Hello LEW Families,

In light of recent news and changes, I'm sure many of you have questions about what next year may look like.  Please feel free to email me with any concerns or questions you may have and I hope to see many of you Thursday at 4:00. 

Museum Project Supplies Needed

We still need to end the year strong and the students are feeling motivated. We have the Museum Project coming up this Friday afternoon and the students have helped us create a list of supplies that they will need to build their exhibits. If you are able to donate any of the following items, the lower el students would really appreciate it: 

• Modeling clay (lots and lots)
• bag of sand
• cardboard (lots and lots)
• duct tape 
• tinfoil (probably one package will do)
• toothpicks
• salt and flour for saltdough
• white poster board
• popsicle sticks
• binder rings (the metal rings that clasp and unclasp)

Upcoming Events and Field Trips

Museum Project Day ~ Friday, May 29^th 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 ~ Tuesday, June 2nd 1:45-2:45

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 materials work.  The students love giving presentations to the families.

Parent appreciation ~ Monday, June 8^th 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.  There will be gifts and performances! Thank you for all of your love and support.

Como pool ~ Thursday, June 4^th

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.  We are still in need of chaperones, so if you are interested, please let me know. 

Paul and Tamarack in the Boundary Waters

Paul Brohaugh, a second year's father, is a DJ for KFAI on Thursday mornings. He shared this segment with me and we thought you would all enjoy hearing the sounds of the Boundary Waters. Tam is always on the look out for Big Foot... he has a LEW search crew at this point.   Take a listen!

https://beta.prx.org/stories/148719


That's all the news for now. Hope you're all having a fantastic, long weekend.

All the best,

Jessy

Hello All!

Quick announcement about Work Share Day

I mixed up the date! It will be held on June 2nd NOT June 5th 

Work Share Day ~ Tuesday, June 2nd  1:50-2:45

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.

Field Trips

We had an amazing time on our field trips thanks to all of our fantastic chaperones :)

Science Museum with the 3rd graders

Cornucopia Farms with the 1st and 2nd graders

Dear LEW Families,

What we're doing

First years have been learning about the parts of a river and creating models to demonstrate their knowledge.  We're also learning about the purpose of a preposition.  The students are having fun creating stories with all of the parts of speech we've learned.  We're also continuing our practice with the stamp game--addition with carrying and even long division for some.

Second years have a lot of big works lately that take multiple days... parts of a mollusk, bead bar multiplication... so it was fun to get outside last week and do a fun science lesson. The students had to identify and collect 4 different types of stems: woody, herbaceous, aerial and underground. Here's a picture of our little adventure:

Third years are finishing up their study of the Mississippi River. A good friend of mine got to come in on Thursday and share her knowledge of the river with us. She has biked the entire length of the river, so it was fun hearing her stories and seeing photos of her trip.  We'll also be learning more about the lifecycle and importance of river mussels before our field trip on Friday.  In math, third years are continuing their practice with the test tubes and are also learning how to do long division with recording.  Currently, we are reading Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork. It's about a young girl who travels to France to visit Monet's garden. The book has taught us interesting facts about French museums, botany, and impressionistic art. The students will have a chance to be artists once we're finished...  

Field Trips this Friday, May 15th!

First and second years will be going to the U of M to explore the agricultural campus.  Third years will be going to the Science Museum to check out the Mississippi River Gallery. 

Thank you to all of you that have volunteered to chaperone.  Here's a little time table for all of you:

U of M Trip

9:00 - meet in LEW

9:36 - take city bus to U of M

10:00 - U of M activities

11:30 - bus back to GRS

Science Museum

9:00 - meet in LEW

9:15 - bus to Science Museum

9:30 - Science Museum activities

11:45 - bus back to GRS

Touch Tank

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of having some students from the U of M come and talk to our class about invertebrates! We learned about marine biology, the importance of diversity in the ecosystem, food webs, and what we can do to help preserve marine life. It was great for the students to see some real-life examples of all of the invertebrates they've been learning about, especially all of the echinoderms! 

Here are some photos from the experience: 

 Courtney, Brittany, and Sam

 Horseshoe Crab

 Sea Urchin

 Echinoderm

It was a fantastic time and we hope to have them back again next year.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards,
Jessy