Week in Review, December 11-15, 2023

For more weekly pictures, click here.

Thank you Explorer Families for all the lovely Christmas chocolates and gifts! We are looking forward to a teacher massage together over the break. We feel very blessed to be your child's teachers and have such a supportive group of parents. We hope you all have an enjoyable winter break. Please drop 4-5 pictures of your holiday fun in your child's Sharing Folder. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year to you and your family! 

Report cards are now available for viewing in Veracross via MySASportal. Also, please look for the following items that came home with your child over the last couple of days:

• Winter Break Reading Challenge-decorate the mug and fill up the mug with reading marshmallows for a special treat, from Mrs. Cuthbert, following the break.
• Christmas Present from your Child-your child made you a Christmas tree ordainment for the family. 
• Stocking-Students brought home a stocking full of goodies from their classmates. 
• Book-Students brought home 1 book that was given to them by a classmate during the Book Exchange.

In Writing, we continued writing our Book Reviews. we worked to edit and revise our Book Reviews. When we get back from break we will publish our Book Reviews and then start our third writing unit, All About Books (Nonfiction).

In Reading, we continued being "The Boss" of our reading. We learned:

• Strategies to ensure we understand what we are reading.
• How to know when characters are speaking (look for quotation marks).
• Learned how to read like a "Reading Star" with expression and volume. 

After break we will be starting our fourth reading unit, Readers Learn About the World (Nonfiction).

We also read The Floating Soccer Field, by Mr. Riley, an SAS teacher/coach (husband of Mrs. Riley the kindergarten teacher). Then we had a STEAM lesson where students used engineering to redevelop the Marina Bay floating platform into a floating public space where the community can come together. Structures were sent home Wednesday.

In Word Study, we learned about adding "-ed" to the end of base words. We learned that it makes the word past tense and it makes three sounds. It can make the "d" sound, the "t" sound, or the "ed" sound. When reading, we need to try it all three ways and see which one sounds right. We also need to know that when we are spelling a past tense verb and hear any of these sounds at the end of a word, it will be spelled "ed". We also learned the heart words any and many.

In Math, we started Unit 4, Numbers to 99 and learned how to count up to 60 objects in a collection (multiple of 10), interpret different base-ten representations of multiples of 10, and add and subtract 10 from multiples of 10. Ask your child to complete the following as a review.

In Social Studies, we finished our final Social Studies project. We linked our dream communities together, coded our roadways, and had the Ozobots tour our communities. We reflected on our Social Studie unit and participated in a challenge STEAM Lab.

We also learned about three different cultural/religious celebrations happening in our community this time of year. We learned about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Ask your child to tell you each story and what we did in class to celebrate each one? After winter break we will be starting our first Science Unit-Let's Ask Nature.

Upcoming Events:

*SAS 2024-2025 School Calendar is now available (here). 

*Our 3rd Quarter "Explorer Calendar" is now available (here).

*Please drop 4-5 Winter Break pictures in this folder.

*Swara will not be returning to SAS after winter break. She will be greatly missed! Here is a video the class made to say goodbye. 

• January 8-Back to School!
• January 9-Welcome Ena, Xuanyou & Zoya (and families) to our Explorer Community. 
• Please note that the Star of the Week dates have changed due to students leaving and joining. 
• Send the Winter Break Reading Challenge to school in your child's Library bag. 
• January 10-Free Dress Day!
• January 12-Happy Birthday Matty! Matty will be sharing a treat during PM snack. 
• January 16-Happy Birthday Xuanyou!
• AIMSWeb Math Assessment today at 8:10. Please go to bed early the night before and eat a good breakfast.
• January 18-Happy Birthday Ian!
• AIMSWeb Reading Assessment today at 8:10. Please go to bed early the night before and eat a good breakfast.
• January 22-No School! Faculty Inservice Day!
• January 25-Swim for PE. Please send swim gear in the blue SAS swim bag.
• January 27-International Fair!