December 8, 2023
Preschool
Always a fun time in Pk!
Kindergarten
1st grade
First graders wrote letters to Santa. These will be published in The Democrat. We folded them up and put them in the mailbox next to the Christmas tree by our front doors. They were so cute and excited doing this!
2nd grade
Mrs. Baughman: Second graders had our classroom elf, Mr. Schnickelbottom arrive on December 1st. The class is so excited each day when they arrive to see what he’s been up to in our room. We had fun this week with our letter sounds in our sand tubs during OG time. We have been working super hard on our nonfiction books About our penguins we are studying. We are looking forward to our final pieces and getting to celebrate and share them with our friends.
Mrs. Rawlings: We had a busy week of learning and fun! We continued to focus on the Authors Purpose when reading. We practiced a lot of two digit addition and even learned different strategies to add numbers including a number line! We wrote a descriptive paragraph on what we thought Mrs. Claus’s responsibilities are at the North Pole. We loved designing our own Ugly Christmas sweaters and we even designed an ornament.
Looking forward to another great week at Helmsburg!
3rd grade
Mrs. Ely’s Class: Mrs. Whitcomb came in this week and talked to us about making safe choices. The kids really enjoyed her lesson! We have been working hard in Math learning different strategies to help us divide! The kids are really enjoying multiplication and division! We had inside recess a couple of times this week and we dusted off Twister and played it! We also enjoyed playing our new game, Trouble.
We’ve had a great week in third grade!! In math we are wrapping up our division unit. In writing we are typing our persuasive letters to Santa. In reading we are learning about sequencing. We have taken a little bit of time for some fun too!! Our classroom elf Buttons has left us some special treats and surprises. We wrote Christmas cards for important staff in our building and we made pictures of Santa’s sleigh. We are excited to celebrate our upcoming Grinch Day and learn about a few different holidays around the world.
4th grade
In World of Work, we started our “Artistic” project this week. We brainstormed world issues and formed research groups based on our interests. We have an electronic notebook where we are collecting all of our thoughts, reactions, and facts. We will be writing persuasive essays. Then, we will use all we learn to make commercials and advertisements. In Reading, we are learning all about how context clues help us figure out the meaning of tricky words. We learned about 5 different types of context clues. We played a Kahoot to practice these, and we are using passages to practice in small groups.
In Social Studies, we are researching all about the 3 Physical Regions of Indiana. We are doing a feature sort using amazing books we have in the classroom.
Mrs. Harden came in to talk with us all about Pearl Harbor. We learned so much, and it was an honor to remember with her.
What an awesome week!
5th grade
Fifth graders are having a fun week! They each have an advent calendar with a twist! Every day until break, students open a tab on the advent calendar and they get a gift and have to give a gift! So far students have thanked the Kitchen staff, made acrostics for Mrs. Bruner and made Christmas cards for soldiers! Mrs. Rund’s class entered the Bill of Rights Contest, and had a big watch party! Out of 600 entries in 11 states, they were chosen as one of the top 32 entries as finalistists! The class also won the pizza party sponsored by the Bill of Rights Committee. Congratulations!!
This week in Math, students are conquering long division! Students are putting their writing skills into practice by writing their first argumentative essay. In Language Arts, students have been breaking apart sentences to find subjects, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, direct objects, prepositions and objects of the preposition. In Morphology, students are focusing on suffixes, using the three spelling rules when adding a suffix to a word. In Reading, students are identifying figurative language and the importance of this in expressive writing. In Social Studies, students are learning about eight of the early explorers that came to the Americas.
Science
Scientist of the Week: Colby Stiles
A big thank you to all the families who participated in our Santa Breakfast and STEM event. It was a fun-filled morning where students and their families were challenged to create a sled for Santa that could navigate various angled rooftops without losing any presents. The creativity and ingenuity displayed by our students and their families were truly impressive. One of the most challenging aspects of this task was that the presents had to remain visible and could not be secured. Kudos to everyone for embracing the challenge and making it a memorable event!
Robotics
Additionally, our Robotics Club students have been hard at work designing additional parts for their robots. Their dedication and passion for problem-solving and innovation are truly commendable. We can’t wait to witness the amazing ideas they have come up with being put to the test.
Science Bowl
In other news, our Science Bowl has officially begun! Our team members have been working diligently on expanding their vocabulary and knowledge. They have also had the opportunity to dissect seeds and learn about the different parts of a seed. It is so fun to observe their enthusiasm and curiosity during these hands-on learning experiences.
Speech
This week, some students practiced their speech sounds with Christmas Trivia! (And gave me their best Grinch impressions!) We also read cozy winter stories with a “snowy view.”
