Third Grade Rocks and Minerals Exhibition
Friday, September 19, 2014
Land School Information Friday, September 26 - 7:45 AM
Hello families!
Hello families!
Below you will find information about the Land School trip next Friday, September 26.
Departure/Arrival Times
The Land School is about an hour and fifteen minutes away in Wisconsin, so in order to have a full day at the school we ask everyone to arrive at GRS at 7:45. We will be back at GRS by 4:30. The students will be missing the school bus that day, so they will need to be picked up. Sorry if this inconveniences any of you. These times just help us get as much out of our day at the Land School as possible.
Have your child bring:
- Packed lunch with small snack. (we will also be bringing additional snacks just in case)
- Closed-toe shoes that can get dirty
- Clothing that can get dirty
- Jacket
- Sunscreen applied before arrive at school
What we'll be doing:
Students will get the chance to harvest fruits and vegetables on the farm, go on hikes, draw nature sketches, play bird calling games, meet the animals on the land, climb up the treehouse, and much, much more.
Chaperones
If you are interested in chaperoning, please send me your contact information - i.e. a cell phone number that you can be reached at while we visit the Land School.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Happy Friday!
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Calling all rocks and minerals!
Third graders are doing an in depth study of rocks and minerals and we need more specimens and classification guides. If you're willing to share, our young scientists would truly appreciate it. Here are some puzzling questions to explore with your third grader:
- What's the difference between a rock and a mineral?
- What's the difference between a stone and a rock?
- What are some ways that we use different rocks and/or minerals?
Chaperones needed for Land School Trip 9/26
We're looking for 4 chaperones to join us on our trip to the Land School on September 26th. If you're interested, please email me a preferred cell phone # that you can be reached at during the field trip.
Third graders are doing an in depth study of rocks and minerals and we need more specimens and classification guides. If you're willing to share, our young scientists would truly appreciate it. Here are some puzzling questions to explore with your third grader:
- What's the difference between a rock and a mineral?
- What's the difference between a stone and a rock?
- What are some ways that we use different rocks and/or minerals?
Chaperones needed for Land School Trip 9/26
We're looking for 4 chaperones to join us on our trip to the Land School on September 26th. If you're interested, please email me a preferred cell phone # that you can be reached at during the field trip.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Happy Friday!
To start...
Peanut and Tree Nut Allergies
We have a new first grade child starting on Monday and she has a severe peanut and tree nut allergy. Thanks to many of you already for being mindful of allergies when packing your lunch. All of the students have met her and are aware of her allergies. We're going to be keeping peanuts and tree nuts out of our snack menu and if you could please help us keep the peanut/tree nut exposure to a minimum, we would really appreciate it. If you do send peanuts or tree nuts to school, could you please have a conversation with your child to help us raise awareness, we would appreciate that as well.
What we're working on
We ended the week with a Bang! We told the Montessori Great Lessons - The Story of the Universe and Pangaea. The students drew pictures of volcanoes, the solar system, created models of Pangaea "All the Earth" and Panthalassa "The largest ocean in the Earth's history," and we did a experiment with our model volcano after the students shared their knowledge about the parts of a volcano. All the students are practicing their cursive - some are just practicing letters, others are writing stories. First graders are sewing pillows with all of the world's continents as well as finishing up their study of living and nonliving things. They are also studying compound words and what the symbols: > < = mean in math. Second graders are finishing up their study of volcanoes and practicing multiplication with exchanges using the stamp game. Third graders are finishing up their decanomial work - a multiplication work that contains 10 squares... They are also studying the 6 roles of the adjective. So far, they already know that adjectives describe nouns (i.e. funny, happy, green, big) but adjectives can count, too (i.e. 3 pencils, many dogs, a few tables). See if your third grader can figure out other roles of the adjective...
Horton Park on Wednesdays
Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been on our side the past couple of Wednesdays, so we haven't been able to go on our weekly trip to Horton Park. This coming Wednesday looks beautiful, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Each Wednesday we walk with buddies for about 7 blocks to Horton Park on Hamline and Minnehaha. It's a nice, large, green space to play organized games like ultimate frisbee and soccer or to just run around and create your own game. It works best if the students have good running shoes and appropriate clothing on those days. Once we get the hang of the weekly schedule, I'm hoping that the students will remind themselves to dress appropriately on those days. We're looking forward to our first trip!
Big Thanks!
A big, BIG thanks to Michael Winikoff and Ursula Hargens for volunteering to purchase such delicious snacks for us this month. The children love preparing and serving the food together and they do both so well.
And many thanks to Jennifer and Jonathan Taylor for taking care of our laundry. We use those wash cloths a lot, so it's so nice to have them handy. Your son is getting pretty strong from carrying that big bag of wash cloths each week!
