ sound, for example: salt, hallway, and walrus. We wrapped up the week by finishing the Skills Unit 4 with an assessment on the skills taught during Unit 4wsq. Next week we will dive into Skills Unit 5. Buckle up!
In math, first graders finished Module 4! They have done an amazing job with measurement. Now we will begin tackling bigger numbers again in Module 5, starting Topic A with practice telling time to the half hour and bundling groups of ten to build out our knowledge of place value. By the end of the Module, we’ll be adding and subtracting numbers through 100!
Second grade math class worked through Topic C by learning how to partition circles and rectangles into equal parts and labeling them halves, thirds, and fourths. While these shapes can be divided into equal shapes and parts, we also learned that equal parts of identical shapes can be different shapes. Towards the end of the week we began learning about time. Currently we are learning about A.M and P.M and reading analog clock times on the hour and half past each hour. Telling time on analog clocks are fun activities to practice at home with your student.
The Book Fair begins next week! We plan on visiting the Fair on Monday to make our wish lists for our friends and families. You will receive an email from Genny explaining details about the Book Fair. We will wrap up a fun and exciting week with Grandfriends day on Friday, March 27, 2026. More details to follow about that as well!
…Critter Corner… Shadow and Mr Fuzzy Cheeks are doing great and excited about spring! They are in need of a little TLC so if any of our parents are interested in helping out, they could use some extra bedding and/or food and hay if anyone is interested in donating to the class pets. Thank you!
3/2-3/6/26
We completed our mini-unit on Force and Motion in Choice Time. We did experiments with ramps, testing ramp height and surface friction, and designed our own experiments to do on the playground. After spring break, we will begin our unit on Animals! If you are interested in volunteering at Choice Time, please click here to sign up.
On 3-17, we will be having a Rainbow Party! Please have your student wear all one color (as much as possible) and together we'll make a rainbow!
Hooray for some of warmer weather we have been experiencing lately! We are so happy to be able to spend more of our snack and lunch time outside! Thank goodness! With that we have noticed that we are starting to get a little sweaty after playing outside. It’s hard to believe, but some of our students could benefit from using a little deodorant. It seems so young to start this, and may not be for everybody, but for others it could be really helpful.
Another reminder we have for our parents is to please send in water bottles for your student to keep at their desk. We have lots of friends that need to go to the water fountain and it would be helpful for them to have a water bottle on their desk. Also, as another reminder, please these continue to send bottles filled with water and no juices or flavored waters. We have spills on occasion and the sugar drink are hard to clean and make our floors sticky. Thank you so much for your help with this!
In Literacy, first graders continued with Unit 5 which focuses on learning additional patterns for sounds we already know. We kept practicing consonant doubling with -ed and -ing and the exceptions. We also learned -tch and practiced with the soft g sound. In Knowledge, we did some informational writing on food, practicing our descriptions and grammar. After break, we will be doing a unit on the history of the earth.
In 2nd grade we continued to move quickly through our CKLA books and readers. We have discussed and reviewed r-controlled vowels, introduced the ‘y’ spelling and how it can make the short i sound (/i/), the /y/ sound, and the long i sound(/ie/). We also worked on the tricky spelling of ‘i’ and reviewed and discussed more grammar. We further investigated plural nouns(both regular and irregular) and when and how to use apostrophes. We wrapped up the week with more review of the short and long vowel sound of ‘o’ and introduced the tricky spelling of ‘ow.’ We ended up the week learning how to write a persuasive letter. Many of you will receive beautifully written letters asking for some interesting things! My apologies in advance! ha!
In math, first graders honed their skills and are ready to measure anything they see! We learned how to make tape diagrams as well which will be useful in math class every year after this too. We will finish up Module 4 when we get back and hop right into our next unit.
This week our second graders studied more shapes and fraction concepts. We learned about halves, thirds and fourths of circles and rectangles and what it looks like as well as comparing them to a whole. Next, we will learn how to recognize that equal parts of identical rectangles can be different shapes then move into TIME! Fun stuff ahead!
