General News
We are thrilled to report that Apollo is heading home! Thank you again for your sweet support during what was certainly an overwhelmingly stressful stretch for Apollo and his family.
The Gammas final project (Body Systems Amusement Park Posters) is due on Monday. We’ll present to the class in small batches starting Monday as we unroll a fun cumulative small-group project to finish the unit.
ELA Update
Poetry, poetry, poetry! This week we explored a different form of structured poetry every day. On Tuesday we talked about concrete poems (where the visual appearance of the poem takes the shape of the subject). We looked at a few examples and brainstormed lists of things that might inspire us – favorite foods, places, sights, sounds, smells, and places. On Wednesday we learned about the history and structure of the haiku. Haikus are traditionally written about nature so we went outside in the morning to meditate and immerse ourselves in nature before writing a few 5, 7, 5 poems. Finally, on Thursday we learned about found poetry, also called blackout poetry, where you find words on a page and turn them into poems but circling the words you want to use and blacking out or creating art around the rest of the page. We used pages from random books from the library as well as some song lyrics requested by the Gammas. We found that song lyrics were more difficult to create poems from because they already are poems. It was fun to move quickly through all of these poems and Gammas got a chance to figure out which style they connect with the most. Next week we will write free verse poetry and then have some more open-ended time to work with their their preferred style.
Math Update
We’re gearing up for our end-of-year check-ins for math class so we spent the week doing some refreshing review of skills gone by as well as introducing a few new skills for the week. The Year 1 group approaches new learning with enviable energy and bravery. We learned how to add and subtract with decimals and they NAILED it with very little review/practice. We ended the week with a whole-group game called “First to Zero” which gave partners a chance to practice this skill and check with a calculator. Year 2 students were eager for their check-in (believe it or not!) This speaks to their math confidence (Yay!) We needed to cover one last skill: we discussed the basics of correlation as it relates to scatter plots. The kids had great fun coming up with examples of negative and positive correlations. Year 1 kiddos will tackle their end-of-year check-in next week.
Theme Update
First and foremost–huge thank you to our two guest speakers (Nataysa and Abby) who came to talk to the kids about puberty and the reproductive system. It is such a treat to hear about the human body from professionals–we are so grateful. Now, if you had been a fly on the wall, you would have been full of pride watching our mature Gammas handle “the talk” about puberty and the reproductive system. There were few giggles, amazing questions and a general maturity not so common during this unit. (Our class is simply amazing!) Ms. Ansley dove into the endocrine system and kids learned how the nervous system works in conjunction with our hormones to direct our bodies as they age and change. At week’s end, Gammas explored the double-edged sword of modern technology in regards to body image, self-esteem and body confidence. Next week, we’ll tackle presentations for our body system amusement park rides and begin a culminating video project in small groups to finish the unit. POP prep is just around the corner and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve been up to in Gammaland!
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