Elementary

4th/5th: Week of 1/6

General News We had a wonderful first week back from break! The Gamma class was hardworking, thoughtful, kind, and enthusiastic – as always! ELA Update This week we began by introducing our new novel study. We are reading Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson. This story is set pre-civil war, during the Antebellum era. It is a story of friendship and community. We started the week off by exploring the setting of the novel by taking a look at the Great Dismal Swamp. This massive, forested wetland once covered millions of acres in Southwest Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. We read an […]

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Two fourth graders work on couch at micro school in Austin

K/1st: Week of 12/9

One of our Class Helper’s jobs… giving our worm farm a good moisture-producing rain-spray! This week in Our Big Backyard… We talked about the rich, diverse community of Ponds. What is the water’s edge? How is it different from the muddy bottom, the surface film or the open water? What creatures thrive in Ponds? We looked at how energy is transferred in food chains through primary producers to primary consumers and on to secondary, tertiary and apex consumers. We realized humans like hawks, bears, and coyotes are also apex predators! We also looked at the series of stages a frog

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Kindergarten science experiment at STEM school.

2nd/3rd: Week of 12/9

Math – Ms. Andrea’s math group finished Unit 4 with a lot of hard work and determination. This week we tackled triple digit addition and subtraction with regrouping(!), word problems containing all of the above, and our unit test! Way to go, Beta 1s! Ms. Kelly’s math group knows how to represent division equations in so many different ways! We began the week practicing together, moving on with partners to tackle challenge work with division specifically. We also practiced using division to figure out the missing factors in a multiplication equation. Using a letter for the missing variable was very

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Elementary class works on project at GT school.

4th/5th: Week of 12/9

General News We’ll be having our bi-annual movie and PJ day next week on Wednesday, December 18th! This is a Gamma tradition to relax and celebrate all our hard work preparing for POP! It’s hard to believe it’s already the last week before winter break! ELA Update We had a fun week with more fiction writing! Early in the week we talked about descriptive language and the key role it plays in helping the reader engage with the story. We also talked about how authors create hooks for the reader by using different styles of leads. A few techniques authors

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Elementary students work together at computer at micro school in Austin.

K/1st: Week of 12/2

This week in Our Big Backyard… We started this week off making models of a hilly watershed – similar to our Edwards Plateau! We learned that the creeks running through Austin carry rainwater to the Colorado river along with any other chemicals or trash that the rain washes into the creek. The water carves a creek-bed and alongside that is the bank. The area of land running next to a creek or river is called a “riparian zone.” A riparian zone is very important to the health of our water because without grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees, our rivers and

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Private kindergarten student works on addition.