“Trees are poems that the Earth writes upon the sky.” –from “Sand and Foam” by Kahlil Gibran

We enjoyed an active week in Upper El. Highlights included gardening, an Arbor Day presentation, and new math, geometry, and chemistry lessons.

Students began the week moving the raised bed flowers to pots in preparation for relocating those beds during the field construction. As is typical of these students, they tackled the project with joy and enthusiasm. We are hopeful the plants will survive the move, and we can replant them in the fall when the field is complete.

We had a visit from Charlie Arrindell, who gave a captivating presentation about the benefits and anatomy of trees and Arbor Day. He gifted each of us a sapling to plant at our homes. Thank you for sharing your time, generosity, and knowledge with us, Charlie!

In geometry this week, fourth graders learned to find the area of a parallelogram and discovered they use the same formula they used to find the area of a rectangle. Fifth graders learned about the concept of the circle as the limit of regular polygons. They researched this with Montessori insets of each plane figure, three through ten sides, and a circle and learned that each “side” of a circle is a point on the curved line that forms the circle’s circumference. They identified the circle as the “ultimate polygon.” Their follow-up work was to translate the nomenclature of regular polygons into the nomenclature of the circle. Fifth graders also prepared for next week’s lesson by beginning a study of the apothem of each figure, triangle through decagon. They drew each figure and traced their apothem, radius, and base.

This week in chemistry, we learned about the sun’s nomenclature and discovered some amazing facts about its distance from Earth, temperature, size, mass, gravity, age, and core reactions.

We are still waiting to hear back from the bus company on their cost for our trip to Nature’s Classroom. I will email you your final cost as soon as they confirm.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,
Karen and Deb

After a week of spending our mornings taking standardized tests, we enjoyed spending Friday welcoming grandparents and special friends to our classroom. Upper El students enthusiastically prepared, laying out activities they wanted to do with their guests. They shared their work with joy and pride, demonstrating how they used the materials to complete their lessons. During the week, we also enjoyed baking banana bread and celebrating Olive’s birthday!

Upper El students were very focused during this short week, working on lessons and assignments before taking a break from work cycle next week to participate in standardized testing.

In geography this week, we focused on understanding latitude and longitude. Using latitude and longitude, students learned to identify the absolute location of any point on the Earth’s surface. Our lesson focused on developing skills students need to understand location. We started our lesson by learning about the Sumerians and their star charts, which were the basis for circles having 360 degrees. We then learned how that applies to the grid system of lines we use on maps to measure distances north and south of the equator and west and east of the prime meridian.

The fourth-grade geometry lesson focused on the area of squares. Students applied the information they learned about finding the area of rectangles to squares. In fifth-grade geometry, students learned to find the area of polygons in three different ways, called cases. They learned to compare the perimeter and apothem of the polygon to the base and height of the rectangle in order to find the area.

Our lesson on the chemistry of stars was about the life cycle of stars. We looked at the sequence of stars, from nebula through black hole. Students are making charts to illustrate the sequence as follow-up work.

Finally, our grammar lessons focused on adjectives for fourth years and pronouns for fifth years. The adjectives lesson distinguished between two categories: descriptive and limiting. Limiting includes all kinds of adjectives that are not descriptive. Our pronouns lesson categorized personal pronouns as nominative, objective, or possessive. Students also looked at the first, second, and third-person and singular and plural personal pronouns.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come in for conferences. It was truly remarkable to share that time with you and your children!

We had a unique start to the week as we stayed after school to view the partial eclipse of the sun together. It was a wonderful experience to share as a classroom community! Here are some highlights from the rest of the week.

Our geography lesson this week taught us about the global grid and lines of latitude and longitude. We also discussed the critical problem mapmakers faced for centuries: how to represent our spherical Earth on a flat surface. We learned that Egyptian scholar Ptolemy dealt with this problem by drawing lines of latitude and longitude and that his rules for making maps are still followed today.

In geometry, fourth-year students learned how to use inverse area formulas to find a rectangle’s missing base or height when given the area and either the base or the height, and fifth years learned to find the area of a rhombus using three different formulas.

We wrapped up our biology unit on advanced classification with a lesson on the Tree of Life material. Upper El students will use this material in the coming weeks to study the kingdoms through phyla, classes, and species. This work starts with the first unicellular life in the Kingdom Monera and then continues to include the Kingdoms Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

This week, in language work, we focused on preparing for our upcoming conferences. Each student is reflecting on their work this year, looking for areas of strength and growth. Through this process, they learn about themselves as students and take responsibility for their own learning. We are also working on writing “Where I’m From” poems. These poems are based on “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon and are meant to inspire the writer to think about their life and what makes them unique. We were happy to have a visit from two of our eighth graders who shared their poems with us.

I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming FWM Spring Gala & Auction on April 27! If you haven’t yet purchased tickets to this vital fundraising event for our school, please purchase yours here. The last day you can buy tickets is April 22. I hope to see you all there!

A message from Middle School: Order your 8th-grade-designed 2024 FWM sweatshirt ASAP! Orders close on April 27! Click here to order.

“We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit.” -Maria Montessori

We welcomed April with just a few April Fools Day shenanigans and a productive week. Our work cycles were buzzing with activity, lessons, and focused work.

We started the week by kicking off our new novel study for the book The Wild Robot Escapes. This is already becoming a nice change of pace from our usual literature circle activities and discussions. It will also enable us to discuss this book as a whole class instead of splitting into three groups. In other language work this week, we did some poetry reading and writing and had grammar lessons. Fourth-year students continued their study of adjectives by learning about interrogatives and proper adjectives. They learned that interrogative adjectives ask a question about the noun and that proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns but act as modifiers. Fifths had their next lesson about personal pronouns, focusing on person and number. They learned to identify the pronoun in a sentence and whether it is in the first, second, or third person.

