December 12, 2025

Dear Families,
We conclude another week packed with events and activities. Here are the highlights of this week:

• On Monday we welcomed a new member to our classroom. We are so happy to have a new student and friend joining us. The students have been fantastic in guiding and helping him with classroom routines and school work. We also used the math block to reflect on the iReady Diagnostic Assessment results from the fall, and set goals for growth during the current assessment. The students have been slowing down when reading the word problems, have been looking at all the possible answers, and have been using their tools and strategies to choose the right answer. The assessment is still in progress and we expect to see growth. Next week we plan on finishing the math assessment and start the reading one.
  
• On Wednesday we traveled to Cambridge for our Field Trip to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, where students got the chance to learn about how the First Peoples of North America met their basic needs of Food, Shelter and Clothing by hunting, fishing and harvesting. Students learned about different artifacts and touched the materials they were made of. Students got to visit the museums, going to the Museum of Natural History where they could see the rooms dedicated to Natural Disasters, Rocks and Minerals, and Plants. The students enjoyed an indoor picnic-style lunch with their friends and chaperones, and some students decided to take notes and make some illustrations of what they could see. 
  
• On Thursday we collaborated with our Kindergarten friends from Mrs. Pilkington’s and Mrs. Smith’s class, where our students read books, colored a Holiday card, and wished each other happy holidays, as this is our last visit for 2025.
  
• On Friday, our Newspaper Team is publishing the first issue of The Clough Newsbreaker.
  

As for the curriculum, this is what students have been working on:

• We have paused the math block to work on the iReady Math Assessment. 
  
• Students have continued to work on their own personal reading and writing, and also worked with teachers on small groups on summarizing and vocabulary work.
  
• In social studies, students have been finishing their work on Canada and Mexico and we will be concluding this unit on maps this week.
  

Have a fantastic weekend!