Friday Letter - 03.11.11

March 11, 2011

Dear River Run Families,

It’s been a crazy week, with a snow day and a stomach bug going through our classroom. Even still, the students were busy learning about insects in preparation for the upcoming fieldtrip to see “Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure” next Wednesday. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to drive and chaperone our students. We also wrapped up our unit on yoga, and next week we’ll learn a bit about Tae Kwon Do as we welcome guest instructors, James and Lira Pai, on Tuesday afternoon.

This week students spent more time exploring the presidents, states, and symbols of the United States. We further discussed the 50 States Quarters program and commemorative coins minted for the U.S. and used this information to create a variety of graphs. The students are enjoying exploring these special coins. Perhaps you can take a look through your coins at home (or that you get as change this weekend) and your child can make a note of which state is represented, the year the state joined the union, and what symbols were chosen to represent that state.

We also enjoyed the Lake George Opera’s production of “Jack and the Beanstalk” in the school gymnasium this morning. Our elders were offered the chance to help behind the scenes and met with the cast before the show. Katelyn and Maria ended up in the show in the role of the skinny cow (that was sold in exchange for beans). As a class we had some good conversations about operas, the storyline, the costumes, the sets, the music, and the message (which was the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”).

In conjunction with the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day, we have been reading about Irish traditions, foods, and culture. We are planning to prepare an Irish breakfast for our lunch next Friday. Thursday afternoon the students will try their hand at making Irish Soda Bread and then Friday morning they’ll prepare the breakfast items. Family members are invited to attend lunch at 12:30 p.m. Please send in $5 per student and $1 per guest in contribution towards the costs of our ingredients. As always, if the money collected exceeds the cost of ingredients, the surplus is saved to be used for our next cooking day. (For example, in December the surplus money was used to purchase the ingredients for the holiday treats the students shared.) We encourage students to sample the foods they’ve worked so hard to prepare, but we realize that not all students will prefer the tastes of new foods. If you suspect this will be the case, please send in a packed lunch on Friday as well, to supplement the Irish foods.

Following the Friday Family Meal, the students will have music time and you are welcome to observe the simple songs they have begun learning on their recorders. We’ll make it a musical afternoon and would like to invite you to bring in any musical instruments you may play. It would be wonderful if any of you would be interested in making music with us or in sharing a song or tune that you are familiar with (with or without an instrument). Following song time, and if the weather is agreeable, we’ll head out to the playground for outside PE and snow sculpture-making. (If there is any snow left by then.) Bring your snow or rain gear/equipment if interested!

Best wishes,
Nancy and Amy

Upcoming Dates:
March 14th – 1:30 p.m. Community Visitor, Esther Willison (recorders)
March 15th – 9:30 – 11 a.m. RiverRun Open House
March 15th – 1:00 p.m. Community Visitors, James and Lira Pai (Tae Kwon Do)
March 16th – 11 a.m. Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure at Proctor’s Theatre
March 17th – Cooking Day
March 18th – 12:30 p.m. Family Meal, followed by Music time, followed by Outside PE, snow sculptures
March 24-25th – No School
March 27th – 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Open House