March 4-March 9, 2024

We must develop the strength needed in our hands and fingers to write. In the elementary classroom, we help the children develop these fine motor skills through easy and creative activities, often using everyday materials. Mrs. Puettmann brought a fun activity this week using a cupcake pan, pom-pom balls, and small beads. Using the clothespin to grasp the small beads and balls was fun and a great way to utilize the muscles in our hands and fingers.

Holding a paintbrush can also strengthen the fingers and build fine motor skills. This week, the children used watercolor paints to create beautiful pictures. In addition to these activities, our students often use stickers or velcro pieces to complete independent work activities. All these activities help develop the strength needed in our hands and fingers to become independent writers and communicate our thoughts and feelings on paper.

This week, our reading group learned about alliteration, idioms, and hyperbole as part of our figurative language unit. Figurative language can be a challenging concept to grasp, and our readers have shown perseverance and excitement in their learning! I sent out an email with songs we have been using during this unit, in case your students want to share them with you or use them to review over break! In math, the students have been reviewing skills such as money, time, and measurement. They have been working on their Valentine’s Day challenges and individual skills in their binders. In science, we investigated the characteristics of reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. We have now been introduced to all five categories of vertebrates! We will continue to learn about these types of vertebrates and explore deeper into the invertebrate classifications after the break. In social studies, we are creating brochures about an inspiring and influential person from Black History Month. It has been exciting to learn about someone who has impacted the world in such a significant way! As we get closer to Easter, our class has been learning about the different miracles that Jesus performed. This week, we listened to the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water.

I hope everyone has a relaxing, safe, and happy spring break! We are looking forward to seeing all their happy faces and hearing about their breaks when we return.

This week in ELA, Groups 1 and 2 were introduced to American Romanticism and the American Renaissance following the Age of Reason. We read poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Walt Whitman. We also had our first “Breakfast and Books” session, which included listening to an audio version of Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle while enjoying a plate of fresh pancakes! Group 3 finished our novel study on My Brother Sam is Dead, and we will be recording our book reviews when we return from Spring Break!

Our Environmental Science classes began learning about Earth’s different biomes in Chapter 5 this week. We touched on the two types of biomes, terrestrial, and aquatic, learned a little bit about latitude and how the distance from the equator affects each biome, and observed how salinity plays a role in the life of marine and freshwater ecosystems.

In history, we reviewed what we had learned about the American Revolution and took a test.

In the Independent Living class, we continue working on our career projects. We are working on specific information on the careers the students picked.

This week in math class, we worked on individualized programs in IXL. We also worked on individualized math from our math folder.

This week in writing class, we worked on simple sentences. We also worked on unscrambling words and putting the words into sentences.