Week 23

This snowperson sums up our week!

This week was an incredibly busy week. The warmer temperatures were welcomed with cheers as students played outdoors building snow forts and sculpting this cheerful snowperson. We celebrated our 100th day of the school year on Tuesday with all things 100 and Thursday we made our way to Spruce Peak for our first day of Nordic skiing and ice skating! On Friday, with thanks to the DiMotta's, the students enjoyed ravioli and rolls for hot lunch with chocolate chip cookies for dessert!

Some of the amazing 100th day Projects!

During literacy the class read several informative articles to identify the Main Idea. During writing students wrote from the perspective of their 100 year old self and made portraits of their 100 year old self to accompany their story. I began assessing students' reading level this week as well. Next week I will continue these assessments as we near the end of the 2nd trimester on March 9th.

During Math this week level 1 students learned how to use doubles + 1 or +2 and doubles -1 or -2 to solve additions problems. Level 2 students worked on "take from" word problems involving change unknown with regrouping. On Friday these students transitioned from using a number bond to using a linear model to compare larger and smaller quantities to find the difference. Level 3 students have been working on solving word problems involving multiples of five using a linear bar model and number sentences to represent their work.

In science this week we learned about how bridge designs use forces (pushes and pulls) to make them stronger. This culminated with students engaging in a STEM activity where they worked to design a model of a bridge that would hold as many pennies as possible using only two pieces of paper. In this challenge students persevered by making adjustments to their bridge designs to make a stronger and stronger bridge.

These students used a combination of pillars and folding paper to strengthen their bridge.

Our visit from Boston-based journalist, Chelsea Sheasley, was postponed until next Tuesday. Students have prepared questions for Ms. Sheasley to learn more about what being a journalist entails. In addition to this spotlight on The Elmore School, Jack Thurston from NBC Channel 5 news, plans to come back to Elmore on Monday to do a story about students at The Elmore School making Valentines for the Elmore Post Office Patrons. This is a 40+ year old tradition for The Elmore School and is our way for spreading kindness to others and giving back to the community. If you do NOT wish to have your child be part of either of these news events (photos or film) please let me know by Monday morning.

We will be celebrating Valentine's Day / World Kindness week on Monday, February 14th. Students are invited to bring traditional Valentine's Day cards or other notes/gestures of kindness for each classmate on Monday. A class list can be found your child's Friday Folder (on the back of the letter)

Thursday, we had our first outing at Spruce Peak where students enjoyed nordic skiing and ice skating! Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help on Thursday and to the Dryden's and Hill's for providing an apres ski/skate snack. We will be heading back to Spruce Peak again on Thursday, February 17th for another day of outdoor winter recreation. I will be asking students on Monday what they plan to do.

We will be resuming ECO following our February break, on our first day back, Wednesday, March 2nd! I need one or two parents who would like to volunteer for this outing. Our focus will be Grouse Houses

I just noticed that we are missing next Friday on our hot lunch calendar. Given the late date, I am going to reach out to the kitchen crew to see if we can arrange another pizza day. If that is not possible, we will plan on regular school lunch options and home lunch for Friday.

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