Our December Happenings

 Happy New Year to all of you!

I truly hope it has been a relaxing vacation for you, filled with things that make your heart happy. I always enjoy space to breathe, away from school, but I am definitely ready to be back and to see our kids. I can't wait to hear about their time away.

What we have been up to in December, was wrapping up our unit on Holiday Traditions and Celebrations around the world. Students learned (since the last post) about Kwanzaa, Christmas in different countries (Australia being our favorite, it's SUMMER THERE.), Winter Solstice and New Years. We noticed that regardless of where you live or what you are celebrating there are some common themes: family and close friends, food, and gifts. We also wrote New Year's Resolutions. Many students wanted to be nicer to their siblings or learn a new skill, such as skateboarding. Mine is to write down something I am grateful for every day. 

Here are some beautiful examples of  Mother Earth crowns that we made in honor of Winter Solstice.

In math we have been focused on solving addition and subtraction problems within 100. We have used unifix cubes and base ten blocks to manipulate and build numbers. We have worked hard at using models by drawing in our math books and writing equations to show our thinking. Right before break we learned how to decompose numbers and regroup! We sure were busy.

I run math class as a station model with four stops; skill building, game, computer work, and a station with me which is the main objective of the lesson. Each day the kids go to two stations, the following day they will get to the two they didn't do from the previous day, and then the pattern starts over. I love it because it makes it easy to give each student what they need, and I work closely with each child at least twice a week in math. It helps me see where they are at and target what they need.

Here are some photos of kids at stations.

Unrelated to our curriculum, we did have a special guest come one day. One of the Antioch interns at our school arranged a visit from the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum. We were so lucky to get to learn about and see some beautiful owls!! All the kids know, owls are my FAVORITE animals. I find them so fascinating and otherworldly. I swear the Barn Owl looked straight into my soul! Anyways, they were beautiful and it was a nice little treat.

A blog post wouldn't be complete without a building photo. The challenge was to build something related to the holidays we learned about. I believe this was either a Santa trap or a gingerbread house! HA.

And lastly, as a gift to my students every year I give them a book that I *hope* they will love and I let them pick from a bag of knitted hats that my grandma makes. I have been doing this for 13 years, since I became a teacher. I hope you all got to see the sweet hats they chose and read the book over vacation. I love seeing the hats on heads as my students grow and are in different grades. It makes my heart happy.

HOW CUTE ARE THEY!?

Things to look forward to: solving story problems in math, using the skills we have worked on so far this year. States of Matter in science! One of my favorite things to teach, because there are lots of experiments. Writing observations, predictions, and conclusions in our science journals comes along with this unit of study. We also have 3 winter sports dates planned. Please let me know if you are interested in chaperoning.

Be Well! <3 Miss Ali