General News
Family Field Day is this Monday. Enjoy a day of learning with your family. Don’t forget about our World Religions field trip happening March 3rd and 4th! It’s going to be amazing!
ELA
On Monday of this week we had a lively discussion about our class novel. This story has been an interesting study in how the narrator explores her experience with religion, which you can see coming up in many of the picture books we’ve been creating. We are exploring many themes in our writing like acceptance, tolerance, self-discovery, as well as teaching about important holidays and events! This week we drafted the words and pictures with quick sketches, as well as worked on mapping out the stories we will publish page-by-page. By the end of the week most everyone was typing up their books and ready to start illustrating next week! One of the things we learned through our analysis of picture books is that illustrations are a very important part of the story. In order to not rush this process, and not lean heavily on AI to create, next week I will be offering reduced homework load for people who choose to hand draw their illustrations for their books so they can work on them at home and school without rushing the process.
Math
This week in math, we worked across several connected skills. In both groups, we began by graphing basic linear functions, exploring both additive and multiplicative patterns and how they appear on the coordinate plane. (Year 2 students graphed with negative numbers in all 4 quadrants!) Students practiced identifying how values change and translating those patterns into ordered pairs and straight-line graphs. Midweek, Year 1 we shifted into a project-based learning activity applying decimal division through a “shopping for materials” scenario at Whole Earth Provisions. Students calculated costs, divided totals, and made purchasing decisions, giving them a practical context for using decimal operations. We wrapped up the week by focusing on perimeter of rectangles–going to places around the school to measure with a laser so we could get some hands-on experience. Year 2 students ended the week with “Hands-On Equations” kits (and we took it outside because the weather was BEAUTIFUL!)
Theme
This week in Theme, our study of Islam began with a truly special experience as we welcomed Xavier’s mom, Natasya, as a guest speaker. She offered students a thoughtful introduction to Islam, sharing personal insight and helping ground our learning in a real-world perspective. Building on that foundation, students explored the history of Islam and its core beliefs through a partnered scavenger hunt, working collaboratively to locate key information and deepen their understanding. Midweek, we devoted time to our Seven Symbols Collage projects, giving students space to reflect on important elements of their specific religion-of-study and how to represent them visually/symbolically. We closed the week by drafting written summaries of Islam in small groups, which will be incorporated into an art mobile project that we’ll begin assembling next week. We’re predicting these projects will be beautiful! Time shall tell….
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