2/23-2/27/26
We completed our first week of our mini-unit on Force and Motion in Choice Time. We did experiments with pendulums, learned about some of the laws and vocabulary of motion, and explored the playground to see where these forces show up. Next week we will finish it up with more hands-on building projects! If you are interested in volunteering at Choice Time, please click here to sign up.
Our field trip to the Danville Science Center was awesome! We watched a dome show about extreme weather, tested our Sink and Float knowledge with hands-on experiments, learned about architecture and engineering, interacted with water in just about every form, and learned about turning our motion into energy. Check out the photo gallery for some highlights!
In Literacy, first graders started Unit 5 which focuses on learning additional patterns for sounds we already know (we know ch but now we’ll learn tch and why we use it instead). So far, we have been focusing on consonant doubling and plural forms. In Knowledge, we finished our unit on Astronomy making our posters of the solar system. Next week we will be doing some writing and research practice!
In 2nd grade we put our seatbelts on because we got so much done! We studied the tricky spelling of ‘i’ and ‘y’ and how to determine when to add an ‘s’ or ‘es’ to a plural form of a noun. Quiz your student by asking them what to add to a singular word to make it plural when it ends in -sh, -ch, -x, -z, or -s! Hint: its -es.
We also discussed irregular singular and plural nouns. For example, foot/feet and shelf/shelves. Dropping the ‘f’ and adding ‘v’ plus ‘es’ is a new concept. We also reviewed the spelling ‘o,’ that has the sound of /o/ and /oe/ and introduced the ‘ow’ spelling that has the sound /oe/ or /ou/. Whew. What a busy week full of learning!
In math, first graders started Module 4 which focuses on measurement. We did a quick couple of lessons on comparing lengths visually before jumping right into measuring with centimeter cubes! We are learning the whys and hows of precise measurement and then comparing length numerically.
This week our second graders started on a new module called Shapes and Time with Fractions Concepts. This week was all about beginning geometry! We talked about the attributes of geometric shapes(polygons). By the end of the week we were able to identify, classify, and build(with spaghetti noodles!) different quadrilaterals. We also talked about right angles, and parallel lines. Next week: fractions!
2/16-2/20/26
We completed our final week on Weather and Water in Choice Time. We made weather prediction fortune tellers, made stories about the weather, learned how to prevent mosquitoes, and made art to show changing temperatures in Greensboro. Next week we will start a mini-unit on Force and Motion to also tie in with our field trip on 2/26! We will be visiting the Danville Science Center. If you are interested in joining us, please reach out to your contact teacher.
We also had a great time celebrating our 100 days of school on Monday and learning more about Ramadan on Tuesday with special parent guest speakers. We will be spending the next 30 days tracking the good deeds we see our classmates do, collecting tokens in a jar to see how much kindness we can create.
In Literacy, first graders continued practicing fluency with multi-syllable words, words with -ed at the end, and r-controlled vowels. We also practiced making informational text by finding facts in non-fiction passages about different types of animals. We will be starting Unit 5 in Skills next week! In Knowledge, we continued our unit on astronomy, learning about space exploration and the solar system. Next week we will be making models of the solar system and doing more research and writing.
In 2nd grade literacy we wrapped up writing our personal narratives! Please check out our hard work on the board as you walk into the classroom. We also wrapped up our Skills 3 unit this week. We did an assessment that looked at your student’s reading comprehension and grammar. Look for their literacy progress reports in their take-home folder next week. We began a new Unit 4 this week. We are learning about r-controlled vowels like er, ur, and ir and how they all make the /er/ sound. We also started a new fictional reader called The Job Hunt that describes a nineteen-year-old girl’s search for a job in New York City with the help of her younger brother. Ask your student about what they have read thus far.
In math, first graders finished up Module 3. We seem to have all found our own strategies that work for multi-digit subtraction. We’ll do our Module Assessment on Monday and have a chance to show all of the things we have been learning. Next week we will start a short unit on measurement, beginning with some lessons on comparing length and different ways we can do that.
This week our second graders finally wrapped up the long Module 2 of adding and subtracting within 200. We had our module assessment this week and have started Module 3! We are looking forward to this module as we begin to learn about shapes and time with fraction concepts. We started by defining the attributes of a polygon. Look here or to access the Family Math information sheet to follow along to what we are doing this week in math!