Weekly Updates SY 2024-2025

Week 1

It has been a fabulous first week. I am so excited for this school year! We are going to have so much fun learning and growing this year!

What did we do this week?

This week we got right back into the swing of things! Throughout the week we worked on different procedures and routines such as classroom agreements, hallway expectations, carpet time, how to respect materials and we reviewed the Decatur Values: Be Present, Take Care of Each Other, and Endure Challenges.

This week in Math: students practiced using different math manipulatives such as base-ten blocks, counters, cubes, and shapes.

This week in Reading: students completed activities based on read alouds, our read alouds included: Our Class is a Family, Meisha Makes a Friend, and When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left.

This week in Writing: Students created a book about their first week in school!

This week in Science: Students learned about Aquatic animals.

This week in Social Studies: Students created school promises.

Things to Note

Students received a blue “Take Home” folder where assignments, work, or other important information will be sent home. Please send this folder back with your child each day to establish the routine.

Friendly Reminders!

Snack:

Students can bring a healthy snack from home to eat during a designated time in the morning. This healthy snack should be something that they can eat while doing work to help keep energy up during learning. Please do not send students with candy or food that requires utensils.

**Due to allergies in the classroom and school, snacks MUST be nut-free

Attendance:

If your child is absent, please email me, your homeroom teacher and our clerk Ms. Beard and

complete the absence form on the website found HERE.

Change of Clothes:

Your child is bringing a ziploc bag home in their backpack today. Please send a change of clothes (underwear, pants, shirt, socks, etc.) in the bag. We will be keeping these in the classroom in case of any spills/accidents.

Entry & Dismissal Procedures:

Please complete this DISMISSAL FORM for your child’s regular dismissal schedule.

Morning Entry:

School entry will begin at 7:30 a.m.
All Students Door 4 | The Link Entrance

Afternoon Dismissal

Dismissal is at 2:45 p.m
K-2nd Grade | Door 4 (Link Entrance)
K - 2nd Grade Siblings | Door 1 (Main Entrance)
Please park legally in the neighborhood for pick-up, parking lot is for staff only.

Breakfast and Lunch

Students should bring a water bottle to refill throughout the day. Please make sure it is LABELED with your child’s FIRST and LAST name.
Breakfast is free and will be served until 7:55 a.m. daily in the classroom
Lunch will be served in the cafeteria
Students can have free school lunch and/or bring lunch from home
If your child is eating lunch provided by the school, it will be helpful to review the lunch menu with them. They get to choose a main dish, a vegetable and a fruit when they enter the lunch line. The school also has sunbutter and jelly sandwiches if they do not like the main options for the day.

Remember to mark your calendars for these Important Dates!

September 2nd - No School - Labor Day

September 7th - Family Back to School Picnic 10am - 12pm

September 11th - LSC Meeting

September 12th - Curriculum Night 5-7pm

September 24th - Fall Picture Day

I hope you all enjoy the longer weekend and look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday September 3rd!

Have a great long weekend!

Week 2

Weekly Update Week 2:

This week in Math: Students practiced math problems on whiteboards. Students also took a pre-unit check. We practiced what it looks and sounds like to take an assessment. We also practiced using math manipulatives properly.

This week in Reading: Students learned about what it looks like to “do my best work”. Students practiced taking care of materials and learned about problem solving when it comes to independent work.

This week in Writing: This week in writing students wrote about feelings and mapped their heart to write about what is closest to their heart. Students also practiced their handwriting.

This week in Science: Students started our Plants and Animals unit. Students were introduced to Spruce the sea turtle and learned about what plants and animals need to survive.

This week in Social Studies: This week in Social Studies students drew a family portrait and created a map of the classroom!

Week 3

This week in Math: Students solved number puzzles by looking at patterns. Used connecting blocks to create equations up to 10. Our students helped the Desmos centipede cross some broken bridges by finding the missing numbers in equations adding up to ten.

Our class also completed iReady Testing for Math.

This week in Reading: Students learned how to handle books carefully. Our students also explored Foundations decodables and searched for words that have double letters. We also discussed what it meant to do our best work!

