The Delta Dispatch
General News
P&P this week
ELA:
- Read chapter 11 & 12 of Esperanza Rising
- Complete reading response questions for Esperanza Rising
- Complete grammar spiral review page and cursive practice
Math:
- Complete Math Practice Packet
- Don’t forget to share your shamefully-amazing vintage photos for a very special P&P packet. So far, we don’t have enough brave soldiers to make a packet! (Sniff, sniff)
- Begin work on your “Souvenir Craft Studio” artifact. The packet and artifact are due on Monday, October 5th
End-of-Quarter Calendar Items!
- Tuesday, October 6th – All US States Check-In
- Wednesday, October 7th – Great American Expo (student showcase of regional artifacts…no parents, please, as we want to wow you with our artifacts at POP!)
- Thursday, October 8th – End of Quarter and our USA Buffet! Parents are welcome! Sign-up for a food item here!
- Optional Delta Date – Edward Toulane performance at UT on Sunday, October 18th
- Parent conferences – Monday, October 19th (more info and sign-up coming soon!)
Reading/Writing Update
This week, I was out sick for a few days, but our middle school team held down the fort and helped the kiddos keep moving forward with their research and writing! Our persuasive letters convincing someone to come visit us in our region are turning out great. Students are including activities, information about their region’s weather and industry, and details personalized to their audience’s interests and desires. They’re really putting all of their research to work and creating letters that feel specific and convincing!
Math Update
Both groups kicked off the week with a homemade QR Code Math Mystery! Hidden codes around the upstairs revealed math problems on the iPads, and each solved problem provided a clue to decode which AHB teacher was guilty of a truly ridiculous crime, à la Clue. Movement + challenge + humor = a pretty lovely math cocktail!
Year 1 Deltas continued multiplying decimals, working toward fluency with the standard algorithm for multi-digit multiplication. (A little extra practice here never hurts!) We wrapped up the week by moving into adding and subtracting decimals. (We had a visit from Zoe, Elaine’s mom, to show the kids the ropes of grid logic! Yay!)
Year 2 Deltas practiced multiplying mixed numbers before tackling division with mixed numbers. Since this crew got a little ahead of themselves last year and already learned the skill, it was more of a dust-off-the-cobwebs review. We finished with a challenging Riddle Race in small groups, and their cooperation was fantastic. There was some serious mathematical teamwork happening in the Delta wilderness!
Theme Update
This week in Theme, we tackled the wonderfully giant question: What makes up a culture? Deltas broke into small groups to explore the many pieces that give a region its personality, including music, food, art, language, landmarks, customs, and traditions. Each group created an infographic poster about a specific U.S. region, then gave a short presentation so we could learn from one another. Their collective discoveries became the foundation for our class notes.
Mid-week, Deltas selected one city in their region to explore the sights, sounds, tastes and feels in order to create original Haikus about regional cities of interest. We aimed to add watercolor, but time ran out! (Maybe next week?) We had one of our parent-led Regional Chats about the Midwest (Thank you, Dave Wegner!)
At week’s end, we used those notes to explore “What Does America Look Like?” Kids selected images and wrote short descriptions highlighting cultural traditions from different regions. Our big takeaway: American culture isn’t one neat little box. It’s a wonderfully complicated patchwork, shaped by place, people, history, and tradition.