Jasmine Kindergarten News from Ms. Diana:
We have had a very short week and during the three days of school, we had concentrated on handwork and circle time. We continued learning the “Flip and Flop” rhyme and introduced a new Circle game. On Thursday we had a special invitation to a theatre production and enjoyed the dress rehearsal for the 5/6 play. Our Giant Loom is finished and we are happy and proud of such an accomplishment. It will be transported and displayed at the Starry Night event, for the live auction.
Magnolia Kindergarten News from Ms. Heidi:
We are certainly getting a winter experience this month, so I’m extra glad I chose the Alaskan tale of the Polar Bear Son. The children have listened to it a few times, molded figures from the story out of beeswax, and have watched the story in a puppet show. This week, they will take turns presenting the story to the rest of us, as I narrate it. The wooden snowflake project is moving along, as the children add “ice crystals” to the wooden pieces. And we’ll go “sledding” again during circle time on the uncarpeted floors of the classroom, giving the children the opportunity to strengthen and develop their upper body. We’ll also work on balance as they cross the “bridge of rick and rack.” Maybe they will teach you the “I’m a little snowman, short and fat” verse, where the poor snowman melts into a puddle when the sun comes out. It creates much laughter and a lot of confusion as the children melt into each other on the floor.
Grade 1 News from Ms. Contento:
My students had so much fun during the “Kindness Party" (see photos at right). I had so much fun painting my students faces! We will continue to talk about kindness and they will have opportunities to earn more parties this year by being kind. For those of you who might not know, I put a shell in a jar every time I catch them doing a random act of kindness.
This week in first grade we not only worked with upper case and lower case handwriting, we also continued with word families. Right now we are concentrating on the consonant vowel consonant words. They have memorized poems for “ad”, “en”, and “at”. On Thursday my students created a list of “ug” words. We used these words to write our own poem:
Pug and Slug
My dog is a pug.
He dug and dug and dug.
My pug saw a slug.
I said, “tug that slug.”
Instead, the pug called the slug, a bug!
I said, “Catch the slug in the jug so he will be as snug as a bug in a jug.”
Next week we will work with “it”, “ag”, and “op” words. As we recite the poems, I am now calling students to point out the words on the board. In this way, they are starting to not only memorize but recognize the words.
Grade 2 News from Ms. Mullen:
Last week we had a super late parent letter, so this should be short and sweet! We continued to explore syllables and building words out of them. We discussed open syllables that end in a long vowel. Students finished their 2nd draft of letters to Kiran and worked in pairs reading aloud. We are trying to build confidence in reading with others. We spent main lesson on Friday enjoying the amazing play put on by 5th and 6th grade. It was spectacular. On Thursday, we made a caravan of camels for beeswax that went along with our Jataka story.
Grades 3 / 4 News from Ms. Brown:
We ended the first Fractions block last week, and created a lot of momentum by the end of the week. It seems the students are ready to move forward with adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions. They are definitely interested in the conversion of mixed numbers to improper fractions, and I know in the last couple of weeks we were able to develop a strong foundation for further study and investigation into fractions. I'm so proud of all that we accomplished, all of the students are so much more capable of walking fractions; a skill I plan on practicing during circle time, throughout our next block of Norse Mythology.
More specifically, I told the students the biography of Leah Chase last week, and I used her recipe to bake two sweet potato pies, (she puts finely chopped pecans in the crust!). Of course we cut the pies into equal parts, and ate them. As I said above, we continued to look at mixed numbers, and I introduced improper fractions. I used a number line instead of multiplication and addition to show the students the relationship between mixed numbers and improper fractions
In Painting and Form Drawing we used last weekends full moon as inspiration. I will continue to teach these two classes to the students, along with Language Arts for the remainder of the year. Ms. Flores is returning in a couple of weeks to teach only Main Lesson.
If you haven't seen the halls yet, please take a moment to step inside. The students have filled the halls with art inspired by the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Friday was an especially exciting day, for the school watched the 5th and 6th grade play The Ramayana and Other Hindu Stories, and a few of the students remarked it was the best play they had ever seen!
Grades 5 / 6 News from Ms. Nelson:
I am so very proud of the class for their tremendous work on The Ramayana and Other Hindu Stories. I wasn't kidding when I said that not every class could pull off such a complex production, but that I knew this group of students could. We managed to put that together with essentially 13 days of rehearsals. I was so glad that so many of you could witness the result of all their efforts! Thanks again to Matt for the beautiful fiery chariot set piece, and to Monique for being such an incredible help backstage. I also want to thank you again for all the support you offered to the class as parents behind the scenes - you are also a huge reason we were able to have such a successful performance! We literally come back down to earth tomorrow as we being our Introduction to Geology block.
Grades 7 / 8 from Mr. Pauzolis:
This last week, the class transitioned into a new block: Explorers & Biomes! In this block, we will learn all about the Age of Discovery, ranging from the 15th to the 18th century. As our explorers discover more of the world, they also uncover biomes, which are regions that contain a certain climate and particular types of living things. We are learning about new terrain and ecosystems around the world (many of which had never been seen by European or Asian travelers), and we started our week by learning about Prince Henry the Navigator (who was not a navigator!). In his attempt to connect Portugal to the Silk Road and involve them in the spice trade, he discovered the African coast and eventually found a way around Africa into India. This sparked the beginning of the Age of Exploration. We also began to discuss Columbus' journey. As we go forward, we will continue to learn of new explorers and probe the real impact of these discoveries on the native cultures, as well as on Europe and Asia. We also were treated to an amazing production of The Ramayana and Other Hindu Stories put on by the 5th and 6th Grades!
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