OLDER CLASS:
Last week on Friday we ended the day with me reading a book from the younger class on Shrek II. It was one of those books I love that have the pictures that are connected to the sound buttons so that the reading is punctuated by these funny sound bites. I had a great time reading the book and the class really enjoyed it.
We started off this week with a talk by J’s parents on Passover and Easter. They then invited the class to help them prepare items to help us all celebrate together. The class helped to make charoset and strawberries and clementines hand-dipped in chocolate. We also had matzoh and grape juice. Thank you to Rosalie and Gary for starting off our week in such a thoughtful and connected way.
This week we also had our usual presentations by J and K, math work book pages, Earth Matters’ reading on forests, and reading partners.
Last week the class voted to read individual books in daily quiet sessions instead of reading another book together aloud. We had two very positive reviews from C and E on books they had read as part of their independent project. The books they really enjoyed were Star Girl and The Giver. I made a book reading chart over the weekend and ask each student to set a goal of the number of books they would read by the end of the year. They could choose from one to twenty-two. Seven people in the class choose twenty-two which I thought was amazing. Even though C and E told the class that this chart was not their idea they have had such a positive impact already with their work. The chart shows that as a class different students have read a total of 33 books since Monday of last week!!!!!! This extending of student project work is what I plan to do as each person starts to share the work they have decided to do in their independent project. This is a very exciting beginning!!!
This week we also listened to some of the first musical recordings Edison made. Most of the numbers were military marches and the quality of the recordings was remarkable. I also shared parts of two different articles that I had taken from the New York Times on Sunday. One was about countries that are using renewable energy like hydroelectric, solar, and geothermal sources to make electricity for their countries. Iceland came in first creating 100% of their electricity from renewable sources, second was Norway at 97%, third was Canada at 63%, and forth Sweden at 55%. The U.S. Was at 13%. The second article was random N.Y.C. Facts – Jayden was the most popular boys name in 2009, there are 1,985 water fountains in city parks, there are 2,540 laundromats, and each week the city issues 100,156 parking tickets. I figured out that this would give the city an income of over 360 million dollars a year if we estimated each fine to be $70.
We have been reading the essays called What Animal Would I Be and Why and they are insightful, humorous, and nicely written. Here is a list of the students and the animals they would like to be: C – parrot and a Bald Eagle, A – bird, A – Golden Eagle, I – wolf, J, K, and T – cheetahs, K – baryonyn, H – cow, E – pegacorn, E – sloth, N– half-human half-dragon, L – owl, S – deinynochus, and J – gar. I am thinking of putting all of these writing into a book so that I can share them with everyone.
MIDDLE CLASS:
We have been taking advantage of the nicer weather and doing a lot of gardening this week. We were able to complete our winter sowing project that had been postponed. We will continue our gardening projects after the break.
Please see your child’s costume design drawing attached to this bulletin and also the “Music with Helen” section of the bulletin for costume needs for the music program in May.
YOUNGER CLASS:
We have just finished one of the most exciting egg hunts I have ever seen, I think a lot of the fun was a result of the beautiful spring baskets my class made this week, they are some of the best I have ever seen. We will finish our spring celebration with a group craft.
This week we also had an amazing time sharing our habitat projects. Each group got to share their projects with the rest of the class, teaching everyone else what they had learned about their habitat over the past few weeks. The projects were great and we were all really impressed by how well they shared information and asked questions. The projects are now on display around the room. This week we also enjoyed having a visiting student on Monday and Tuesday. Reading partners went really well, my class is enjoying reading with a variety of older classers. We also journaled, did math, and enjoyed a great phys. ed. session with Chris.
I hope everyone has a wonderful spring break. Please take note of your conference time (they are posted outside the office) as well as our up-coming trip schedule. If any parent would like to chaperone please let Jill know, thanks Rebekah
MUSIC WITH HELEN:
This week we talked a bit about the end of the year project for all three classes. Since we are winding down and getting a little excited about the upcoming break, we focused largely on discussion this week and when we get back from Spring Break I expect everybody to be ready for some fun.
MIDDLE CLASSERS – will be working on costuming the week we return. Part of their costume will be a toga and head piece. If you can donate a white sheet for the toga portion of the costume we’d appreciate that. Also, look at the drawing your child made of their animal costume and if
there are any parts that you can send in with them next week it would be helpful. Finally, if you have sweatshirts, sweatpants, felt, anything with an animal print, etc., that any child might be able to use, would you please send that in.
If you have any questions just email me. Thanks!