WL MILLER NEWSLETTER
October 2020
Kindergarten
Living or Non-Living? That is the question that our Kindergarteners have been investigating. We have created nature boards, observed the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly, and sorted pictures in our science notebooks.
We also took it one step further and divided the living things into plants and animals. In case you are wondering, Kindergarteners are living and belong in the animal category!
1ST GRADE
The first grade students took advantage of the beautiful Fall foliage this week, and took a Leaf Walk around the school.
Our walk was inspired by Lois Ehlert’s book Leaf Man. After reading her book in the classroom, students took a Leaf Walk and collected leaves that “caught their eye”. It was easy to find many unique shapes and vibrant hues, as the ground is beginning to be filled with many beautiful fallen leaves.
After returning to our classrooms, students made designs out of their leaves, inspired by the creations in Leaf Man. The first grade students had so much fun learning about leaves and created many amazing pieces of art! 🍁🍁🍁
2ND GRADE
Over the past few weeks we have been busy writing narrative stories, adding and subtracting double digits, and doing lots of reading! Reading bags have been coming home nightly. Please be sure to read each night with your child!
This month, we will also begin to dive deeper into our first science unit on matter. Students observed ice cubes melt over different objects and then created a list of “wonders” or questions they wanted to explore further. The kids are looking forward to investigating all types of matter and discovering answers to their wonders.
3RD GRADE
Each day, third graders read a book. By the end of the week we have read five books together! On Friday, students earn a directed drawing and get to draw one of the favorite characters from their read alouds! They love figuring out what character they get to draw!
4TH GRADE
Over the past month, students have been enjoying the book “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate Dicamillo. Students have done a mixture of reading in class with Mr. Hoover and have gotten the opportunity this year to share this unique story with their families at home. They were even able to taste one of Miss Franny’s littmus lozenges and take an extra one home to share with a family member (Be careful if someone offers you one, the secret ingredient is sorrow).
In science, students have begun dissecting an owl pellet and are working on classifying the bones they have found in order to learn what type of animal their owl ate.
5TH GRADE
In science, we will have a culminating STEM project that incorporates design, blueprinting, problem/solving, measurement and data collection. Students will build and test paper airplanes!
In ELA, writers are excited to begin Writing Workshop. They have started generating ideas for personal narratives, and are drafting out their stories. Soon, we will be ready to begin drafting a final story to publish. Our fifth grade writers are learning how to use "story voice" which is a writing technique that allows readers to feel like they are a part of the story. We can't wait to see their finished stories in several weeks!
Our 5th grade mathematicians are quickly moving through the new skill of working with decimal numbers. Order of Operations is just around the corner. In our Google Classroom we are becoming amazing typists and are working with text boxes and taking Google Forms quizzes. As teachers, we are so proud of how our fifth graders have adapted to the nuances of remote and hybrid learning.
6TH GRADE
Over the past few weeks, 6th graders have been learning about our author of the month, Langston Hughes. During our focus on Langston Hughes, we learned about important Social Studies topics like the Harlem Renaissance and segregation. In ELA, we read Hughes’s poem “I, Too” as well as his short story “Thank You, Ma’am”. Students used these texts to explore the literary elements of theme and character. We also started our read aloud book, Holes by Louis Sachar. Holes is about a boy named Stanley who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up at summer camp where he digs holes in the hot sun, rather than swimming in the lake! We love this book so far, and can’t wait to continue reading it, as well as learn about our next author of the month, Edgar Allan Poe.
ART
Balance, symmetry, and pattern are the focus in these artworks by kindergarten, first, third and fourth graders!
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Fortunately, we have been able to get outside for the majority of our school year thus far. As the cooler months approach, please remind your student to dress for the weather as we will continue to have physical education classes outside as much as possible. Students should wear sneakers and dress for activity on days they have physical education classes.
Remote student expectations: If your child will have physical education classes in-person at any point during the trimester, they are not required to complete online assignments. They can complete them if they choose, but are not required.
LIBRARY
Happy October,
This month is full of exciting new things! October will kick-off a new study in genres for K-3. This month we will be learning about the genres of mystery and horror to go along with Halloween. They will hear stories in these genres, learn about their basic elements, and take part in hands-on activities centered around the mystery and scary story read-alouds. Grades 4-6 will continue to work on our unit on Digital Citizenship; they will learn how to make smart choices on the internet.
Grades K-3 will continue to checkout books in class. Kindergarten will choose book off of my traveling library cart. Grades 1-3 spent this last week working on building book wishlists. I will bring books to their room based on their individual wish lists. Grades 4-6 have access to the library catalog and a Google form for looking up and ordering books from the library. These resources are located on a Google Slide in SeeSaw for 4th grade and Google Classroom for 5th and 6th grades.
HAVE A SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN!
MUSIC
K-1 musicians are having fun in music class by singing our songs about apples, falling leaves, pumpkins and spiders! We are also exploring new instruments and how to use our voices to make high and low sounds.
2nd and 3rd graders have been learning about Mr. Sol and Miss Mi and how we notate or write them using our mini erasers and popsicle sticks. Our 2nd grade musicians are beginning to learn the xylophones and the 3rd grade musicians are getting ready to learn how we read notes on a music staff and have met Grandma La, who loves to bake cookies.
4th Grade musicians are busy learning ukulele and we have played some fun games along the way to help us remember what we have learned.
5th and 6th grade musicians have been learning and reviewing notes and rests we use to make rhythms, like 16th notes and whole rests, and experimenting with creating in the Chrome Music Lab.
5th and 6th Grade Band and Lessons will begin the week of October 12th-16th.
Schedules will be posted in the Google Classroom. 😃
TITLE I
Let’s have some fun with words!
Choose a 3 letter word such as rug. Have your child substitute different beginning sounds to make new words. (bug, hug, dug, mug, tug, etc.) How many new words (real or make believe) can your child make? Examples of make believe words include: kug, nug, sug, etc.
For a more challenging game, try changing the ending sound. For example, change rub to rub, rud, run, ruf, etc.
School news:
- In-Service Day Wednesday, October 14-NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
- Fall picture retakes Thursday, October 29th and 30th