Friday Letter - 12.07.10

Dear RiverRun Families,
 
Happy New Year to all. The children seemed to all enjoy their time off, but were happy to see each other.
 
We just finished reading Charlotte's Web, the children really enjoyed this book. It's amazing how I still get choked up when Charlotte dies.

We also started our unit on measurement. As with most lessons, we started with the story of measurement, beginning with early man. This story touched on the cubit, fathom, ell, yard, rod, furlong, mile, metric system, angstrom, and light years. A lot of fun follow-up work has been put out on the shelves. Today the children got to measure themselves in literal feet, which we will convert to our customary measurement of feet and to the metric system. Next week new works relating to measurement will be put out for further exploration.

Have a nice weekend, Amy Poole

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This week students spent some time working with story sequencing and identifying the characters and settings in the books they read over break. They also acted out their own stories during a short improvisation activity with the theme of losing a tooth. Students enjoyed script writing, preparing props, and acting out the stories for their classmates. Each student also completed a Venn Diagram outlining the similarities and differences between the two skits.
 
We continue to learn about both NY State and the United States. Topics of the week included the Erie Canal, Harriet Tubman (who lived in Auburn, NY for some time), and our national anthem. In PE we have started a tumbling unit, practicing our forward rolls, pencil rolls, shoulder rolls, and dive rolls. In addition to coordination, we've also started working on balance by practicing tripods and (for more experienced students) headstands.

Next week we'll be welcoming a community visitor from the Scotia-Glenville Traveling Museum as we kick-off our studies of Simple Machines. We are always happy to welcome community members to the classroom to share with our students, so if you know of someone who would be willing to share a skill, hobby, or information in an area of their interest, please let us know. In particular we are looking for someone with musical talent to introduce our students to the recorder or other musical instruments. Please let us know if that is something you could do!

The students have many things to share with you and they'll have the opportunity to do just that at our upcoming Gallery Showcase and Parent Education on Thursday, February 10th. Join us to see the students' artwork on display (in our gallery) and to hear about some of your child's favorite activities. The students themselves will be taking on the role of "teacher" or "guide" and showing parents how to do some of the works they most enjoy. We'll also have recently completed work on display. In order to have the best attendance possible, we are taking a vote, with the majority determining the timing of the event. Please reply via email to Nancy by Wed. January 12th to let us know which of these timing options is best for your family to attend: 8:30-10:00 a.m. or 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. (both on Thursday, 2/10/11).

Best wishes, Nancy Adis

Upcoming Dates:
Tuesday, January 11th – 9:00 a.m. – Simple Machines Program with S-G Traveling Museum
Monday, January 17th – No School – Martin Luther King Day
Thursday, January 20th – 9:30-11:00 a.m. - RiverRun Open House
Thursday, January 27th – 12:30 p.m. Group lunch in the RR classroom – families welcome