December was a short month with our holiday break, but we made the most of it! From a last-day “Park Party” and holiday ornament making, to our ‘Flat Stanley’ project (and these dudes traveling everywhere with us!), December 2023 was short, sweet, and filled with fun!
Monthly Highlights:
- “Park & Play” – Some of our best memories are going to the park! And what better way to welcome our winter break than to end our time with a holiday get-together at the park! The students had fun seeing classmates from different days, eating outdoor lunch, and getting to play whole-group games with all the field and playground space!
- Flat Stanleys – In lieu of traditional homework, our winter break featured a fun “Flat Stanley” Project! We started by reading stories about Flat Stanley and creating our own characters. ‘Stanley’ is a boy who, in the story, was flattened in his sleep by a bulletin board hanging on his bedroom wall! He becomes as thin as paper. . . and thin enough to get mailed to his friend’s house and other fun places! So, our Stanleys did the same! They went home with each of our students, and over break went on adventures! The students wrote about them and took pictures of all that they did together to share with the class when they returned *next year.*
- “Pit & Children’s Lit” – December 2023 welcomed the launch of our newest extracurricular event, a children’s book reading at one of our favorite, local coffee shops! Miss Marisa & her senior dog, Styles, debuted their “Pit & Children’s Lit” event (a children’s book reading featuring the Pitbull and school ‘mascot,’ Styles!) at OB Beans Coffee Roasters! And not only did some of our amazing students and families show up. . . but Flat Stanley made an appearance, too!
Mondays:
- English & Language Arts: Since December 2023 is the shortest month, we prioritized grammar and sentence-writing with a focus on reviewing concepts from prior months and applying that to our drafting. We did some ‘Santa Writing,’ some fieldtrip recap writing, and some predictive writing for both our stories and our plans for winter break.
- Math & Reasoning: This month was all about stations in math! Since this was our shortest month, we focused on sharpening our skills, specifically with word problems, number line addition / / subtraction, and hosting math “competitions” (with partners or individually) for gamified learning, high-engagement, and performing under (some healthy!) pressure!
Tuesdays:
- English & Language Arts: This month’s big focus was on details! We worked on developing stronger writing by paying attention to areas that we could refine, get more specific, or add sensory information to engage our readers. We also did quite a few ‘quickwrites’ (which is timed writing to focus on getting our ideas out), and we also dipped into poetry, both reading and writing it!
- Math & Reasoning: In Math, we focused on money (identifying coins, counting, and coming up with correct change). Since December is on the shorter side, a lot of this learning took place through math stations and creative money games! The picture to the left is one of our whole-group games, where the students have to count their change and find what goes next in a 40-card sequence!
Wednesdays & Thursdays:
- Foundations: This month we had fun with some ‘dot coloring’ for long and short vowels. We also did a lot of work in our Phonics & Foundational Math books with our ‘offices,’ which are privacy folders that help us differentiate work and have different leveled activities for different learner needs! We also worked on counting tally marks and transferring these tallys to concrete data, charts, and graphs.
- Social Studies & STEM: In Social Studies this month, we expounded on what we learned from our fieldtrip to the Mission Trails Regional park by studying different types of maps, especially arial and topographical maps! This was cool because we got to use measuring tools (rulers) to measure distance of the different trails we walked and compare the measured distances to our map keys. We also got to see, firsthand, how different areas are created on the map and what that looks like in person, in 3D, and on a flat, paper map. This connected with our STEM units on landforms and regions.
We also built a hands-on volcano and Lego ice cubes during this month’s STEM units, too!
Other December 2023 Updates:
- Our Flat Stanley Project was a hit! Students took their Stanleys (or Sydneys) to the farmer’s market, restaurant(s), concerts, to get a mani/pedi, and even to play with Barbies! The photos were so fun to see, and the best part about the project was that even writing about their adventures didn’t feel like “work” at all!
- PS: You can find more of our updates by bookmarking our Microschool Page, connecting with our Parent Page, and subscribing to our newsletter (below!).
