Heading into October…

October 3, 2014

Upcoming events… Saturday, October 4 5-7 pm Opening Reception & Celebration of Combat Paper display. (Doane Art Gallery - Allegheny College) Work will be on display all next week. Oct. 9 – Family Meeting October 24 – Sleepover Extravaganza!! Oct. 30 – School Fall Fest October 31 – No school for students / teacher inservice

BREAKING NEWS… Port Farm Family Outing is postponed until next Saturday, October 11 th – hoping for much better weather! Sleepover Extravaganza! Friday October 24th

**Save the date… details to fol l ow! Needed & Appreciated… BIG rocks (head sized) Styrofoam meat trays Ribbon Straws Click here for school calendar & more info… http://creatinglandscapes.org/school

This week has seen the older Theme group diving headfirst into research on our Pennsylvania topics. We've got a huge range of topics, so each student is guiding his or her own research in a different way, and we're all learning a ton about research strategies and best practices. In addition, we took a walk down to the Stereoscopic Museum. This was way cool. The students had a blast exploring the tools and technology from decades past. We also took some Theme time to go over the science and societal aspects of stereoscopes as well as what entrepreneurs (like B. L. Singley, who founded the Keystone View Company that we visited) are and why they're important. It's been a jam-packed week!  The younger Theme group took on BIG projects and they worked hard and joyfully! The children began the week by thinking about how much they've changed since they were babies. They drew pictures of the things they could do back then, the things they do can do now, and the things they'll be able to do when they're grown. Cooking, driving a car, going to work in a suit and tie - these kids have got big plans! After that, we measured the difference in their current heights and their length at birth. They were shocked at how much they've grown! And then, we launched into our next big project: creating timelines! We have had a wonderful time listening to each other's stories and telling our own. Thank you so much to the parents, who put so much time, effort, and love into collecting these pictures and stories for us to enjoy! It is heartwarming to see our children standing in the halls reading about the lives of fellow students. We hope you too have the time to stop and read …

Kindergarten, Novices , and Players…

What a way to end our week! A wonderful presentation and an opportunity to make paper from old military uniforms…”combat paper” ! AND each child drew a picture of “community” on combat paper to place in a book that will be on display at Allegheny College this week. Thank you Alexis, Nathan, and Steve! (see front page for date/times of Opening Reception – ALL invited!)

The  season  of  autumn  is  bringing  out  the  best  in  Kindergarten.    The  students  have  made  beautiful  trees  with  paint  and  tissue  paper  this  week  just  in  time  for  the  letter  of  the  week-­‐  T.    These  along  with  our  stenciled  leaves  from  last  week,  our  letter  L  week,  are  truly  making  the  room  a  wonder!    In  math  we  have  continued  to  focus  on  sorting  and  “sorting  rules”.    We  have  found  all  kinds  of  things  to  sort.    But  we  finished  up  our  week  with  sorting  fall  leaves-­‐  curvy,  pointy,  smooth,  and  lots  of  colors.    Once  we  had  those  leaves  sorted  we  created  a  graph  to  display  our  data.    It’s  a  busy  fall  in  Kindergarten!    If  you  peek  into  the  Novice  classroom,  what  you  see  are  small  groups  of  children  -­‐  with  each  child  happy  and  hard  at  work.    All  three  reading  groups  have  practiced  strategies  used  by  good  readers  –  using  pictures  for  clues;  reading  through  the  whole  word;  and  asking  yourself  “does  that  make  sense”?    By  the  end  of  the  week,  every  child  was  able  to  take  a  book  home  to  read  to  family!    Pretty  proud!      Our  Literature  Circle  Group  started  to  read  Freckle  Juice  by  Judy  Bloom.  Six  readers  read  on  their  own,  read  together,  and  are  learning  to  have  rich  (and  lively!)  conversations  about  books.  In  math,  the  whole  group  was  all  about  apples!    We  measured  circumference;  weighed  in  grams;  used  the  balance  scale  to  compare;  made  a  Venn  diagram  of  favorite  apples  and  FINALLY  washed  them  and  made  yummy  applesauce  using  a  cool  apple  peeler!    The  whole  school  took  part  in  that  –  the  making  AND  the  eating!  Small  groups  in  math  worked  on  multiplication,  place  value,  and  math  fact  practice.    The  best  part  of  small  group  work  is  that  groups  come  together  at  end  of  workshop  and  each  shares  their  new  learning  with  the  whole  group  –  we  ALL  teach  and  learn!    What  an  awesome  week  for  the  Players!    A  few  Players  underwent  a  crash  course/refresher  on  how  to  multiply  using  big  numbers  while  the  rest  brainstormed  on  what  volume  was  and  how  it  compared  to  area.    The  depth  of  thought  and  hard  work  shown  by  both  groups  was  impressive  enough,  but  then  came  the  work  with  actual  volume!    Students  were  asked  to  figure  out  the  number  of  cubes  in  a  rectangular  prism  without  touching  any  of  them.    This  was  meant  as  a  challenge  to  their  understanding  of  area  and  more  advanced  multiplication...and  they  met  the  challenge  with  gusto!    The  Players  also  went  over  what  pronouns  were  and  how  they  were  used,  which  led  to  a  discussion  of  when  to  use  "me"  and  when  to  use  "I".    Ask  your  Player  to  explain  the  trick!    And  finally,  all  three  novel  groups  are  doing  awesome  work  in  Lit  Circles.    Notably,  one  group  finished  their  novel  this  week  and  has  been  hard  at  work  at  crafting  folk  tales  in  the  style  of  the  Iroquois  tale  told  in  our  book.    These  are  turning  out  way  cooler  than  Dan  had  hoped,  as  a  result  of  the  students'  enthusiasm  for  the  project.