Happy New Year!

  2024 is almost history! It's a time for looking back..so let's do that and see what the class has been up to since October....

Dance-a-thon!

Thank you to everyone who helped our class come in First Place for fund raising for our PTA! 

We had the two top earners, Jeffrey and Cruz. First Place winner, Cruz, got to be Principal for the Day later in November.

The Dance-a-thon was lots of fun!  2nd and 3rd grade were together. Children had a choice to wear a costume, rep their favorite sports team, or wear a Cherrydale shirt. Fun, music, lights! Everyone enjoyed themselves!

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November

We earned an Ice Cream Party for our class fund raising efforts for the Dance-a-thon. Thank you to all of the parents who came to help us scoop, top, and sprinkle our ice cream.

In Social Studies we learned about the Pacific Northwest Native Americans. We focused on the Totem Pole culture. We learned the various reasons a group or family might create a pole, and the symbology of each animal. Then children selected 4 animals to represent themselves.

We colored and cut out our animals,

The children decided on the position of each animal as they created their Totem Pole. 

Finally, we wrote about why we chose the animal; why we felt it was a good symbol for us. This was an opportunity for the children to take information from one source and make it their own, a skill that is still developing. 

December

 We had our 4th annual Festive Tree Lighting! 

In PE, Mr. Kirby has been teaching the children about their muscles. They had several stations in the gym where they could experience how those specific muscles help us move. Later, the children took a quiz on their muscles and he reports they did very well!

We had a Mystery Science engineering challenge. We learned about the properties of some solids, and discussed how those properties might make them a good choice for constructing buildings. The challenge: Each child received 20 index cards and paper clips.

 Step 1. Can you make the index cards stand alone ?

Parts 2 and 3: Can you re-use your cards, and build a structure 12 " high that would stand alone, and next, a structure 6 " high that will hold 5 books? There were some tears of frustration but productive struggle is a good thing! Some children asked if they could use the container their paperclips were in. It wasn't part of the rules, but life is about "make it work!" and they did!

We had many art projects in December.  I asked all my repeat customers if they wanted to do something new, or do what we did last year, and they asked to do what we did last year. 

We had a review of warm and cool colors. We applied our learning  using a wet on wet watercolor technique for the background of our  festive trees. 

They finished their trees with multi-colored paper strips, spangles and jewels.

Our holiday crafts day was a great success. Big thanks to David Stailey for masterfully manning the mason jar station. The children also created glitter pine cones, and sock snow people. Throughout the month the children created their own holiday tshirts.  

On our last day of school we had an all school sing-along. We learned about the winter solstice and how the sun never appears very high in the sky at this time of year. When we left for the day, the sun had apparently heard us. We walked into beautiful sunshine! Oliver exclaimed "Wow the sun is right in my eyes!" Perfect synchronicity!

Thank you PTA and parent volunteers for the Hot Chocolate treat and big send off!

And that brings us up to date!

We have MLK Jr. Day on Monday the 20th and a field trip on the 21st. We will also have our mid-year iReady assessment this month.
Thank you again for thinking of me during your holiday giving.

And whether you are looking forward to 2025 with titillation or trepidation, may it only hold delightful surprises! - Ms. Rae