Elementary

4th/5th : Week of Feb 5th

General News Reading/Writing Update Memoir (aka and personal narratives) is always a tough unit! Writing fictional narratives tends to come so easily but writing about your own life is not an easy ask for everyone! Gammas spent weeks powering through writer’s block and the challenges of this unit and this week finally got to dive into publishing and illustrating their books! Gammas used Canva to type up their books and map out the story page by page and then got to work creating illustrations. Some kiddos chose to use the AI illustration feature on canva to create the illustrations and […]

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Students work together to finish task at micro school in Austin.

K/1st: Week of Jan 29

Oceans This week we dove deeper into the ocean – 600 feet down to the beginning of the Disphotic or Twilight zone. Very little light reaches this deep. Disphotic gets its name from being a region where photosynthesis cannot occur and plants can’t grow. To understand the differences between the two zones for the living organisms that live there we looked at sperm whales and giant squid. Alphas learned that Sperm whales are incredibly unique mammals. In some form of evolution they have been on earth 20 million years or more, can dive the deepest of any mammal (2,000-10,000 feet),

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Kindergarten student holds hands-on project at part time school.

2nd/3rd: Week of Jan 29

Math – Ms. Andrea’s math group measured the room! We talked about standard units of measurement and put our rulers, measuring tape and yard stick to work. We compared lengths! The Beta 1’s were challenged to order themselves by height – silently! They rose to the challenge. We practiced our measuring skills while pivoting between inches and centimeters. On Tuesday the crew practiced addition and subtraction facts – both one and two digit! Thursday, we did a smorgasbord of measuring activities! From measuring items from a junk drawer, to partnering and answering discussion questions and solving measurement challenges! Ms. Kelly’s

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Proud second grade student shows off her work at progressive private school.

4th/5th: Week of Jan 29

General News Keep up the work on your student Rock Journals (Due March 8th) We are covered for field trip transportation (thank you!) and will be in touch with volunteers soon with more details. Reading/Writing Update This week we spent lots of time focusing on getting drafts done. Gammas needed to write at least three drafts of memoir stories before choosing one to publish (much to their chagrin) but hopefully along this journey some of them realized the importance of the drafting process and pushing themselves through the process. Often your first idea will not be your favorite when it

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Teacher interacts with students at table at micro school with small classes.

K/1st: Week of Jan 22

This week we learned that the ocean has layers that are divided by how much light is in it. The first layer we explored is called the Euphotic Zone. We learned that most of the creatures in the ocean live in this layer, and just like all living things on land, these creatures require sunlight, air, water, and food to live. Alphas knew that many of the tidal zone creatures had adaptations that helped them capture microscopic food particles from the water, and we learned that those particles were actually living plants and animals called Phytoplankton and Zooplankton. We learned

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Kindergarten student displays project at project based school.