ACAII Elementary Updates: January 10
CONTACT US!
jchapman@
aca2elementary@
Calendar
1/16 – No School MLK Jr. Day
1/26- 4-8th grades instrumental music performance 7PM @ John Muir School auditorium
2/20 – 2/24 February Break
2/27 Teacher Workday
Elementary News:
We are excited to extend a big, warm, ACA welcome to Mrs. Greene as she joins the elementary team! We are thrilled to have her teaching the Poppy Hall class – now officially renamed to Mrs. Greene’s class. Mrs. Greene has 20 plus years of teaching experience in Antioch Unified School District and has been working at ACA II since September in the ILS program. She is an asset to the team. Welcome Mrs. Greene!
Due to the flooding in Poppy Hall, Mrs. Greene’s class had to be relocated to the Red Barn Classroom. Students will arrive to school and, if it’s raining, will report to room 7.. At 8:15 Mrs. Lopez will walk the class to the Red Barn. We made the decision to relocate the class for several reasons.
We didn’t want to feel pressure to move back into Poppy Hall before it was cleaned and ready for use.
Our only other option was to piecemeal together the classes’ day using other classrooms when available. We wanted the kids to have a consistent home base rather than bouncing around from room to room.
Given the weather forecast for the coming weeks, we thought it would be best to minimize movement – and a consistent homebase would be required to keep the kids dry and out of the weather.
If and when the class moves back to Poppy Hall will be made entirely based on the health and cleanliness of the building.
Due to the crazy weather and the relocation of Mrs. Greene’s class, we also made the decision to postpone the rotation schedule that we implemented in December. Again, this decision was made in the best interest of kids – health and safety is always our number one priority. Staying dry, out of the weather (and the mud!) is a real priority for us right now. Additionally, with the crazy weather and travel time, the rotation structure would cause us to lose a lot of instructional minutes. By suspending the rotations we preserve time for instruction and keep the kids dry and warm.
Math Updates:
Students are focusing on spiral review of concepts including geometry, skip counting, base 10 understanding, telling time, expanded form, and addition of large numbers.
ELA Updates:
The Elementary classes are reading “The Magician’s Elephant’ by Kate DiCamillo. Through this literature study we are focusing on the following standards:
Main Ideas and Supporting Details
Character Analysis
Close Reading of Texts
Understanding Author’s Craft
Identifying Author’s Purpose
Through this literature study we are working on the following language skills:
Determine the meaning of a word in context
Choosing the correct definition of a word with multiple meanings based on the context
Prefixes and Suffixes: un-, re-, mis-, -ful, -dis
Writers Workshop this week:
The writing process including brainstorming, writing, editing, publishing