Monday PE | Tuesday In & About Reactions Lab | Wednesday ART | Thursday ELC Geek Out | Friday ASM--solid color spirit day |
- Report cards coming home soon - look out for a school-wide email.
- Friday, 2/4 - All School Meeting. Spirit day theme: color day (wear all one color)
- Monday, 2/18 - President's Day, no school.
- Thursday, 2/21 - Celebration of Learning, 5-6:30. Level 3 will share our science fair!
- April 1st - Returning Student Form due to secure your current student's spot for next school year.
Students will have math homework, reading and and spelling this week. Students did not add a new goal reflection last week, so this is a chance to catch up if you haven't checked the google doc recently!
On Thursday and Friday, Gretchen and I worked hard to gather up all the amazing learning Level 3 students did and capture it on report cards. I admit that the process is always hard for me; boxes and numbers feel inadequate to describe the unique strengths and struggles of your children. So, please do look out for report cards coming home soon. However, know that this is just one way to communicate student progress with families. I welcome you to contact me if you'd like to discuss anything further.
Project
A highlight this week for project work was our cooking chemistry lab for our out and about. Merlins had a hands on experience with chemistry by examining popcorn appearing to lose mass after being popped, the power of salt to lower freezing point, how cabbage juice can be used as pH indicator and chemical reactions that take place during bread making! What tasty fun and a huge thank you to Amy and Nicki for making it all happen so seamlessly!
Ask why does popcorn pop?
Talk about the different stations from the cooking chemistry lab.
Extend the learning to doing more cooking at home.
Literacy
Currently for reading I am pushing kids to dig deep with their responses to Tuck Everlasting or The Wild Robot Escapes. For instance, rather than saying a character is creepy we are trying to push our critically thinking to examine why the author would create a creepy character or what’s the importance and role of that character. This isn’t work that comes natural, but building critical thinking skills not only allows us to enjoy what we read more, it also let’s us be more active with what we read.
For writing, Merlins will be getting feedback on their leads and resolutions and using that feedback to create beautiful scenes that lead up to the climax. As in my previous email, I encourage families to help their writers by giving feedback as well.
Ask, what are you suppose to learn from the main character in the read aloud book?
Talk about show, not tell. Show your family where you are excelling at this and where you want help.
Extend the learning to read and talk deeply about a fantasy you read at home.
6th Grade Math
The geometry unit has challenged us to put everything into practice from this first textbook. On Friday Hilary created a lesson that allowed students to explore and discover the concepts of surface area and nets. We’ll firm up these concepts early this week, move onto volume and then start getting ready for the block 6 test.
Ask, what is a net and how did it connected to surface area?
Talk about Wednesday’s hands on surface area activity.
Extend the learning to see how surface area and volume are related.
5th Grade Math
I passed back fraction tests this week, and students worked hard to correct and retake at home. Meanwhile, we enjoyed a mini-unit on line plots. Students designed an original question, surveyed classmates, then plotted and analyzed data. Who knew that our average pinky finger length was 5.5 centimeters, or that the most common number of cousins in our class is 16? Some students even explored using google sheets to transform data into an artistic chart.
Check in about how the retake went. Did you improve your score? If not, what could you do differently?Ask what question students used to collect data for their line plot.
Extend the learning by analyzing charts or data tables in the news. What makes a good graph?