General News
The quarter is wrapping up quickly–we can hardly believe it! It is time to begin scheduling parent conferences (and also find out what you’d most like to discuss as conferences also zoom by quickly!) Since our school has grown, we’ll be hosting conferences on two days: Monday, October 20th and Friday, October 24th. Please take a moment to fill out this brief survey and then head to this link to sign-up for a conference slot. Be sure to sign up for a time with the teacher(s) whose content area(s) most match your preferred conference focus. Thank you!
Big welcome to our new student Alexa and family! We’re so excited to have you join our community.
Reading/Writing Update
This week was all about continuing to research and writing a strong thesis statement! Early in the week we learned about the challenges of AI (especially using AI to research) when a Delta student fact checked some things from an AI summary they had accidentally used and realized… the AI summary had actually made up information about Korean festivals! This was a great teachable moment and proved the “why” behind the research principles they had been taught last week. Later on in the week we reviewed how to write a thesis statement by looking at some weak thesis statements and revising them specific, informative, and declarative. We then looked at sample thesis statements from across our writing in the class and revised them together. This exercise was super helpful and we are looking at strong thesis statements across the room!
Math Update
Year 1 students explored/practiced multiplication with decimals via a mystery picture reveal (collaborative activity) We also “played” on of my favorite files: a Zombie apocalypse themed escape room based off a running app called “Zombies, Run!” Kids made their way through the activity and earned “supplies” along the way to complete their official Zombie Hunter badges. It was fun, but also great practice for our end-of-week check-in, which covered the exact same skills (namely place value work and decimal operations with addition, subtraction and multiplication.) Year 2 kids started the week much more focused and driven and it was lovely to see them push towards more challenging content (vs. taking the easier path.) We started the week multiplying mixed number and then switched to division on Wednesday (copy-change-flip!) Year 2 students will take their quarterly check-in next week (covering integer operations and decimal operations) Both groups will have a special project packet for next week’s P&P. Year 1 kids will be using their decimal operations to propose a school improvement and Year 2 kids will be making creative recipes and then use multiplication and division to expand or reduce them. As with all projects, we are hoping to help kids select topics that they are passionate about so their projects sparkle with soul!
Theme Update
In theme, we started the week with a group challenge where each small group was tasked with exploring one of the five geographical themes of Asia. After researching their randomly assigned topic, kids worked together to create scripts to teach the class. We took our first theme check-in and saw varying degrees of mastery with map-reading (latitude and longitude) so we will continue to review and refresh that skill in class. In bigger news, we are starting our end-of-quarter project: a cultural fair based on five continents. Each group was assigned a continent (via random scratch off ticket) and now they will take a deep-dive into researching a country of their choice. By project’s end, each group will man a table with artifacts, food, and costumes representing their continent. The project packet directions are almost completed and will be delivered to kids on Monday! Stay tuned!
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