Dear Parents,
It's hard to believe that we have finished the 3rd quarter of school! The students completed their self-evaluations this past week. These will come home on Thursday. Please return the empty envelope with your child so that I can use it for Q4.
Following are brief descriptions of each grade level activities:
Kindergarten: We had a great first week! We started the week with the book My Head is Full of Colors. We talked about their interests and they completed a writing/drawing extension showing their head full of their interests. We read the OK book and used the letters "OK" to make an illustration and expression of something that we're OK at doing. Thursday we read What To Do With a Box. The students began thinking about what they can make from a box. We'll read Not A Box on Monday and continue this project next week.
First Grade: We finished our baby sea turtles and began learning about birds. We read books, watched a video and did an exploration of bird beaks and the food that they are suited for eating. We will read more next week along with making a bird representation for our mobiles.
Second Grade: The students finished exploring the favorite games of their friends. We brainstormed different types of games and different themes that games can be. This week they will begin planning the game that they will create when we return from spring break.
Third Grade: The students enjoyed the circuit project. Lyla and her mom Fraya brought a circuit kit to continue this exploration. We are moving on to an inventions unit. We started with the "Fluor Engineering Challenge". The students are tasked with creating a volleyball machine that will launch a ball as many times back and forth over a net without students touching the ball or the ball touching the ground. It has proved to be a big challenge and the students are having to learn to push through and persevere. Hopefully we'll be able to test our machines at the end of the week and submit our results to the contest.
Fourth Grade: We began our architecture unit. The students spent the first two days mind sketching architectural vocabulary. As they finished they worked in pairs to create a vocab review game. At the end of the week we played a round of "Kahoot!" and "Quizzis". We have one more game to play next week, bingo, and then we'll spend some time briefly learning about the history of architecture. We are firming up plans for an architecture filed trip. We will tour some down town areas with the 4th grade GT students from Cedar Creek elementary. The plan should be finalized by Tuesday and I will send you specific details then. For now, the date is Tuesday, 3/26. Parents will be invited to join us....stay tuned!
Fifth Grade: The students have been working hard on their films. Some filming is being executed or edited at school. Groups are working on their opening titles and closing credits. If your child's group is filming outside of school they need to complete their filming this week! Films are due the week after spring break.
Following are photos from: kinder boxes, first grade bird beaks, third grade circuits and volleyball and fourth grade archaeology.