Happy Spring Break!

IRACE

Wednesday, April 8th. 

I-Race is a day where our entire school community gathers and discusses topics around race. Elementary will be teaming up with adolescents to do a peace activity and the whole elementary community will share lunch time together, eating different foods inspired my our families' cultures.  Please read the flyer below:

Bring Food For IRACE Summit 2015! IRACE is a day where students can talk about race. Bring a dish that is important to your family that relates to your cultural background. The Summit is on April 8th. Bring a dish that is important to your family or your culture!

Last year was a major success. The students had an amazing time connecting with one another, the food was delicious, and the parent volunteers were an integral reason why it all ran so smoothly.

We need your help!

We would love your support again this year. If you have the time and you are able, cook a meal together as a family to share for this special event. If you also have the time to volunteer to help set up, serve, and clean up, we would greatly appreciate your support. We would most likely need help from around 10:30-1:30.

 Please contact me if you're interested in volunteering.  

  

What we finished up this week...

We all had the chance to do a little science experiment with mummification this week since so many students were fascinated by Ancient Egypt during our African unit.  We mummified apples by using sodium and sodium bicarbonate (salt & baking soda). This mixture is called Natron and it is the same mixture that bodies were buried in to be preserved in Ancient Egypt.  We learned that it was believed that the dead would need their bodies in the afterlife, so they needed to be kept in tact.  All organs except for the heart were taken out before the bodies were placed in the natron mixture, so the students wanted to leave in apple seeds to represent the heart.  We wrote down how to do the experiment, the supplies we needed, and came up with a hypothesis about what we thought would happen to the control apple and the natron apple. We already saw a drastic difference between the two just after 5 days. Ask your child what they observed.  

First years have completed their study of the five vertebrates, ending with an exciting experience with one of our favorite school mammals--Bella the bunny.  We had the chance to observe Bella all week, take care of her and study her characteristics.  We also finished creating and studying the parts of a mountain. We still practicing addition with the stamp game and the bead frame, as well as learning how to do multiplication using the golden mat--a precursor to the long multiplication problems they will do with the checkerboard.  

Second years have finished up their study of their physical maps of Africa and their salt dough maps looked fantastic. Some students may need to put some finishing touches on their maps like painting the mountains, rivers, deserts and forests and labeling all of the landforms and water forms.  We also did a study of Ancient Egypt and learned about the importance of the Nile River and learned more about the geography of the region.  We reviewed how to do all of the operations using the stamp game and we also polished up our search for 10 addition facts.  

Third years also brought home their salt dough maps of Africa and may just have a couple of parts to add to the finished product.  We also spent some time studying  Nelson Mandela and his influence on South Africa.  Fortunately, one of our third graders is from South Africa and has been sharing his knowledge and experience of the country with all of us.  We've also studied the next animal in our animal classification study--the arthropod. Ask your third grader what the evolutionary game changer was for the arthropod.  Third graders have also been practicing rounding to the nearest 10, 100, and 1000 as well as utilizing input and output tables. 

Third Grade MCA Reading Test - April 9th & 10th 

Third graders will be taking the MCA reading test on the Thursday and Friday after Spring Break.  We've been practicing reading stories and answering comprehension questions about the text all throughout the year and I've enjoyed the discussions we've had and the progress they've made.  Just like any day your child comes to school, we just ask that they come well-rested and nourished ready to learn and participate.  

Big Thanks!

A huge thanks to all of you for buying supplies from our wish list posted at conferences.  Students are excited to use the playground equipment some of you brought and the adults are thankful for the extra office supplies.  We are all very grateful to all of you for your support.  

Please let me know if you would be interested in volunteering at our IRACE event on Wednesday, April 8th and I hope you all have a fantastic spring break!

In appreciation,

Jessy

Hello Families!

Three short pieces of news:

1. Early Release on Wednesday @ 12:00

Please keep in mind that we have a half day on Wednesday and no school on Thursday and Friday for conferences.

2. Water Bottles and warmer weather

With temperatures rising, it's nice to have reusable water bottles handy for recess and walks to the park.  Please consider sending your child with a water bottle labeled with their name. Snow boots will be going home this week.  

3. Classroom Deep Clean: We are still in need of adult volunteers to assist in our next classroom deep clean on Tuesday, March 17th from 5-7pm. These events help keep our learning environment sanitary, beautiful and orderly.  Many hands make light work!  Please RSVP to Jennifer Nelson if you can attend.

All the best,

Jessy

Dear LEW families,

What we're working on... short and sweet

First years are finishing up their external parts of birds, reading about King Tut and practicing addition facts along with the bead frame.  

Second years are finishing up their work with annelids, their salt dough maps of Arica and practicing multiplication facts.

Third years are continuing their work with invertebrate classification. Their salt dough maps of Africa will start this week and they are working on a project called "Fraction Masters" to help them practice and become more familiar with fractions in different forms.  

Huge Thanks to Jennifer Nelson for supporting the class while I was away.

