Dear Lower Elementary West Families,
GRS Occupational Therapist, Christine Spray, doing mindfulness activities. She'll be coming in every Friday to work with small groups of students. We're all really enjoying her presence already :)
What we’re doing in the classroom
First years have started gardening in and outside of the
classroom. Courtney Tchida, a mother of our first year students, has come in to
share her expertise of gardening and agriculture with the students and we feel
so fortunate. Students have also
continued practicing using materials like the stamp game and the golden mat to
practice addition and multiplication. On
Friday, first years learned about a research material that they can use to
study animals. They’ll answer questions like: What does your animal eat? How do
they move? How do they protect themselves? It’s a simple material that helps
the students learn how to do more in depth research of animals.
Second years are continuing their work with bead bar
multiplication and taking that knowledge to the checkerboard work we’ll be
exploring. They are also creating
beautiful posters, books and cards based on the parts of the mollusk. The mollusk was the first animal to have a shell
made of calcium. Yay for the building blocks of the bones in vertebrates! With
everything coming to life outside, the second years will also get the chance to
explore and identify different types of flowers as well as get the chance to
get their hands dirty in the garden.
Third years have finished up their work with the study of a
nation and their collections of maps are quite the feat! We’ll be exploring a
very important water form that they identified in the U.S. Don’t want to give
too much away, but we’re hoping to study this water form and then hopefully
take the third years on a trip to the science museum to study this water form
with the experts. I’ll keep you posted if we can make this happen. We’ll
definitely need some chaperones. Third
years have also been fine-tuning their long division skills with the test
tubes, getting closer and closer to learning how to divide abstractly.
Important dates to mark on your calendar
Spring Festival ~ Saturday, May 2nd 4:00
Come and celebrate Spring with us at GRS. There will be games, activities, food, and sunshine!
Museum Project Day ~ Friday, May 29th 1:45-2:55
Come and celebrate Spring with us at GRS. There will be games, activities, food, and sunshine!
Museum Project Day ~ Friday, May 29th 1:45-2:55
This is a day when all of the lower elementary combines and
shares their projects and exhibits with families. It’s a fantastic experience
for both classrooms since teachers and students get the chance to work in each
other’s classrooms and learn and build their exhibits together. You won’t want to miss this event!
Work Share Day ~ Friday, June 5th 1:30-3:00
Come in and work with the some of our favorite classroom
materials with your child. It’s a great
way to see how the Montessori material works.
The students love giving presentations to the families.
Parent appreciation ~ Monday, June 8th 1:30-3:00
It’s time to celebrate you! Please come and experience an
event completely organized by the students to show their appreciation to you.
Thank you for all of your love and support.
Upcoming Field Trips
Como pool ~ Thursday, June 4th
We had a fantastic time at the pool last year. The entire
GRS elementary had the whole pool to ourselves.
It was a great way to end the year.
If you are interested in chaperoning, please let me know.
U of M Agricultural Fields ~ Date TBD/mid-May
We’re hoping to send the first and second graders to check
out the agricultural department at the U of M.
Courtney Tchida works in this department, so we’re hoping we can take
advantage of her connections and go and visit sometime in mid-May. Will need
chaperones.
Science Museum ~ Date TBD/mid-May
Third years will get the
chance to explore a specific exhibit in the museum. Will need chaperones.
