This week I have been plugging away at the PNOA (Primary Number and Operations Assessment), the math assessment that is used in kindergarten through second grade throughout the district.  This is giving me valuable information about each child's sense of number and areas that may need a little more focused instruction.  In addition to being asked to count forward starting from various places between 1 and 100 and count down from 20, children are asked to do things like tell what number comes just before or after a given number, read and write numbers, show numbers with their fingers (including teen numbers!), sequence numbers, and estimate.   I will have these completed by next Friday, when I will spend the morning at a workshop talking about strategies for moving children forward in areas of difficulty.

Yesterday we began talking about animal tracks.  We learned that different animals use different gaits in the snow, related to their shape and size.  We tried out each of the four gaits, walking, hopping, waddling, and bounding, and decided that none of them was very easy!  We then sorted animals into groups based on their gaits.  Today we looked at a winter scene that included various animal tracks and used it to tell a story about what had happened.  Asked your child to share some of this.

We also took advantage of the snow this week and tried snowshoeing and cross country skiing.  Everyone went snowshoeing on Tuesday and about half of the class chose to try skiing today.  Everyone will get a chance at some point as long as there is snow!  We discovered numerous deer tracks while we were out.

Crossing the field.

Skiing on the soccer field.

Following deer tracks.