Thanks to all of you for sending your children to school ready to learn after a good night's sleep and for being so consistent and patient with us during drop off and pick up.
As always, feel free to contact me if you ever have any comments, questions, or concerns.
Fondly,
Jessy
To start...
Peanut and Tree Nut Allergies
We have a new first grade child starting on Monday and she has a severe peanut and tree nut allergy. Thanks to many of you already for being mindful of allergies when packing your lunch. All of the students have met her and are aware of her allergies. We're going to be keeping peanuts and tree nuts out of our snack menu and if you could please help us keep the peanut/tree nut exposure to a minimum, we would really appreciate it. If you do send peanuts or tree nuts to school, could you please have a conversation with your child to help us raise awareness, we would appreciate that as well.
Building a fort at recess:)
What we're working on
We ended the week with a Bang! We told the Montessori Great Lessons - The Story of the Universe and Pangaea. The students drew pictures of volcanoes, the solar system, created models of Pangaea "All the Earth" and Panthalassa "The largest ocean in the Earth's history," and we did a experiment with our model volcano after the students shared their knowledge about the parts of a volcano. All the students are practicing their cursive - some are just practicing letters, others are writing stories. First graders are sewing pillows with all of the world's continents as well as finishing up their study of living and nonliving things. They are also studying compound words and what the symbols: > < = mean in math. Second graders are finishing up their study of volcanoes and practicing multiplication with exchanges using the stamp game. Third graders are finishing up their decanomial work - a multiplication work that contains 10 squares... They are also studying the 6 roles of the adjective. So far, they already know that adjectives describe nouns (i.e. funny, happy, green, big) but adjectives can count, too (i.e. 3 pencils, many dogs, a few tables). See if your third grader can figure out other roles of the adjective...
Horton Park on Wednesdays
Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been on our side the past couple of Wednesdays, so we haven't been able to go on our weekly trip to Horton Park. This coming Wednesday looks beautiful, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Each Wednesday we walk with buddies for about 7 blocks to Horton Park on Hamline and Minnehaha. It's a nice, large, green space to play organized games like ultimate frisbee and soccer or to just run around and create your own game. It works best if the students have good running shoes and appropriate clothing on those days. Once we get the hang of the weekly schedule, I'm hoping that the students will remind themselves to dress appropriately on those days. We're looking forward to our first trip!
Big Thanks!
A big, BIG thanks to Michael Winikoff and Ursula Hargens for volunteering to purchase such delicious snacks for us this month. The children love preparing and serving the food together and they do both so well.
And many thanks to Jennifer and Jonathan Taylor for taking care of our laundry. We use those wash cloths a lot, so it's so nice to have them handy. Your son is getting pretty strong from carrying that big bag of wash cloths each week!
Thanks to all of you for sending your children to school ready to learn after a good night's sleep and for being so consistent and patient with us during drop off and pick up.
As always, feel free to contact me if you ever have any comments, questions, or concerns.
Fondly,
Jessy
Thursday, September 11, 2014
September 6, 2014
Hello dear families!
Hello dear families!
It has been a wonderful first week. We feel so fortunate to be in our second year together and we've already caught many of the students that were with us last year helping the newcomers find their way around the classroom, teaching each other works they've mastered, creating classroom laws (the students voted on that name), and taking on classroom jobs. It truly feels like a warm and welcoming classroom.
What we're working on
We started the year off with a lot of practical life lessons. Practical life is a part of the Montessori curriculum that allows the students to practice practical life skills such as coordination, control of movement (gross and fine), a sense of order and practicing independence. Some practical life activities include: sorting, sewing, cooking, cleaning, finger knitting, line activities, puzzles, and orientation games. If you'd like more information about practical life activities, please let me know. These practical life activities also set the tone for how to work in a Montessori classroom and guide us to be socially responsible for how our environment looks, feels and sounds like. In addition to the practical life activities, we're beginning our curriculum with a study and review of the continents of the world. Some students are creating maps, some are answering puzzling questions such as "Which oceans touch South America?" and some students are locating major mountains around the world. We're also getting back into the habit of practicing our math skills daily as well as our cursive handwriting.
Coming soon!
Elementary newsletter
This will be a weekly website reminder that includes a link to all of our classroom newsletters! That way, the school-wide news and our classroom news will all be in the same place. Also, you'll be able to see what other elementary classrooms are up to at GRS.
Land School Trip
Later this month, the lower elementary level will be taking our first Land School trip of the year. More information to follow.Here's a link to the Land School's blog if you're interested:
That's all for now. Please feel free to email me if you have any further questions, comments or concerns.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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