2nd/3rd: Week of Feb 10

Happy Friendship/Valentine’s Day!

We had a blast this afternoon celebrating together! From decorating our bags and exchanging valentines to opening sweet notes and enjoying delicious snacks (huge thanks to our amazing parents!), the room was filled with joy. We also got creative making friendship pins and simply soaking up time with one another. What a wonderful way to celebrate friendship and kindness! 💌✨

Math –

Ms. Andrea’s math group began their unit on Geometry! We reviewed plane and solid shape names, practiced identifying shapes around us, and sorted them based on their attributes – we even built some shapes using our bodies! As we go along we’re making note of questions we encounter, such as: what’s the difference between a rhombus and a diamond? What’s the difference between a rhombus and a parallelogram? It’s important to stay curious. We’ll research together and find answers as we go!

Ms. Kelly’s math group explored the distributive property to break down tricky area problems into friendlier numbers! By splitting complex shapes into smaller, more manageable rectangles, we calculated each section’s area separately before adding them together for the total. Using tiling as a hands-on strategy helped us visualize and measure the space inside a shape in a concrete, meaningful way!

Reading –

Ms. Kelly’s spelling crew has kicked off our latest adventure with long vowel patterns for the sound of “O”! We discovered five different ways to spell this single sound—wow! To make sure we really understand them, we’ve been practicing in a variety of fun and engaging ways.

Ms. Andrea’s spelling group’s rule of the week is the “y” to “I” rule when adding a suffix. It states, if a base word ends with a consonant and a y, change the y to an i when adding a suffix (unless the suffix begins with an i). It’s trickier than it sounds! Luckily, we get lots of opportunities to practice applying this rule.

Book Clubs

The Littles book club group finished their book and began on Superfudge by Judy Blume. They’ve just finished reading the first chapter of this hilarious novel. The other groups are going strong.

Writing –

Our Beta writers have officially started our tall tale rough drafts! We discussed once again how all tall tales begin- with the birth of a baby with super- human abilities. After rereading some of the starts of tall tales for inspiration we got down to business! Loads of kiddos shared their fantastic beginnings. We are off to a great start!!

Theme –

We traveled from the Kansas River to Chimney Rock, Nebraska. Rising more than 300 feet above the surrounding landscape, Chimney Rock is visible for miles. Its grand spire served as a marker for trail travelers on the Oregon, California, Mormon Pioneer, and Pony Express national historic trails. Inspiring awe in those who saw it, Chimney Rock was mentioned in more emigrant diaries than any other feature along the Oregon Trail.

We witnessed our wagon families truly come together during this challenging stretch, stepping up to support one another in times of need. When one family ran out of medicine for their fevers, another generously shared from their own supply. When another lacked bullets to hunt buffalo for much-needed food, others quickly offered to help. Through these acts of kindness, we realized a powerful truth—by helping each other, we’re also strengthening our own chances of survival. This journey is not just about individual success; we’re in this together!

Life on the trail could get mighty dull during those long stretches of travel, so pioneers made the most of their time while bumping along in the wagon. Many used the journey to tackle practical tasks like mending clothes and darning socks. Others took advantage of the downtime to work on long-term projects, such as piecing together a quilt or stitching an intricate sampler. Even in the midst of the rugged trail, pioneers found ways to keep their hands busy and their spirits high!

In the 1800s, people, primarily young girls, stitched samplers to practice and demonstrate their needlework skills, which were considered an essential life skill for women, often learning basic stitches, alphabets, and numbers on them, essentially serving as a visual record of their developing sewing abilities and sometimes even their family values, as more elaborate samplers could be displayed in the home as a sign of education and status.

The Beta pioneers have designed a simple sampler on paper and have begun to stitch their designs. This will be a long term project in class for these pioneers and they can work on them whenever they have some down time!