General News
What a joy to be back in Gammaland after a lovely Thanksgiving break! Gammas hit the ground running on Monday with tons of energy and excitement! We are on a roll! We have our sweet Apollo on our minds and appreciate all the thoughtfulness and good cheer from Gamma families–thank you!
ELA Update
On Monday morning many Gammas came into class and went straight for the classroom library to pick out new books! It was very exciting to see them return to their classroom reading lives after break with such vigor and enthusiasm! We talked about how great readers are always thinking about their books as they read; my job is to teach them ways to identify the kind of thinking they are doing naturally as readers as well as how to be more intentional about it as they read. This week we focused on the skill of making connections as you read. There are three main categories of connection you can make while reading: text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text. On Tuesday we did a quick detour lesson into friendly letter writing and wrote letters to a classmate who has been in the hospital for a while. On Wednesday and Thursday we started to draft our fiction stories by choosing a genre we are going to write and sketching out the characters, setting, problem, solution, and other expository plot elements. We also got inspiration for our writing by reading ancient (two years ago) Gamma stories from the last time we did this unit. They were very inspired by these and ready to start writing!
Math Update
Our math week began with two fun fraction activities we ran out of time to complete before the Thanksgiving break began: Year 1 kids completed a winter-themed “riddle race” and Year 2 kids completed a fun fraction electronic scavenger hunt. Both groups did a fantastic job holding on to their fractions skills over the week long break. Year 1 kids will continue reviewing the fraction concepts already covered while year 2 kids will move into one of the harder skills of the year: adding/subtracting mixed numbers with regrouping. (Ms. Lorrie has several tutorial videos to help your Gamma along when/if this skill feels tough! It indeed is a tougher skill to master.) Both groups have started working on their “build a uniform” project which will give kids the chance to both be imaginative and creative, while also boosting their multi-digit multiplication skills.
Theme Update
Nevermind that Ms. Lorrie has a new tombstone motto (“She bit off more than she could chew”) but we indeed DID bite off a hefty project for the week. We are attempting to create a large quilt of an animal cell with QR codes leading to kid-made videos giving details based on students’ research about the functions of the organelles. There were for sure moments this week where we wondered “WHAT were we THINKING?” but then other moments where the kids creative genius really sparkled and we were so impressed with the imaginative approached kids took while crafting their organelles (fabric) and videos (using a variety of apps–the results have been amazing so far!) We’ll continue crunching out work on this project next week and if the stars align we should have a really neat project to show you at POP!
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  | |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
