News from the Classrooms

Kindergarten
During the month of February we will be studying about our great country. We will learn about Washington and Lincoln, and will learn to identify different U.S. symbols. On Friday, February 11, we will exchange Valentines with our classmates. Kindergarten children will not address their cards to specific children, but will write their name on each card to let the recipient know from whom the card came. This method of Valentine card exchange greatly speeds up the process of card delivery and allows for more fun activities during the class Valentine party. Each child makes a Valentine card holder in class to hold all of the cards from their classmates.
In math, we continue to work on addition and subtraction. Your child should be able to identify and form each number from zero to 10, in and out of sequence.
At the end of the month, we will begin our animal unit, studying reptiles, amphibians, wild animals, insects, and more. This is an area of study that is especially fun for the students.
We have such great fun in kindergarten, and welcome you to join us anytime!
- The Kindergarten Team

First Grade
Busy, Busy, Busy!!! You would think that life in first grade would slow down after December, but we are busier than ever! In January, we learned about winter, penguins, the water cycle, Australia, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. February studies will include map skills, Chinese New Year, Lincoln and Washington, and American symbols.
Friday, February 11th will be our Valentine’s Day party. The kids really look forward to these holiday parties and love seeing the parent volunteers who help with these events. Thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers who run our parties and teach “Meet the Masters.”
Please remember to read with your child daily for at least 15 minutes, practice spelling words, and drill the math facts flashcards. We appreciate all you do to make your child’s first grade year successful.
- The First Grade Team

Second Grade
January was a busy month!
Second graders have been learning 2-digit subtraction with regrouping. Parents, please watch for worksheets that come home and go over any problems that they missed. Having math facts memorized will help students with this math, so continue to study math facts every night.
We celebrated Martin Luther King Day by learning more about Dr. King’s life and by thinking of our own dreams for making the world a better place. We thought of great things that each one of us can do to make a difference. How inspiring!
We also researched penguins and learned to write reports about what we gathered from many different books. The students are getting good at finding facts and putting them into their own words as they write their reports. Along the way, we found out lots of interesting things about penguins!
The Book Bag Reports were wonderful! The boys and girls did a great job on their presentations. We are proud of their hard work!
- Karli Hedin