Acorn Nursery News from Ms. Jan:
It is a big step but one that is easily taken if we follow through with our expectations at home and at school. As I look at the calendar it is hard to believe that there are only two months left until summer! We will be spending next month preparing for and enjoying the beauty of spring and then on from that preparing the children to move on to the next step and Ms. Emery and I to say "goodbye" to many of our older children. As I always say, "I don't like goodbyes so I will just say see you later."
Jasmine Kindergarten News from Ms. Diana:
The vegetable soup this week was rich and delicious, and there was not even a drop left at the end of snack! We have baked four loafs of bread on Monday and the children told us that they would've loved more! This week we continued our Spring circle and circle games, and we painted with watercolors on Wednesday.
Magnolia Kindergarten News from Ms. Heidi:
Please send a soup vegetable on Tuesday. We'll have a typical day for the children, but that evening we'll have a special gathering for all parents who want to know more about the mysterious Six/Seven Year Old Transformation. Come find out why your child is acting like a weepy or sassy teenager, a complete toddler, or something in between. What causes these emotional upheavals, and how do we support our children through an important stage while not going crazy ourselves? This is a great discussion for all parents, even if your child is younger so you can be prepared!
Grade 1 News from Ms. Contento:
My students are eager to take on more math challenges. This is exactly where they should be as we go onto a new block. They will continue practicing the math skill that they have learned during math practice time on Wednesdays and two mornings a week we will include math practice. The other three mornings will continue to be reading practice time.
I am so proud of how the students are so quickly learning their addition and subtraction facts. They are learning their doubles (i.e., 6 + 6, 7+7, 8+8, 9+9) and when they saw that the answers are the two’s times tables, the students recognized the connection between addition and multiplication.
Next week we are starting on our First Grade play based on one of the fairy tales I told this year called “White Snake.” The springtime is a perfect time to give them an out breath, by giving them a chance to slip into the world of drama. This gives them a great chance to develop their speech skills, team building, and artistic capacities.
Grade 2 News from Ms. Mullen:
We had a short week this week and focused on long vowel sounds and hero stories. The children heard the story of Malala, a young girl from Pakistan who bravely spoke out about life under Taliban rule. The children learned about the most common ways that long vowel sounds appear in words which are: with a silent e (rice), at the end of a syllable (we, hello), and when two vowels are paired together (road). We did some word sorting and then children came up with their own words to sort.
Grades 3 / 4 News from Ms. Flores:
The class was beyond excited to begin our first zoology block! On Monday, I explained the animal project. While the students were keen to do a project on the animal of their choice, this first zoology project is an observational paper and drawing of an animal they can observe everyday. When we have our second zoology block next year, each student will then have the opportunity to research any animal they would like to know more about.
This week, we discussed the head, trunk and limbs of a human, and the purpose of each section. The class is now comparing the function of the human body to the animals we study. In this way, the students can understand the animal at a deeper, more personal level. We studied the octopus as well as beginning our study of armadillos. The class listened well to my presentations and also brought facts or stories that they knew about each animal. Next week, we will continue our look at specific animals as well as learning about how animals are organized.
Each morning the class is presented with an animal riddle and/or word scramble to solve. They really seem to enjoy this! I am also giving the class a short dictation. This challenge provides students an opportunity to listen carefully and write the sentences I say as well as they can. I presently repeat each sentence twice before moving onto the next sentence. The goal is to be able to tell the class a few sentences and not need to repeat them at all.
In Circle, the class learned a call and response song to help us decide if a specific animal is a mammal. We are also working on tongue twisters about animals, and we began memorizing on an octopus poem.
Grades 5 / 6 News from Ms. Nelson:
MAIN LESSON: BUSINESS MATH - The main focus of our lessons this weeks was the check exchange project. The students created some very impressive displays that many insisted on setting up every day, even though this was not required after Day 1. The Grades 1-4 classes also came to visit and admire the projects, generating a great deal of excitement throughout the school. In total, the students wrote nine checks and received nine checks, which they then turned in to our "banker" who will hopefully have time to generate a bank statement. This may be slightly delayed as he has been called away for a search warrant in Texas tomorrow through Wednesday but I know he will do his best to create these for the children. In addition to this, we reviewed the concept of percent and learned how to figure out the percent one number is of another (8 is what percent of 10?) and a certain percentage of a number (What is 90% of 80?). Students wrote examples of these in their main lesson books, and should be reviewing these concepts in preparation for the quiz. The last concept we will encounter tomorrow will be generating interest using the equation I = PRT (Interest = Principal x Interest Rate x Time).
Grades 7/8 News from Mr. Pauzolis:
Last week, we began our journey into the riveting study of the human body! It was a short week, but we used the time we had to explore the very complex subject of our cells and our respiratory system. Cell structure proved to be especially challenging, despite the fact that I full-on serenaded the class with an improvisational song about the endoplasmic reticulum. I know what you're thinking: "There are TOO MANY songs about the endoplasmic reticulum". You're right, which is why I had two members of the class come up and help me with that song. In short, we had fun discussing our cells, but the class was relieved when we moved on to the "easy" subject of our respiratory system. It's funny what we think of as "easy" when you've gotten through a detailed description of ribosomes and the Golgi Apparatus.