We have had a great first week of school! We spent a lot of time during this short week learning how to keep ourselves and each other safe and healthy. The children have adjusted amazingly well to the new routines and procedures; washing their hands before and after working, playing, and eating, and keeping a safe distance from each other when inside or when not wearing their mask outside. They’ve also adapted nicely to wearing a mask at all times inside. Their resilience is incredible.

We have spent time writing, reading, and journaling this week, as well as doing some assessments in spelling and math to determine where to start with our individualized lessons and work next week. The children enjoyed having a work cycle today and got right down to business choosing work in math, language, geometry, biology, and history.

The children have tools in the classroom to help them stay safe as they learn. They each have a six foot ribbon to stretch out beside them when doing floor work so they know where to set up their work rugs. The children learned how to wipe down a material after use and each material gets a second cleaning by me before being returned to the shelf. Whenever possible, we work outside; the children have enjoyed writing, reading, and listening to our chapter book read aloud outdoors this week. They have easy access to hand sanitizer and sanitizing hand wipes when we are outside and not able to use soap and water.

We have all really enjoyed being together with old and new friends this week. It’s great to be back at school!

We kicked off our final week of February with a birthday breakfast on Monday. Then, on Tuesday the students successfully ran another Happé Café. They not only made sales inside, but also coordinated a drive thru service at the back entrance of the school. Some of the profits from this cafe will go to support those effected by the Australian wildfires. Thanks again for supporting the students through your encouragement, and of course by purchasing baked goods and hot beverages!

We are all getting very excited for our upcoming production of Moana Jr. in May. The children will be learning their parts next week and we have already begun singing the songs together in class. If you would like to access the songs for your child to practice, please click on this link.

Although we had a slightly shorter week, we were very productive. Students had an opportunity to peruse some new books I brought in from the local library to support their informational writing. During our reading lessons we discussed nonfiction text structure. Then, the students worked in teams of two to locate information writing and narrative writing in nonfiction hybrid texts. In preparation of our plan to make a timeline of early humans, the students began their own timelines of important life events. We discussed proper scale and measurement as part of the prep work.

 

We had a short, but fun-filled week of school. On Wednesday, we visited the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, CT. The students learned about light and color through a hands on investigation titled, “Blended Lights.” They each constructed their own blended light project and tested different combinations of red, green, and blue lights. After constructing their light project they made shadow puppets to test the light combinations again. When we returned to school the children designed their Valentine’s bags and shared valentines with each other.

This week we wrapped up our family ancestry studies at Research Night. The students did a wonderful job preparing and presenting their family history. This project was a perfect compliment to our history studies that focused on our closest living relatives and our closest fossil relatives. I hope this sparked an interest in your child to continue to find out more about their family and pass along what they learned to future generations. Thanks again for your support throughout the research process!

This week we returned to our regular morning work cycle routine with a variety of lessons. But before we could do that we celebrated the January birthdays with a birthday breakfast of bagels, strawberries, and yogurt. Students created bar graphs based on their heart rate data from last week’s respiration lesson. During Writers Workshop, everyone worked on information writing based on a topic of interest. Preparations for Research Night (February 6 @ 6:30) are coming along nicely. Presentations should be finalized by Monday and then the students will use class time each day to practice their presentation.

This week we took a detour from our regular morning routine as the students took the CTP5 test. They persevered and did their best to work through each sub test. On Thursday we joined together for a vital functions lesson about the circulation. The students were shown models of an open system versus a closed system. At the end of the lesson they worked in teams to complete tasks and record their heart rate on a data sheet. These tasks included walking, catching, planking, jumping jacks, and a card game. Next, we will analyze the data to make connections between activity level and heart rate. The students were excited to complete this activity and worked well in their respective teams!