January 26, 2013

I hope everyone enjoyed the three day weekend with Monday being reserved for parent/teacher conferences. Last week was another productive week for the students, and filled with some new challenges in both Math and Language Arts. Concepts in both subject areas have been gradually getting more challenging for the students, as expectations in all grade levels have increased. Most of the students have rallied to meet the added challenges with additional support from myself and our classroom aides.

The Science unit on soils has struck a lot of interest in our class with the live red worms and composting component as part of the learning process. Another highlight from last week was the visit of Mary Timm from the Tetlin Wildlife Refuge. She has introduced the students to Mallard duck characteristics through using shapes that they colored and cut into a duck. The next visit, she plans to help the students draw their own Mallard to send into the duck stamp competition. All the students were very proud of their Mallard creations, and as you can see in the photo to follow, we have the ducks displayed in our room.

 

On Friday, the planned visit from Tetlin Environmental Technician,Theresa Christiansen, to do an "Ice Safety" activity was postponed due to illness. It has been rescheduled for this Friday. Hopefully, I will have something to share on that subject next week.

Please remember to turn in any book orders at the end of the week if you would like to buy books for your child. Also, the spelling words are getting harder for the 1st graders so remind your child to study them and write each word at least three times each nightly. If you have any books I have sent home that have not been returned, I would appreciate them back to use with other students. 

Stay warm and have a great week!