Weekly News
11/17/25-11/19/25
Due to the short week for students, there is no class news this week. We will resume our weekly Class News post with the next newsletter on Monday, Dec. 8.
We are grateful for our students and families and hope you all have a safe and joyful break!
Calendar Reminders
Friday, Dec. 12 - Trimester 1 Parent/Teacher Conferences, No school for students*. Conference sign-up links were sent via email and are posted above.
Friday, Dec. 19 - ½ day early dismissal at 12 p.m.
*Extended Care is open and included in full-time plans; otherwise, advance sign-up is required the Friday before each date.
11/10/25-11/14/25
As we went “Around the World” this week, we learned more about marine life and US geography, how to follow directions on a map, and how to make recycled paper. We also had our field trip to the Lam Museum on Thursday and learned about the Rainbow Nation (South Africa).
Coming up in December, we will need Choice Time volunteers who can help with our Simple Gifts centers. Choice Time is Monday-Thursday, 2-3 p.m. Please sign up here if you are able to join us: https://calendar.app.google/ta3epaTAdRhDqtJUA. Thank you!
In Literacy, first graders finished Unit 2 for Skills. We have learned all of our magic e vowel sounds and are practicing reading and writing them. Next week we will start Unit 3, which will include more vowel teams. We will also begin our spelling assessments. Be on the lookout for more info on that in your email soon! In Knowledge, we finished Unit 4 comparing and contrasting stories and characters.
Second graders finished planning, writing, and editing their first book report of the year! We worked together to write about a story we read in class, “The Hare and the Hedgehog.” I saw some of the best work done by our students this year. By the end, they were very focused and did an amazing job with their writing! We also studied more contractions and had our spelling assessment on nine contractions and the tricky word “their.” We briefly touched on antonyms and will continue to discuss that next week. In Knowledge, we read an Ancient Chinese tale “The Magic Painbrush” and continued group work by adding a page to our “Facts About China” books. We also read about The Silk Road and the importance of silk for China. If you have any silk at home, show your child and ask them to tell you how it is made!
In math, first graders continued working on different strategies for finding the missing number in a subtraction equation. Students are encouraged to find the right strategy for them, but also to know alternatives for different types of problems (e.g. I only have 10 fingers, what else could I do so I can still use my fingers, or what’s another strategy that works for me?).
Second graders have covered quite a bit of ground over the past few weeks! This week we spent time comparing three-digit numbers in different forms. We finished Topic H and Topic I and officially finished this lengthy module! We spent the end of the week reviewing what we have learned during this second part of the module and we plan to assess what we have learned next week - just in time for Thanksgiving! Hooray!
We also wanted to send a reminder to our parents about sending warm hats, coats, and/or gloves to school with your student. We go outside several times a day and it is starting to get very chilly, especially in the mornings! This past Monday and Tuesday was a stark reminder of just how cold it can get. Brrrrrrr.
A few small notices: We are starting to run low on Friday snacks. We just need something small like graham crackers to keep us going until regular snack time. Please send something in if you can - no eggs or nuts. Special shout out to the families who have sent things in so far!
Critter Corner Update - Thanks to all of your amazing donations, Shadow and Mr. Fuzzy Cheeks are in great shape with their supplies for the next few weeks. Thank you, thank you again! They are two happy little piggies.
We would like to wish our families a very Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you enjoy this time together and get some well-deserved rest. We are so very grateful you entrust your children to spend time with us every single day. We appreciate you! And we love our little friends!
11/3/25-11/7/25
As we went “Around the World” this week, we learned more about oceans and landforms, how to write our names in Sanskrit, and about one of the principles of Kwanzaa. We also had a guest speaker, Luca’s mom, who shared about Day of the Dead! If your family has a history or traditions from around the world that you would like to share with us, please reach out to your contact teacher so we can get something scheduled! And if you would like to be a Choice Time volunteer, please sign up here: https://calendar.app.google/FDjkAJZGjkyGcEtUA.
Our second field trip is next week, on Wed, Nov. 13! We will be visiting the Lam Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University to tie in with our Knowledge and Choice Time units. For this field trip, please make sure your student brings a lunch. Arrival and dismissal times will follow our regular schedule. We do not need parent chaperones for this one either, but if you want to join us, please reach out to your contact teacher to discuss.
In Literacy, first graders got more practice with long a, e, i, and o using our ee and magic e patterns. We’ve also been talking about capitalizing proper nouns and got started on long u. Long u can be the trickiest since it doesn’t always say its name (e.g. tube vs cube) so that may be one to practice at home. “How do we figure out which sound it’s making?” We’ve been practicing using context clues to figure that out. In Knowledge, we read versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” from China and Botswana and compared the stories using Venn Diagrams!
Second graders continued to work on punctuation, commas, and quotation marks to get ready for our first book report! We also continued reading “Bedtime Tales” and are writing a report on one of the trickster tales in the book, “The Hare and the Hedgehog.” We are focusing on how to plan, draft, and edit and plan to finish next week. We also took some time to review the /oi/ boys! Think TOY or OIL. The “/oi/ boys” make the same sound but look totally different! We learned how ‘their,’ ‘they’re,’ and ‘there’ also sound the same, but have different meanings and spellings. Ask your student to tell you the trick that helps us know which spelling to use! Students also reviewed the sound/spellings /or/ > ‘or’ and /ar/ > ‘ar,’ as in FOR and CAR. In Knowledge, we read and learned about the paper, writing, and calligraphy that was used in ancient times of China and students worked in small groups to create a book of facts about China. We will add to our book as we learn more about China, including The Great Wall of China and the importance of silk in their culture.
In math, first graders finished the second topic on subtraction! We also started Topic C this week. We are talking more about addition and subtraction fact families and finding the unknown part in a problem (e.g. 10 - ? = 6). This can get more challenging conceptually so we will be working hard to practice.
Second graders are moving right along with composing and decomposing numbers. We started and finished Topic I this week! I was excited with how well our students picked up on this math skill. We learned to count the total value of ones, tens, and hundreds by using place value disks. We also learned and practiced how to exchange 10 for 1 when moving up in value and how to problem solve in situations where we have numbers with more than 9 ones and 9 tens. The end of this module is drawing near with only one topic left to cover. We are making great progress and hope to finish this module before we break for Thanksgiving!
Small notices: We are starting to run low on Friday snacks. We just need something small like graham crackers to keep us going until regular snack time. Please send something in if you can - no eggs or nuts. Also, please keep Pokemon cards at home during the school day. If you want to arrange with other families to do games or swaps after school that families can supervise, it sounds like the students would be very interested! If you have questions about this, please reach out to your contact teacher.
Critter Corner Update!
Thanks to all of your amazing donations, Shadow and Mr. Fuzzy Cheeks are in great shape with their supplies for the next few weeks. Thank you, thank you again! They are two happy little piggies.