One Word

The new year is a time of resolutions and renewal. But most resolutions take place in the mysterious grown-up realm. At The Cooper School, we believe that children can handle resolutions too. It is an ideal opportunity for self-reflection and goal setting, so we tackle New Years resolutions head-on… but with a twist. We choose one word only. In classrooms we spend valuable time distilling goals for 2016 down to one word, and practice articulating our reasons for choosing those words. Some First Grade examples: control, focus, sportsmanship, health, manners, flexible, and helpful!

Social Studies

Speaking of new beginnings, this week we kicked off our enormous Polar Regions unit by learning about biomes. Understanding the relationships between water, air, plants, animals, and energy help us understand the way people live in a particular place. Before learning about the polar biomes, we looked closely at our backyard biome, identifying how energy flows from sunlight to plants, to animals and so on. As your child what they know about the biome in our backyard!

Math

This week in math, First Graders explored timelines. We learned that timelines can be used for any period of time, from a single hour to many centuries! We also made our own timelines that charted the most important events from the first four months of school. It was hard to remember some of the major events of August and September, but we dug deep and created detailed timelines. Keep an eye out for timelines in libraries and museums right here in Charleston!

Important Dates

• Monday, January 18 – No School, Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Monday-Tuesday, February 15-16 – No School