4th/5th: Week of 4/29

General News

• Expect to see some light P&P tapering next week as we move towards the end of the school year. This will give kiddos a little wiggle room focus on their Africa projects!

Reading/Writing Update

ELA got super crafty this week! We started the week off with our usual reading of a new Onyeka chapter together and had a discussion of the study guide from last week while also reviewing what is coming up this week. For the rest of the week we got busy finishing our Nigerian food menus and creating some artistic renderings of real Nigerian dishes! We had a lot of fun making Jollof Rice, Puff Puff, Zobo, Akara, Moi Moi, and much much more out of craft supplies in the classroom. We look forward to “serving” you some authentic Nigerian food at POP! We also started another project, making paper dolls of characters and setting them in a favorite scene (so far!) from Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun. We will expand on these later by writing summaries of the scene. We’ll be displaying these in our Gamma “Bookstore” at POP so visitors can get a taste of just how awesome this book is! Ms. Ansley has started doing reading assessments this week so Gammas will stay busy in the classroom with these many projects, independent reading, and free writing while she pulls kiddos out for one-on-one reading time.

Math Update

In both classes, we were able to sprinkle in some above-level learning as both groups are moving swiftly through new learning. Year 1 kids were introduced to the skill of adding and subtracting with decimals. We practiced lining up the decimals so that the place values would also be aligned. The group did a fantastic job! We ended up getting to play several math games to sharpen this skill and also headed to a (fake) bakery and candy shop to make purchases and calculate change. (Borrowing across zeros during subtraction can still be a tricky skill but this group is getting SO much better!) Year 2 kids explored the wonderful world of circles. We started the week with a read-aloud (Sir Cumference and the Knights of the Round Table) and learned how to name parts of a circle. Next, we learned all about Pi–what it means, how to calculate it, how to use it in a formula to find circumference. At week’s end, we used yarn and circles around the room to prove once and for all: “Is math magical?!” Many kiddos were able to calculate the exact length of string it took to go around the circumference of a real-world circle so we declared the answer is “YES!” Indeed math is magical!

Theme Update

As we often ask the kids to do, the teachers took a risk this week and aimed to tackle a hands-on craft project that COULD have blown up in our proverbial faces. The kids took last week’s research/write-ups on the importance and effects of Trans-Saharan Trade and crafted embroidery projects showing the geography of the routes they highlighted in their written summaries. Some chose to focus on particular resources (salt, gold, etc) and some focused on general geographical area (ie, Timbuktu) We honestly had no idea how it would go to put in their hands a crafty activity that has the potential to incite frustration (ask any fabric artist you know!) The kids NAILED it. In fact, we got so busy in our “flow” state that one day we literally missed read-aloud. Next week, we will focus theme time on tying up loose ends on this project or any other theme-based project that could use a little more time/love. Kids also completed an initial interest survey so they could select which projects they would most like to present at theme. We are ahead of the game! (Thanks to Ms. Ansley’s aversion to procrastination! It’s wearing off on all of us and it will feel great to head into POP season feeling like we have a nice handle on all the loose ends with enough time to work at a pace that doesn’t feel hectic or stressful.) That said, as mentioned above, you’ll see a change (decrease) in P&P starting the week after next to provide a little wiggle room in case your child has projects they would like to complete at home.