This week in Writing: We wrote a list of important people in our lives. Our students then took one person from the list and wrote 2-3 memories they have with that person. We continued to practice writing neatly and building writing stamina.

This week in science: We explored Tortoise parts! Students created diagrams of turtles and labeled each structure. Our students read Tortoise parts with partners and shared their favorite structures. They became scientists and observed what our jaws do when chewing food, and how our bodies move when breathing in and out.

This week in Social Science: We discussed communities and what we can do to take care of our communities. Students drew and wrote about ways in which they can take care of each other inside and outside of the classroom.

Week 4

Weekly Update Week 4:

This week in Math:

Students learned about adding and subtracting within 20.
Students completed a Sub Unit Quiz this week about the lessons we have learned so far in unit 1.
Our students used cubes to find out “what number is behind my back?”

This week in Reading:

Students read through an interview with a lego brick. Students rotated between being the interviewer and the lego brick.
Students learned how to choose a “just right” book
Students shared ways to keep our classroom cubbies organized with books

This week students completed iReady for reading!

This week in Writing:

Students practiced proper capitalization, spacing and punctuation. They did this by writing a riddle to have other students try and solve the riddle.

This week in Science:

Students explored a few ways that living things do to survive.
The students played the Survival Game again but this time some of the living things did not survive because they were eaten.

This week in Social Studies:

Students identified how everyone contributes to communities.
Students explained how roles work in the schools.

Week 5

Weekly Update Week 5:

This week in Math:

Students analyzed, interpreted, and investigated pictographs, bar graphs, and tally graphs.
Students created graphs from data collection sheets.

This week in Reading:

Students learned good times to abandon books
Students worked on picking just right books
Students shared their thoughts about their books

This week in Writing:

We began creating our collages. Students did a gallery walk, and talked about their photos.

This week in Science:

We wrote letters to the Shedd Aquarium asking questions about their sea turtles, and sharing some facts with them that we learned here at Decatur!
Students discussed what animals need to do in order to survive.

This week in Social Studies:

Students talked about rules and laws.
We listed some rules we have at home, and some laws we have to follow in the city.

Week 6

Weekly Update Week 6:

This week in Math:

Students collected data and created graphs to match the data
Students completed a Sub-Unit Quiz about graphs.

This week in Reading:

Students learned about nonfiction books
Students read nonfiction books and identified the topic and facts in their books.
Students partner read nonfiction books

This week in Writing:

Students wrote and glued captions to match their photos from home
Students partner-shared their photos and captions with each other.

This week in Social Studies:

Students learned about voting.
Students voted on who should run for president. Mr. Roper won!

This week in Science:

Students learned about how living things eat other living things. Students investigated how animals use their structures to eat their food.

This week students participated in our first cultural corner! Ms. Liberman shared about Rosh Hashanah. We are excited to invite parents to come into the classroom this year to share their culture and traditions!

Week 7

Weekly Update Week 7:

This week in Math:

Students completed the Unit assessment
Students worked on creating tape diagrams to compare numbers
Students used tape diagrams to find missing factors.

This week in Reading:

Students learned about nonfiction books
Students read nonfiction books and identified the topic and facts in their books.
Students partner read nonfiction books and identified three different types of nonfiction books.

This week in Writing:

Students wrote Beginning, Middles, and Ends for their picture choice.

This week in Social Studies:

Students learned about rights and responsibilities for kids in the past and present.
Lesson 5 assessment

This week in Science:

Students learned about spikes, spines and shells
Students used clay to model defense mechanism
Students had to defend their clay against predators.

Week 8

Weekly Update Week 8:

This week in Math:

Students started a new math unit on Money!
Students completed a pre-check for the unit

This week in Reading:

Students continued to explore nonfiction books
Students looked for juicy words in a reading based on the history of EMOJIS
Students learned about the different vowel sounds both short and long.
Students partner read

This week in Writing:

Students learned about adding details to their writing by using flaps and carets.
Students are writing a story based on one of their pictures they brought in for their collages.

This week in Science:

Students learned about how Shells, Spines and Spikes are used and defenses.

This week in Social Studies:

Students learned about maps and map features
Students created maps of the school.