February 8, 2024
Preschool
Kindergarten
We had another FUN week in kindergarten at Helmsburg Elementary! The Friendship Valentine Boxes and Cards are AMAZING! Thank you for your support with this project!! We are learning about the job of a mail carrier. Each day students are trying out the mail carrier career by delivering their letters to the mailboxes of their peers. They are reading the cards and then delivering them. It is so amazing! We are growing as readers and writers! See you next week!
1st grade
First graders are learning how to write nonfiction books. We were inspired by Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog’s Day to learn more about groundhogs. We watched videos and read books together to gather our research. Then students used their facts they collected to write an all about book about groundhogs. It covers 6 topics about groundhogs. We have a table of contents, illustrations, and even an all about the author page. We can’t wait to share them with each other.
2nd grade
Mrs. Baughman: This week second graders have been learning about measurement. They love getting to measure things in the classroom and have learned a few math measurement games that test their skills in measuring, working with a partner and holding each other accountable for the work they are doing! We had Ms. Martha come and tell us some amazing stories in our classroom. The kids get so excited to hear what stories she will tell while visiting. In social studies we are learning about community helpers and what they do. With our partner we created a skit to perform to our classmates telling them what our community helper does. We have been reading a book called “Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch” in Reading this week. We have been talking about character feelings and using descriptive words with our characters. The kids had a great time creating Mr. Hatch and writing about him from what they took away from the book.
Mrs. Rawlings class had a full week!
We talked about the author’s point of view in many stories. We did a lot of measuring in centimeters, yards, and feet. We made a rainbow from water, white paper, and the wonderful sun coming in through our windows. We are excited about the food drive for Mother’s Cupboard and loved having our fifth grade ambassador Kaelyn come talk to us about it.
3rd grade
This week we were treated to stories by Mrs. Sechler. We love it when she comes in! Her stories are mesmerizing! We are learning about perimeter in math. We like to work together to solve problems and share our thinking. A favorite at the Dojo Store in our classroom are the Show and Tell passes. This week Noah and Mary shared some cool things with us while using their passes!
4th grade
4th Grade has been up to a whole lot this week!
In Math, we are learning all about fractions and decimals. We are learning how to show tenths and hundredths in model (picture) form, fraction form, and decimal form. We are continuing to learn how to write mixed numbers as improper fractions and vice versa. While learning all these new concepts, we are still using 99Math to master all of our multiplication facts.
In Social Studies, we are learning about the early Native American tribes that lived in Indiana. This week we have been comparing and contrasting the Miami and Shawnee Tribes. We have been working in small groups making Venn Diagram posters.
In Why Try, we did a fun criss-cross challenge to help us practice positive self-talk and perseverance. It was a difficult challenge, but thankfully we had a few friends who did not give up and got us untangled.
What a fun week!
5th grade
This week we finished our virtual tour of Williamsburg. Students visited Raleigh Tavern and played “The Royal and Most Pleasant game of goose” which was a common game in Colonial times. Students also visited Breton Parish church and learned about how social hierarchy determined where you could sit!
Students are excited about the warmer weather and sunshine this week, and it is a nice change to see all the smiling faces! Students are creating their STEM Valentine’s box and I can’t wait to see what their final product will look like!
After finishing up a unit on adding and subtracting mixed numbers, students are ready to begin multiplying and dividing fractions. Students also did a fun hands-on project finding the volume in inches and feet of various sized containers. They absolutely rocked this, and enjoyed using calculators as well!
In LA, students had fun racing to write as many similes, metaphors, idioms, personification and hyperbole as they could in a minute. They are currently creating a diorama of an Idiom for a STEM project! In Morphology, suffixes -y, -ness, and -ment were learned and practiced. Tapple has become a favorite game to end each lesson. Students are in Literature Circles reading books and discussing them as they read. It is fun to see them growing up and having great discussions. Students reviewed text structure and they continue their study on simple, compound and complex sentences.
In Social Studies, students are creating posters of the 13 Colonies. The posters will identify the type of government, industry, religion, date founded, and who founded the colony and why.
It has been a great week of learning and growing here at Helmsburg!
Science
Scientist of the Week: Echo Nickel
This week in science…
Fifth grade students began their Watery Planet unit. In this unit, students consider the profound importance of water as a natural resource. Students investigate the distribution of water, how it cycles through Earth’s systems, and explore how it affects human societies.
Fourth grade students began their Waves of Sound unit. In this unit, students consider the profound importance of water as a natural resource. Students investigate the distribution of water, how it cycles through Earth’s systems, and explore how it affects human societies.
Third grade students began their Fates of Traits unit. In this unit, students compare the structures and functions of traits that enable organisms to survive in a specific environment. Analyzing the traits of animals provides evidence for how those traits vary, how they are inherited, and how they have changed over time through selection. Students also examine how the environment can affect inherited traits and determine which animals will survive in a particular environment.
Second grade students began their Material Magic unit.In this unit, students explore the properties of materials and matter! They describe and classify different types of materials by properties like hardness, flexibility, and absorbency, and they investigate how those properties are useful in meeting basic human needs (such as clothing and cooking). They also investigate how heating and cooling affect the properties of materials.
First grade students began their Sun and Shadows unit. In this unit, students make observations of the Sun and shadows throughout the day and across the seasons. They use their observations to understand patterns that occur throughout the day.
Kindergarten students began their Circle of Seasons unit. In this unit, students gather evidence in order to identify daily and seasonal weather patterns. They use those patterns to explain mysteries like why you might lose your jacket during the day or why birds lay their eggs at certain times of the year.
Speech
Practicing our speech sounds while doing crazy quizzes! My favorite quiz was “What Kind of Pizza Matches Your Personality?”
Art
Working on Art Show projects!!
PE
This week in PE we enjoyed some indoor kickball! We reviewed the rules of the game and had some friendly competitions! Hopefully the weather warms up soon so we can take our games outside! Our littles got to enjoy some creative time with hula hoops and music. They made some pretty cool dragon trains to move around the gym!
Within the next two weeks we will be starting our basketball unit. This will lead into our much anticipated March Madness tournament! The kids ask about this all year and it’s one of my favorite units!
