December 14 - 18, 2020

We made it to the Holiday Break!! We wish everyone a safe and happy time to relax and be blessed. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!

December 7- 11, 2020

 Don't you just love Alabama weather in December? Freezing on Monday and short sleeves on Friday and rain in the forecast. At least the children got to go outside everyday for recess. Meanwhile in class, they are learning about Vikings, using a "bird's eye view" map, and capillary action in plant stems. Weekly practice continues for basic lessons in reading comprehension, cursive handwriting, word study, math facts, operations with multiplication, rounding, time, and money. Everyone had an introduction to adding mixed numbers for fraction work. The students are working hard to finish their workplans and do some holiday choice jobs. We can hardly wait for next week!! Remember that Friday, December 18 will be Pajama Day. They can wear pajamas that still meet school clothing guidelines.

Nov.30 - Dec.4

 Welcome back from Thanksgiving Break.  All 3 grade levels are practicing new parts of speech: 1st-verbs, 2nd-prepostions, and 3rd-pronouns.  The students are also writing more descriptive paragraphs. Rounding has been introduced starting at rounding to the tens place. Branching off one of the Fundementals of Geometry, students were presented 3 positions of a straight line: horizontal, vertical, and oblique. Everyone should still be reading every night and please record the titles on the Reading Log. It really helps the students to look over the list to spell the words correctly when choosing an AR quiz. Only 2 weeks until the Holiday Break. We are ready to finish out this 2020 crazy year.

Week of November 2-6

 We are truly enjoying the lovely weather Alabama is having lately. It is especially nice for outdoor botany lessons as we learn more about the Plant Kingdom. Our globe skills continue to grow with practice using lines of latitude and longitude to locate places on the earth. Students were given the Fifth Great Lesson: the Story of Numbers. We will study Roman numerals as an extension job. A new word study category of homographs was introduced. We specify them as words that are spelled the same but sound different. Another new lesson was finding symmetry as an extension of the study of polygons. Everyone is encouraged to practice memorization of basic math facts toward the goal of answering 100 mixed all facts in 5 minutes with 85% accuracy. Expectations are for 1st graders to master addition, 2nd graders to master multiplication, and 3rd graders to master subtraction and division. Looking to next week, remember that there will be no school on Wednesday, November 11th. Have a wonderful weekend.

Week of October 26-30

 Spirit Week was so much fun. We enjoyed the camaraderie it promoted. Who knew it would include the perfect Pajama Day with a delayed opening on Thursday? Lower Elementary had new lessons on latitude and longitude, an extension of Great Lesson 4 creating their own hieroglyphics, and taking a botany walk around campus. Thanks to the PTO for the treats on Friday afternoon to finish the week. It is hard to believe next week is November. We hope everyone has a safe Halloween tomorrow night and remember to set your clocks back so we will see everyone safely back to school on Monday.

Week of October 19 -23, 2020

 What a beautiful week we had. The weather was not too hot. The children were busy. It was such a pleasure to come to school and learn together... with masks and social distancing, of course.  New lessons included: Needs of Humans, Botany Chart introduction, Parts of a River, and Polygons. We continued practicing multiplication, recognizing even/odd numbers, renaming improper fractions to mixed numbers, telling time, counting money, matching homophones, identifying common/proper nouns, and extension lessons with parts of speech. Everyone wrote a final copy of their literary character paragraph and decorated their pumpkins. The pumpkins are awesome!! Each one is as individual as the children who painted them. Be sure to come and see them placed around the campus for Spirit Week starting this coming Monday, October 26th. Also, remember the themes for each day so wear “crazy socks” and have “crazy hair” on Monday. We’ve got spirit! Yes, we do! We’ve got spirit! How ‘bout you?

Week of October 13 - 16

 Fall is here! We watched a video and took notes about the seasons. Ask your child if they remember that the earth’s tilt and distance from the sun affects the temperature and length of day.  Another special presentation was the Montessori Great Lesson on the Coming of Humans. Humans are special because of our brain, thumb/hand, and ability to love for others. First graders had an introduction to adjectives. Second graders identified irregular past tense verbs. Third graders had an introduction to adverbs. The students are working on their pumpkin paragraphs.  We can’t wait until we get to decorate the pumpkins and place them around the campus. Enjoy the beautiful weekend that is predicted.