In geography this week, we learned about the compass rose. We discussed the history and use of this symbol by cartographers and sailors. Students followed up this lesson by making their own 32-point compass roses.

In biology, we continued our study of advanced classification with a lesson on characteristics used for classification. Students learned that the basis of zoological classification is identifying specific “characters” of an animal. We also had a dynamic discussion about the origins of using binomial nomenclature, genus + species, to classify animals.

I am looking forward to meeting with you on April 19 for Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences! Please look for the sign-up in your email on Monday.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,
Karen & Deb

This short week was happily busy with exciting new lessons and a trip to Southern Connecticut State University to listen to the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

At SCSU’s Lyman Center for Performing Arts, we participated in an interactive program where we listened to some beautiful music and learned about all of the instruments in an orchestra. We heard selections from Carmen, West Side Story, and other delightful pieces. The conductor provided biographical, historical, and musical information about each piece and the instruments played throughout the concert. Thank you to Sarah and Jennifer for joining us on this field trip!

In geography this week, we learned what maps show and about reading a map by looking at three types of maps: shaded relief, road, and topographical. We used actual maps of the Salt Lake City area to learn the uses of different kinds of maps. We began learning basic map reading skills, getting comfortable looking at a map, and understanding directions.

Our biology lessons focused on an introduction to taxonomy. Students learned about the purposes, challenges, and techniques of taxonomy while being introduced to binomial taxonomic names of animals. We also learned about homology vs. analogy. In this lesson, students learned the criteria for placing an animal into a group. To illustrate the differences between animals, we examined charts of butterfly and bird wings. To explain similarities, we looked at charts of the forelimbs of humans, crocodiles, birds, whales, horses, and bats, who use their forelimbs differently; however, their similar structure shows that they originated from the same ancestors, so we consider the animals similar.

In writing, we began our poetry unit this week. We started by sharing poems, an activity that students enthusiastically embraced. It was beautiful to hear the wide variety of poems that spoke to each of us. Some students even chose to write their own to share! We learned about the different types of poems and their elements. Students enjoyed taking turns sharing examples of similes, metaphors, idioms, proverbs, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and hyperbole.

Finally, in grammar lessons, fourths learned about indefinite, demonstrative, and possessive adjectives, and fifths learned about personal pronouns and their antecedents.

Our big trip to Nature’s Classroom is from May 28 through May 30. Before the break, students brought paperwork home that needed to be filled out and returned to school. Here are the details:

• The Nature’s Classroom portion of the trip costs $347. This cost will increase a little when we factor in the cost of the bus, which will be divided among the students participating. I will update you with the final price when I have the final count.
• If your child will be attending this trip, please email me and send in a deposit of $50 by Friday, April 5.
• If you have questions before you decide whether your child will attend, please email me, and I will be happy to meet with you individually. If there is interest, I will schedule an informational meeting.
• Let me know if you need another copy of the paperwork, and I will send it home with your child on Monday.
• Here is more information about Nature’s Classroom.

For those who celebrate, Happy Easter!

Wishing you a beautiful weekend,

Karen & Deb

This past week was nothing short of amazing for Upper El students. After weeks of preparation, gathering information, and writing papers that were nine to fifteen pages in length, the students did a fantastic job presenting their autobiographies to a room full of families. They were poised and brave, some presenting in front of a crowd for the first time. It was indeed a proud moment for everyone involved.

Throughout this project, the children were full of joy and excitement. They spent weeks researching their family history, interviewing relatives, and writing autobiographies. The effort and dedication they put into their work were evident in the final product. Their presentations were engaging and informative, demonstrating a deep understanding of their history. They have every reason to be proud of their accomplishments.

We also managed to squeeze in time this week to create a beautiful canvas for the upcoming Saturday Night Fraser gala. Thank you, Jess and Liz, for taking the time to come in and help us create a gorgeous piece of art!

As a fun end to a week of hard work, Upper El students in Robotics class are attempting to break the world record for the longest-functioning robot! Enjoy the video below, which captured their excitement.

I hope you have a wonderful two weeks,
Karen

“Joy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.” -Maria Montessori

The Autobiography Project is nearing completion after three months of gathering information, interviewing family members, and writing research papers. Upper El students have done an amazing job preparing to present their projects. Apart from working on their papers and slide shows, they are also preparing presentation boards. There is a real sense of accomplishment as everything is coming together after so much focused work. While working, there is a palpable sense of joy among the students, and they are enjoying learning more about each other throughout this process. I hope you appreciated the opportunity this project provided to connect and share details of your family’s history with your child.

We are eagerly anticipating welcoming you for presentations on Thursday evening. The evening will begin with oral presentations. Each student has chosen a chapter of their autobiography to present to the whole group. After the formal presentations, you will be invited to move around the room, and the children will present the rest of their autobiographies in a gallery style. Please remember the following in preparation for Thursday night:

• Children should dress in neat attire appropriate for a formal presentation.
• Please arrive promptly. We will begin presentations at 5:00.
• There is no shuttle bus for this event. Please park at the school.
• Children with siblings in middle school and lower elementary will present first.

Please check your child’s backpack for information about our overnight field trip to Nature’s Classroom. There are important documents to be filled out and returned to school, which are coming home with students today.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Karen & Krystin