What are we learning this month?

PreK- The Highland PreK program is working on identifying letters and their sounds. We are especially focusing on the letters in our names. For math, we are working on identifying numerals to 10 and then connecting them with their quantities. During December we are studying bears and working on retelling the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Kindergarten- This month, we are doing many fun activities in Kindergarten. For literacy, Kindergarten will be working on knowing the difference between fiction and non-fiction as well as continuing to practice identifying characters and setting within a story. As a winter bonus, we are focusing a lot on Gingerbread stories throughout our literacy instruction with many fun crafts and activities. For math during December, we will be introducing addition with students. We are happy to be back in person and are enjoying the short time we have left before winter break.

1st Grade-  First grade is working on nonfiction informational writing. Students are writing books about animals and including information they want to share with their readers. First graders are also looking closely at nonfiction texts and the features authors use to share information about their topic. In math, students are working on subtraction strategies to solve simple subtraction story problems.

2nd Grade- Currently second graders are learning how to write informational books about topics students are interested in. We are also working hard on learning place value as well as addition and subtraction story problems. Second graders are exploring different types of genres and focusing on folktales this month.

3rd Grade-  The 3rd graders, for the month of December, are starting a new unit in math! 3rd graders will be focusing on perimeter using measurement, we also are working on our informational pieces in Writing, the students are all researching an animal and writing their own informational book over the information they have gathered. Another fun thing our 3rd graders will get to do during the month is take a virtual field trip for museum school week!!

4th Grade- 4th Grade is working on naming polygons and measuring angles in our Geometry unit.  In writing, we have started our opinion writing unit and are working hard on providing evidence and reasoning to back up our opinions.  We are continuing our work with nouns and verbs in language, and we are learning how to use context clues to help us with words we don’t know in reading!

5th Grade-  During the month of December, the fifth graders are exploring fractions and percentages during our math workshop.  The students are learning strategies related to comparing, adding, and subtracting fractions.  In writing, the students are working hard on their informational paper focused upon Westward Expansion.  The students are becoming experts on his or her chosen topic of either Gold Rush, Lewis and Clark, Transcontinental Railroad, or Oregon Trail.  Lastly, in reading our students are enjoying learning about poetry and how writers craft poems.  We are very excited to be back in-person with our students, and we will be very busy over the next few weeks leading up to our holiday break!

K-5 Virtual- Along with the literacy and math instruction through Edgenuity, virtual students at Highland are also participating in learning about different holidays around the world.  Students are learning about countries, traditions, and customs.  The students will also be going to two virtual plays this month, ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and ‘The Voices of Ellis Island’.