Friday Letter - 01.27.2012

1/27/12

Dear RiverRun Families,

During Writer's Workshop we have been working on how to write a paragraph. We are using graphic organizers as visual aides. I am sure you will all enjoy the many stories being written in your child's/ren's Writers Notebooks. They enjoy sharing their work with the community, and we all love to be read to.

I brought out a work on the shifting of the land masses on our planet. The children get to see how the continents looked 200 million years ago, 135 million years ago, 65 million years ago, today, and what it may look like 50 million years into the future as earth's plates shift.

I also added works to use with the Time Line of Life. As we learn about early animals and our younger earth, we are all amazed at how life survived and changed from one environmental crisis through another. Both of these works are fun and allow for a lot of physical manipulation and exploring.

Next week we will begin novel studies with the Middles and Elders. We will be reading books about slavery. The stories they read will help stimulate discussion about black history in honor of black history month coming up in February.

Our trip to CMOST was great. Being able to touch and look closely at animals is a treat. We learned about Complete and Incomplete life Cycles. Frogs, for example, have Complete Life Cycles, and we have Incomplete Life Cycles. This was new information for many of the adults on the trip. I would like to learn more about how this term, Incomplete Life Cycle, came about.

“We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.” Maria Montessori

Have a wonderful weekend,
Amy and Debbie