Weekly News
9/22/25-9/26/25
This week in Rainbow, we attended the Carnation Ceremony for Sunrise and their senior buddies. We learned some new songs and continued with our Castles unit in Choice Time. We made Missing Posters, played a game, made a cobblestone path, and built spectacular castles (seriously!). 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 to sign up.
In Literacy, first graders reviewed digraphs (two letters that make one sound like th or ch). They also started reading in their readers and practiced answering questions using text evidence! In Knowledge, we finished the fables and folktales unit by performing puppet shows of the stories. We also did our first lesson in Unit 2 - human bodies!
Second graders spent this week working on more tricky words and the tricky spelling of “C,” which can have a /k/ or /c/ sound. We also worked on the language practice of capitalization and punctuation by unscrambling sentences and using strategies such as capital letters to clue us in to what the first word would be in the sentence. We continued reading “The Cat Bandit;” ask your student about all the food that crazy cat ate this week including a hot dog, chicken nugget, snack mix, ham, and fish. Whew, he is one hungry cat! In Knowledge, we wrapped up our Fairy Tales and Tall Tales unit by creating a graphic organizer to define the differences of all of the characters we studied. We also created a Venn Diagram comparing the two characters of John Henry and Casey Jones. Casey Jones was a class favorite! Next week we will launch into Early Asian Civilizations. This is sure to be an interesting unit!
In math, first graders started Topic C. We are working on adding numbers together and “counting on” using different strategies. Setting up these strategies now will help as we get into larger numbers and more complex operations. We talked about how word problems are everywhere! If you have a chance, help your student see how you use math all the time (e.g. how many juice boxes do I need to buy?).
Second graders continued working with rulers and measuring tapes as number lines to help add and subtract efficiently in Topic D. We also learned how to solve comparison problems by using measurement contexts by finding the next ten or benchmark number. This is a tough concept that is used to help scaffold how to become more proficient at mental math. Practice this at home by giving your student a number and asking them what the next ten would be. For example, the next ten or benchmark number for 68 would be 70 if you are adding. If you are subtracting, the next ten would be 60.
our first Field Trip - Friday, Oct. 17
Lastly, we have planned and confirmed our first field trip for the year! We will be celebrating the end of our Castles unit with a trip to Gateway Gardens. Students will get to enjoy a medieval picnic, act out fairy tales on a stage, and explore the gardens. We do not need chaperones since it will be a small area, but if you would like to join us, you are welcome to; please let us know if you will. Our trip is on Friday, Oct. 17 from about 10:00-1:30.
9/15/25-9/19/25
The Rainbow class had another special week. We had Meeting for Worship in the meetinghouse (across the street at New Garden Friends Meeting) with our Galaxy buddies and the rest of our campus (preschool-6th). We also continued with our Choice Time Castles Unit, making our own crowns, learning about castle defenses with our portcullis project, making streamers for our class mini-maypole, and creating our own stories. We also had a preview for 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/LXRM2sWTni7cuYs79
In Literacy, first graders continued to review phonics skills and letter formation. We talked about word spacing, blending and segmenting sounds, and how to use our sounds to support spelling. We reviewed “to” and “do” and “all” and “some” this week. In Knowledge, we have been reading folktales - ask your student what lessons they've learned.
Second graders spent the majority of the week working on tricky words and spelling alternatives (double letter spellings). We also learned about two-syllable words with short vowels and that tricky letter ‘g’ that can sometimes sound like /g/ or /j/! Such a trickster! Friday marks our first spelling assessment for the year. So much learning ahead! We also started reading “The Cat Bandit.” Ask your child about this cat that will do just about anything for a snack! In Knowledge, we read more Tall Tales including Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry and Casey Jones. Talk to your child about these characters and what makes them so special. Our magic word was “exaggerate.” Ask your child what that means and what they were supposed to do when the magic word was said in class. I promise you will be entertained!
In math, first graders finished Topic B and will check their understanding on Monday! We practiced counting up from different numbers, from 10, and creating number bonds and math equations. For more practice at home, have your students make groups of different objects (pretzels, coins, etc) and count up to add them together! Bonus points if they can tell you the equation.
Second graders wrapped up metric measurement and concepts about the ruler. The rest of the week was spent learning how to estimate, measure, and compare lengths. We used tape measures to measure and compare heights of objects, including ourselves! Ask your child what we can use to estimate 1 cm (*answer* - our pinkie finger) or 1 meter (*answer* - height from floor to door knob). Using these benchmark measurements, it is easy to estimate the length of items around the classroom.
