Dear Families,
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
This week we started using writing journals for our mindfulness blocks. The students did an outstanding job drawing and writing about their own strengths and unique talents and abilities this week.
In our restorative circles this week, we talked about how we can show respect to other people at our school, specifically how the students can show respect to Mr. Matt since he is starting his solo week on the 17th of March. The students had many great ideas. Some students suggested they can be role models by following the group plan, model a calm and safe body and listen with respect. Other students shared that they can help others and remind them of the expectations if needed. They are an amazing group of kids. Please talk to your child about the importance of showing respect to all adults/teachers at our school. It can be challenging sometimes to have a new teacher and do things a little differently, but we will continue to work on these ideas next week too leading up to Mr. Matt’s first solo day. When Mr. Matt is the solo teacher (3/17-3/23), I will be in a supportive role to him and the class. I will also host parent-teacher conferences. You should receive an additional email with a sign up document later today or over the weekend.
Today was National SEL Day! We celebrated in many different ways today. We did a zones greeting and checked in with each other to make sure our emotional needs were met in the morning. Later in the day, we created individualized calming cards to encourage the students to find practical strategies for staying on task and learning throughout the day. We hope this added resource will help our young learners identify their feelings while also creating a sense of responsible decision-making and accountability to foster self-reliance, independence and agency.
Reading:
This week, we read and listened to many different books. One of our favorites was “Interrupting Chicken” by David Ezra Stein. The students enjoyed the story of the little chicken who constantly interrupted her papa as he tried to read her a bedtime story. Using thinking bubbles and speech bubbles, the students shared their ideas about the different characters' perspectives and feelings. The students also gave their own advice to the little chicken to help her stop interrupting. They had great ideas.
.
Writing:
Mr. Matt started his writing unit this week. He will teach the students a creative writing unit. He will encourage the students to develop their own voice as an author by creating fictional stories with characters, a plot and setting. The students are very excited to use their imagination to create these stories.
Math:
Second grade mathematicians continued their work on fractions and number sense this week. Mr. Rene Sanchez, our District Superintendent, and Ms. Filion came to visit our Number Talks. They were so impressed with our incredible mathematicians who showed respectful math sharing and active engagement throughout the lesson as they shared different strategies for solving equations.
This week, our Number Talks focused upon something called “Number Strings”. Number strings encourage students to see connections between number relationships by introducing a set of mathematical expressions. For example, if a child understands that 7+2 is 9, the child can use that skill to solve 87+2 and 70+20, etc
Science:
This week, the students of Harmony had the opportunity to participate in another 4 Winds class. This time, they learned about trees and twigs in winter times. Our classes started with a puppet show and afterwards we went outside to match twigs to trees. Enjoy the pictures:
News and Reminders:
Please see this message from our Families as Partners group:
Williston Families as Partners is excited to be hosting Lucky U for the 6th year!
Students will have the opportunity to enter individual raffles for a chance to win a special activity or experience with faculty or staff from one of the Williston Schools!
Money raised will help support Williston School field trips, grants for teacher initiatives, and more! ALL students will receive one FREE ticket. Additional raffle tickets may be purchased for 25 cents.
Tickets will be sold the week of March 13th-17th!
Before school at ABS from 7:40am-8:10am
During lunches at WCS 11:25am-12:05pm and 12:15pm-12:55pm
Prize drawings will be held at the end of the week. All winners will be notified by the following Tuesday.
Link to full list of 2023 Raffle Experiences HERE
Volunteers, please sign-up to help sell Raffle Tickets! HERE—> https://signup.com/go/gFiXsjM
Have a great weekend,
Maria
No comments:
Post a Comment