The Cooper School Daily

Excursions and Mystery!

Mystery Reader

We love inviting parents and family members in to be mystery readers in 1st Grade. This special tradition takes place every Friday morning. Prior to revealing our Mystery Reader, we typically read three clues to the class and allow them to guess who our special visitor will be. Some of the titles we have enjoyed hearing read aloud so far have been: 365 Penguins, The Jewel Box Ballerinas, The Book of Mistakes, The Antlered Ship, and Lost Cat. We recommend checking these books out!

Practicing Our Penmanship

1st Graders practice their handwriting every day. We use a program called Handwriting Without Tears that features developmentally appropriate, multisensory handwriting instruction for Kindergarten-5th Grade students. Research shows that handwriting is an essential skill for both children and adults. Handwriting activates the brain because it involves more complex motor and cognitive skills and contributes to reading fluency because it activates visual perception of letters. We are seeing such positive growth in scholars’ handwriting skills and demonstrations of beautiful handwriting across subject areas.

Study Trip to the Ravenel Bridge

This week in Social Studies, we have been discussing the impact that bridges have to create change in our communities by increasing access to jobs, education, and goods and services. Scholars have been studying Charleston’s very own Ravenel Bridge. We demonstrated how tension and compression work to keep bridges standing under the stress of large loads and significant weather conditions. 1st Graders identified the parts that make up a cable stayed bridge and drew and labeled their own diagrams. Together, we viewed pictures from the bridge construction and a video clip of the old bridge being destroyed. On Thursday, December 6th, we ventured off on our first study trip of the school year, a water taxi ride under and around the magnificent Ravenel Bridge and explored the areas on both the downtown Charleston side and the Mount Pleasant side. The weather was chilly, but bright, sunny, and clear, and a great time was had by all. We even got to see some cheerful dolphins! We are grateful to our parent drivers/chaperones!

Important Dates

Friday, December 7-  K-2nd Grade Movie Night

Tuesday, December 11-  1:30pm Winter Choir Performance at the Circular Church

Friday, December 21-  Pajama Day, half day