We’re looking forward to the Fall Carnation ceremony on Monday and to seeing all our volunteers during our upcoming Choice Time!
Reminder: School Photos Retake and Make Up Day - Tuesday, Sept 23
See the email that was sent from news@ngfs.org on Thursday, Sept. 18 (subject: School Photos Ready to View!) for all the details!
9/8/25-9/12/25
This was a special week in Rainbow. We finished our Rainbow Guidelines and had our signing ceremony in the gym with our resource teachers. The students did a wonderful job coming up with ideas for the “rules” we want for ourselves in our classroom. We will continue to review these throughout the year to keep us on track. We also started our Choice Time unit on Castles and Medieval Times! Students do handwriting practice in the Scriptorium, make graphs counting jewels in the Royal Treasury, practice STEM skills constructing castles, and show off what they care about making shields!
This week in Literacy, the first grade students read decodable books and are building their fluency. If you would like to hear their skills at home, visit this website. Have your first grader start in the second or third level of books. We also continued reading fables, mapping out the parts of the story, learning new vocabulary words, and writing our own stories.
In second grade, we spent most of the week doing word reading and story reading assessments. We will use this information to build our lessons and identify specific areas for student support. We ended the week reviewing tricky worlds and spelling alternatives. In Knowledge, we continued learning about tall tales; we Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill are some funny characters we read about. We are currently working on a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the descriptives of each story.
In math, first graders finished our first topic on graphs and started Topic B, which is all about counting on and understanding the parts of an equation. Learning to count on (start from 3 then 4, 5, 6) can help speed up our math skills and get us ready for higher place value addition!
Our second graders dived into metric measurements this week! I am pretty sure we measured just about every object in the plums classroom. We can now tell the difference between a 1 cm cube, 10 cm stick, and a meter stick and how to use each to measure objects. This was a fun topic covered in our class!
Thank you to everyone who attended Lower School Parent Night on Tuesday. Here are links to the presentations that were shared:
9/2/25-9/5/25
We have gotten off to a wonderful start in Rainbow this year! We are learning more about Morning Meetings and Meeting For Worship (MFW). This week we were able to join with Sunrise (TK and K) and participated with them in their Morning Meeting twice. It is so much fun when we get to spend time with our younger friends. Likewise, we were also very excited to do our Meeting for Worship on Friday with Galaxy (grades 5-6) where we got to meet our new Galaxy buddies! Ask your student who their Galaxy buddy. This partnership is a beautiful tradition. Rainbow and their Galaxy buddies will meet together throughout the year while attending MFW together.
The Rainbow class spent this week discussing and developing our own guidelines for the year. We started off with many wonderful ideas and contributions from each of our students. After many daily afternoon discussions we were able to file all our ideas into four distinct categories. We separated each thought into baskets labeled: “Keeping Learning Safe,” “Keeping Bodies Safe,” “Keeping Things Safe,” and “Keeping Feelings Safe." We were able to come up with four excellent guidelines that we hope to establish on Monday at our signing ceremony with our resource teachers.
In Literacy, first graders are continuing to review phonics skills through blending and segmenting practice, word chains, and recognizing heart words (tricky words). We reviewed “a”, “I”, “so”, “no”, and “of” this week. We also practiced letter formation and word spacing. In Knowledge, we are reading more of Aesop’s fables. We mapped out each story on a story map and even planned out our own stories!
Second graders spent the majority of the week working on our code review from last year. We continued to brush up segmenting and blending one-syllable words while reading more about Kate and Gad and their big discovery in a dig. Ask your student if they remember what they found (raptor bone)! We also read more Fairy Tales and discussed some of the criteria that make a story a fairy tale. Does it always have a happy ending? Do they all start with “Once upon a time?” Are they fiction or non-fiction? Hmmmm…
In math, first graders began comparing more than two numbers and sorting and graphing three groups of objects. You can practice at home by asking your student to tell you which number or group of items is greater than or less than (or the same!). See if they can show you the symbol they should use (< or > or =). The class has nicknamed it Pacman, by the way.
Second graders wrapped up reading bar and picture graphs and solving comparing problems based on the data. We started our next topic on metric measurement and rulers. We even made our own 10 centimeter ruler and measured objects around the classroom. The next question is what if the object we want to measure is more than 10 cm? What do we do then? We have started to talk about this, but will dive into it more next week!
We’re looking forward to sharing about life in Rainbow next Tuesday (Sept. 9) at Lower School Parent Night!