Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a wonderful  winter break.   2018 is now gone and we have made it to  2019.  Let's hope that this year brings us everything that we wished  for, especially good health.

As we move on, let’s continue to encourage and support each child.   During the break, I had time to relax, regenerate energy and think about ideas that would stimulate and meet the needs of all students.  While I was in my deepest thoughts, I asked myself many questions.   One question was,  "How do I as an educator encourage each child to dream and hope?" I’ll continue to maintain high expectations for all.

December Math Learning Targets:    Numbers 1-20 or higher; Count/Identify, Compare, and Write:   Count to answer ‘How Many”; Count forward/backward from any given number within the known sequence instead of having to begin by 1. Make sense of number problems and persevere in solving them.

Geometry, Counting, Comparing quantities: Identify and Analyze and compare two and three-dimensional shapes. Name shapes correctly

January Math Learning Targets: Measurement and Sorting::   Students will………….     Describe measurable attributes of objects.   Sort/classify objects into categories by measurement. Count to 100 by ones and tens Count forward beginning from a given number of objects with a written numeral (0-20)         Academic Vocabulary: measure, longer, shorter, heavier, lighter, compare, classify, more of, less than, weight.

                                                                  Seeing the Same and finding What’s Different

January Reading Targets:    Students will….     Ask questions as they read and or listen to texts read aloud; think about what is the same and different about characters in books. Learn about how authors write books by comparing texts written by different authors.

January Writing Targets: Students will….    Name a topic they are writing about. Put an event in the order it happened. Name how a character reacts in a story. Answer questions that others ask about their writing to make revisions. Revise their writing after listening to others ideas.

Inquiry Based Learning:  Most students are naturally very curious about their surroundings and they come to school everyday wanting some answers. My responsibility as a teacher is to guide students towards those answers. It is important to me that I prepare myself for the multitude of directions that a conversation can go. The population that I teach is younger elementary students, therefore it requires that I realize that the process is more important than the product-oriented outcomes of any area of the curriculum. I understand that it is important to spend time teaching my students how to learn, and how to take ownership of their learning while learning and how they can work as a team to accomplished the goals or targets that they set for themselves. The idea of having children understand the world around them by exploring through their senses to provoke curiosity is one of the best pedagogic practices that I can put into action.