Hello Platte River Families,
After several student illnesses, it seems we are all back in good health! We've also had a snow day, and our grading day off. As a result, it seems we've been skipping a few beats in our routine lately. Nonetheless, I'm encouraged by the positive energy and creativity that our students bring each day!
The classroom has been full of excitement and laughter as students finished their narrative stories in our language curriculum. Their imagination and sense of humor are so evident in these writings, and they truly enjoyed entertaining each other as they shared their stories. Students are wondering about publishing some of the work! Let me know if you have any suggestions for this.
Another stimulating activity has been in creating examples of transformations (reflections, rotations, and translations) in geometry. Some wanted to write a song, act it out, or create 3D models! One student exclaimed, "Hey Mary, look! Geometry has become physics!" as a group created a loop to show rotation. Another student drew beautiful pictures that demonstrated these concepts.
We have been working on fractions in our math lessons. We began with all the vocabulary involved; proper, improper, apparent, mixed, numerator, denominator. Now students are at different levels of practicing addition of fractions, simplifying them, and creating equivalent fractions with uncommon denominators. A couple of students are doing some high level work with this, while others are building a foundation through the use of our fraction circle material.
In history students are researching an archaeological dig. They will soon share information about a dig that they are intrigued about. Some examples are the Terracotta Army, King Tut, and Pompeii.
We are celebrating each student during a given week from now until the end of the year. We had several conversations about this over the last months, and we have finally settled on some ways to celebrate each other.
Each student will be given a paper roll which will be used to to create a representation of the person. It could include photos, or drawn pictures and words that describe them, or special events of their life. It could be any favorite things or events, like places they've visited or a sibling's birth. They could include any favorite sports, music, hobbies, food, etc. They could even make it a timeline. We will hang it in the classroom during their celebration week, and they will have some special choices. They can choose a song or game to play at dismissal time. On Friday, the celebrant is welcome to bring a special snack to share (we are a no-candy school, though). All of these events are optional. The list of dates we will celebrate you child are written below. Let me know if you have any questions.
Student Celebration Weeks
January 22-26 Kal-el
February 5-9 Mackenzie
February 20-23 Violette
February 26-March 2 Elspeth
March 5-9 Truman
March 12-16 Nico
March 19-23 Turi
April 9-13: Tullah
April 23-27 Adara
May 7-11 Luck
May 13-17 Ayden
May 21-25 Miles
Stay Warm and well!
Mary
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