OLDER CLASS:
This week we had many new assignments. K started reading The Hobbit to us in bookcorner and L volunteered to help him on Wednesday. When I first read The Hobbit I loved it and it was so good to hear it read aloud. We also had 2 new vocabulary words a day with students each writing a paragraph using those words. We made time to read those paragraphs and talked about each of these new words. Sara met with the class to discuss ideas for setting up cooking groups later this year. We had a new Scope Magazine and read the mini play and two articles. We also started to study our 5th ecosysytem, tropical forests, by reading 9 pages in Earth Matters, selecting animals to research, and had several students start creating new life-sized animals. Sara also added three new apps to our collection this week, two dealing with times tables and one on diagraming sentences. Another new project was for each student to choose one of the 100 Top Stories of 2012 from Discover Magazine and create an 8 x 11 card presenting that information. I read a story from The New York Times to the class about a cat that found his way home after getting lost 200 miles away!
Old work included math work books, and each person in the class tried to do 5 more pages of their magazine. J continues his fish project with fish from the tropical forests rivers.
Today we were treated to a puppet show presented by J, A, and I. We also had phys. ed. and music this week.
I hope everyone has confirmed that their conference time is good for them. I am continuing to spend my evenings thinking about each student and writing my conference reports.
MIDDLE CLASS:
The middle class will be going with the little class to see Freckleface Strawberry, a musical performed by students from Mater Dei.
The children are excited about their upcoming individual conferences. They have filled out their self-evaluations which I will use as a discussion tool to chat about their work, their school social life and their goals and ideas for work for the rest of the year. I will be writing my conferences in the order they are scheduled so please contact Jill to make any changes to your conference time ASAP.
On Tuesday we read a book on Martin Luther King Jr. and discussed the civil rights movement and the concept of non-violent protest. We followed that by watching President Obama’s inaugural address and a discussion of our rights and responsibilities as citizens. So many of these ideas are relatable to our everyday lives in the classroom.
YOUNGER CLASS:
Although this has been a short week, we have been working really hard to get many of the elements of our predator project finished for the open house on Saturday. Almost all of the life-sized murals and models are finished and on display. They are really turning out great. Of course there are a number of other elements to this project which we continue to work on until the deadline right before February Break. This week we also continued to work on Spanish with Kim and had indoor phys. ed. with Chris. Tomorrow we will do a big clean-up in preparation for Saturday.
My class and Kathey’s class are going to see Freckleface Strawberry, the Musical, which is being performed by Mater Dei.
MUSIC WITH HELEN:
This week in the Middle and Older Class we continued working on writing down music. The children each have a music manuscript book and have been writing rhythms, notes, scales, and in some cases songs. We’ve also worked on a singing and rhythmic project in the older class which reminds me of the “can you rub your tummy and pat your head” skill. In the younger class I’ve introduced a few of the kindermusik movement and music exercises and we will be working on a couple of songs for a year end project.