Friday Letter - 10.01.2010

October 1, 2010

Dear River Run Families,

This week we continued our discussion of time. We went back to Babylonian times and discussed how early astronomers tracked stars over time, allowing them to formulate the concept of 360 days, which they called one year. Our class elders went on to learn the symbol for degrees, which was also born from the observation of 360 by the Babylonians.

The children have also been hard at work on making maps of North, Central, and South America. These two continents will be a focus of study throughout the year.

Don’t forget to have the children bring in their booster seats (if under 8 years old) for our field trip to Indian Ladder Farms on Tuesday. They should also wear appropriate clothing and footwear.

We look forward to seeing everyone during parent/teacher conferences.

Amy

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Have you heard about our bird houses?  The students continued to learn about birds this week and after a discussion about bird habitats, they each made a nesting box (also called a bird house).  Some of these are still drying and you will see one come home soon, if not today.  Older students are also working on editing and rewriting their bird reports and all are working on a visual depiction about birds.

We are also beginning more geography work related to maps.  We are learning about the parts of the map (such as key/legend, scale, and compass rose) and how to use grid coordinates to read maps.  Older students mapped out the location of our upcoming field trip and calculated the number of miles away it is. We’ll continue working with maps next week as well.

In Physical Education this week we’ve been discussing getting our heart rates up and ways to do that. In addition to daily recess, we have a physical activity twice weekly.  In music we’ve been learning new songs and also practicing our sign language during some songs.  We also enjoyed Pizza Friday and Maria’s birthday Walk Around the Sun celebration today. Next week the students are off (as it is Parent-Teacher Conference Day) so we’ll have a break from pizza.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, October 5^{th –} RiverRun Field Trip to Indian Ladder Farms

Friday, October 8^th - Parent/Teacher Conference Day – No School for Students.  You may want to remind your bus department that you child doesn’t need transportation that day. We’ll look forward to meeting with each of you to participate in goal setting for your child.

Friday, October 22^nd – Parent Education Night – 6:00-7:30 p.m. - more information to follow.

Enjoy your weekend,
Nancy