Thursday, October 31, 2013

Lower Elementary Newsletter- October 25th, 2013


Dear RiverRun Families,

This week the children have explored air pressure, suspension and deposit of particles, magnetism, and density.   Demonstrations are available on the science shelf for the children to manipulate and observe.  After experimenting, the children record their observations on science note pads.

As part of the Cosmic Story Lesson, we are reading creation stories from different cultures.  The children have noticed that many of the stories involve giants, gods, and some sort of violence.  Many of these gods kill each other or what they created, over disagreements on how the world should be.  We made connections between the stories and  the action packed  Cosmic Story; how there were spinning particles in cold dark space, explosions occurring  from the spinning and colliding particles, how earth was a hot unsettled planet of volcanos and the long dance of the hot particles rising to cold space and then falling back down to Earth and eventually cooling. 

The whole class has been working on the Parts of Speech.  Those new to the class have been working with the noun family (nouns, articles and adjectives) and the remainder of the class has been creating sentences with their spelling words and symbolizing the different parts of speech.  Cursive lessons continue for all.  The emerging readers have been working hard every day as the new readers work on fluency. 

The big news in the classroom is that we now have a full-time assistant.  Rachel Cira started yesterday and will bring a great energy to the school.  I want to thank Ruth, Fatima, and Niti for their efforts in filling this important position. 

The children continue to work on their Long Houses.  Rachel will be working with the children in small groups of two or three to complete this labor intensive project.  Most of the children will also be bringing home the wampum belts they have made.  I hope that they show you their beautiful works and are able to give you a little bit of the history behind the belts.

 

Enjoy the beautiful crisp fall weather,

Amy

 

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