Awesome Learners!

I would like to thank all of the parents who volunteered for our field trip last week to City Farmers. We have begun our preparations for our raised planter boxes. The students are making scale drawings of the plot of land in our backyard space. It sure is handy knowing how to calculate the perimeter so we can figure out how much wood we will need. We are planning on having at least 5 planter boxes in our space. Each bed is going to be approximately 3ft by 5ft. According to Bill Hall, from City Farmers, the height should be 1ft tall. The boards are going to be 2x6in in dimension. Ask your child how much wood we are going to need in all. We are going to be building them as soon as we get the wood. If you would like to donate 2x6in pieces of wood let me know. We don't mind using recycled wood, as long as it is in good condition.

Last week we held our History exhibition night and community outreach. The children worked very hard on their presentations. I was surprised that only small percentage of parents stopped by to see our displays. I know that many of us have busy lives so if there are other times than right after school to view student exhibitions, please let me know so I can set up an alternative time for people to come in. Even just 15 minutes of your time would mean a lot to us!

Our next project that we are beginning, we will be looking at our physical science standards though the lens of the foods we eat. I will be asking students to bring in food labels so we can begin analyzing what elements our foods are made up of.

We also need donations of disinfectant wipes (we are out).

Happy Valentine's Day

This week we have been presenting our History projects and I am impressed with the quality of work that I am seeing. Next week, as part of our project, we are going to be showcasing our projects for our community outreach night. This is happening from 3:00 to 6:00 on Thursday, February 23rd. I am asking that students stay after school to present their work to the community and parents too. Please make an effort to stop by so we can show off all our hard work to you. Afterwards, we will be showing a movie, Race to Nowhere, a movie about our current education paradigm. Don't forget that we have a four day weekend this week. There will be no school this Friday or Monday.

Spring Semester

I am excited to announce that we will be taking a field trip to one of my favorite nurseries, City Farmers. We will be looking at ways to study plants and beautify the school grounds by adding some "green features." We will have the chance to contribute to the backyard project that Michael's class is spearheading. The plan is to have parents carpool the students to the nursery and have a short guided tour. We are planning on going on Wednesday, the 22nd of this month. Please let me know if you are able to drive and chaperon once we arrive. As a class, we will decide if there is any items we wish to purchase and possibly have donated. Bill, the owner, has often been generous with schools in the past.

Academically, we are continuing to work on our personal narratives. Our focus has been concentrated on adding figurative language to our writing. We have discussed the different ways of doing this such as; hyperbole, simile, metaphor, alteration, and personification. For math, we have begun a new unit on algebraic thinking and reasoning. Students have been challenged to use variables to represent unknown numbers. Linear function equations are then used to plot points on coordinate (x,y) graphs. We had fun today playing tic-tac-toe, using these coordinate graphs. We have also had conversations about how we can speak and write like mathematicians. Ask your child what they accomplished in math today, the answer might surprise you!

Next week is the due date for our historical narratives. Many students are finishing these up right now. Eventually we will be presenting them in various ways, including skits, living museums, and power-points.