General News
See an important from Shari regarding new sign-out procedures for upper school students. Next week (Tuesday, January 13th) we will head to the Bob Bullock museum to experience our delayed field trip! We have plenty of drivers now (thank you!)
Reading/Writing Update
We will be incorporating the 5 major world religions into our reading and writing lives this quarter! We will read many different stories (mostly through the form of picture books) that include elements of these different religions before creating our own picture books towards the end of the quarter. Ms. Ansley’s friend from grad school actually did her PhD on religion in picture books and is helping us out by contributing her research! She has also volunteered to guest speak as we get closer to writing our own books! This week we started the beginning of time with Indigenous creation stories from around the globe. This was a great way to incorporate our world geography knowledge and set the stage for the learning they will be doing later in the quarter in Theme. We read stories from North America, Asia (China, Korea, Japan), Maori people from New Zealand, and creation stories from the Quran and The Book of Genesis. We used venn diagrams to compare and contrast the stories. They all have many things in common, despite being continents apart in origin. At the end of the week we started writing summaries of our favorite stories and will continue on with this next week and make illustrations to go along with them.
Math Update
In Year 1 Math, we WERE going to move into division right away but end-of-quarter check-ins revealed that many kids could use a bit more practice with adding/subtracting mixed numbers so we spent a week refreshing that skill (along with multiplication and division) We completed a recipe activity and then ended the week outside completing a map-reading activity utilizing these skills. Year 2 kids also revisited last quarter’s skill: percentages! (SO fun!) This week, we focused on percentage applications (namely calculating interest, sales tax and tips!) We ended the week with a fun shopping activity: kids were given specific spending quests (with item number requirement and maximum spending budget) and headed off the Whole Earth Provisions (digitally) to buy items for the mission! Once the shopping was complete, they added line items and calculated sales tax. (Next time, we’ll add in silly coupons, too!)
Theme Update
Theme was an absolute blast this week! Either the kids are growing up super fast or they are extra-engaged in this topic because they were truly on FIRE all week! Their note-taking and stamina has grown so much and we showered them with compliments about this newfound independence and go-getter-ness! The beginning of the week was focused on how to engage in respectful, open-minded discussion, especially when your beliefs don’t align with another’s viewpoint. Next, we launched into an overview of the world’s five major religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity & Islam)—their practice and locations around the world where each religion is most prevalent. It’s really cool that we already had World Geography because their geographical knowledge came in handy as we explored the globe again–this time through the lens of religious beliefs. We spent the week comparing/contrasting the five major religions so that when we take a deep dive into each religion the kids have a little context. At week’s end, we grouped the students into random small groups and they used a digital encyclopedia to research one of the world’s major religions and create an infographic. We ended the day Thursday with a power round of presentations. The amount of ground we covered in one week is a testament to their growing stamina! They nailed it! Next week, we’ll begin exploring Hinduism in greater detail.
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