I hope you all know just how fortunate we are to have such a warm, caring and unconditionally helpful person in our community.  With my voice gone Wednesday through Friday, Jennifer took on my lessons and helped our community run safely and efficiently.  My substitutes and support staff were just delighted to work with her--she truly did a magnificent job.  I feel so fortunate and grateful to be working along side her.  

I have a feeling many of us are still under the weather, so make sure to get some rest, eat well, wash your hands frequently and get better!

Volunteer Opportunities

1. Classroom Deep Clean: We are in need of adult volunteers to assist in our next classroom deep clean on Tuesday, March 17th from 5-7pm. These events help keep our learning environment sanitary, beautiful and orderly.  Many hands make light work!  Please RSVP to Jennifer Nelson if you can attend.

2. Visitors to share their experiences with Africa! Come in and do some mini lessons with the students or share with the whole class - stories, artifacts, and experiences you had in Africa. 

Stay healthy everyone and enjoy the warmer weather!

Warmly,
Jessy

P.S. Remember - Movie night is this Friday on the West Campus... Check the GRS website for updates. 

Dearest Lower Elementary West,

What we're working on...

We've ended our study with Asia and it was fantastic to see all of the hard work that came from it. We're now studying Africa! It was wonderful to have visitors to come in and talk about their firsthand experience during our Asia unit, so if you're interested in coming in to present about your African adventures, please contact me. The students love having visitors come in and it really helps the work come alive!

First years are creating Africa maps, practicing math with the bead frame (a kind of abacus), and learning about the external characteristics of birds. Spelling focused on -ock words and they'll also be explore African folk tales this week. 

Second years are identifying the physical features of Africa and will be creating physical maps out of salt dough. The students remember this work from last year and are eager to have a turn to create their own this time.  Second years are also wrapping up their work with the timeline of life and are currently focusing on the next invertebrate - the Annelid.  They are also practicing long division with the stamp game and spelling focused on -st words. 

Third years are also identifying the physical features of Africa and will be creating physical maps out of salt dough.  The third years have caught on to the different aspects of what they can study when we begin our work on another continent, so many are already independently researching African animals and countries.  These students are also doing scientific animal classification work.  We learned the classification system: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species and also the fun way to help us remember: King, Philip, Came,  Over, For, Good, Soup.  We're beginning our study with the most simple invertebrates--porifera, cnidaria, and annelids--and learning about their "Evolutionary Game Changers." See if your child remembers the evolutionary game changer for each invertebrate and ask them about the comic books they're creating to go with this work.  Third years are also doing perimeter practice and answering word problems surrounding perimeter, like "The perimeter of a pool is 150 meters.  If the length is double the width, what are the length and width of this pool?" Spelling focused on o/au words last week.   

Snack Time Grace & Courtesy

As a whole group, we are going to be focusing more on grace and courtesy revolved around snack. It is a freedom and a responsibility to have snack time and we're going to discuss and discover as a whole group what changes we need to make so that snack time is used properly.  

If your child likes to bring an extra snack, they are more than welcome to, but we want to avoid from students eating the majority of their lunch during snack time. If you could prepare lunch with your child and specify what the extra snack is, that would help us reinforce snack expectations.  Thanks in advance for your support.  Snack time is especially important to us since we don't eat lunch until 1:00, so we want to make sure it is done right.  

Volunteer Opportunities 

Lower Elementary West is in need of a few volunteers for the remainder of the school year.  If you are able to fulfill any of these requests, please contact Jennifer Nelson at jennifer.nelson@greatriverschool.org

1. Classroom Deep Clean:

We are in need of adult volunteers to assist in our next classroom deep clean on Tuesday, March 17th from 5-7pm. These events help keep our learning environment sanitary, beautiful and orderly.  Many hands make light work!  Please RSVP to Jennifer Nelson if you can attend.

2. March Laundry:

Our classroom is in need of someone to wash our classroom linens for the month of March.  Laundry is sent home once a week on Thursdays.  Clean linens can be returned the next day or the following Monday.

3. Snack Shoppers for April and May/June:

We are in need of two families to shop and deliver our snack ingredients for the months of April and May/June.  Grocery lists are provided to your family the Thursday before each upcoming week.  Ingredients can be purchased over the weekend and delivered on the Monday of each week.  You can choose to be reimbursed for part, all or none of these purchases. Please be aware that the gift of your time is fully appreciated, so do not hesitate to ask for reimbursement if needed!  

Big Thanks

To all of our current volunteers for your ongoing support in the classroom. Your help does not go unnoticed :) 

To Jennifer Taylor and Susan Sochacki for helping our beginning readers. 

To Laura Whitley for helping with our laundry.

To Mary and Dave Green for helping with snack purchase this month. 

And to Heather Thomas for helping with Thursday Folders and working with students on their projects.  

That's all for now! Keep an eye out for the next GRS Movie Night scheduled for Friday, March 13th.  

Warm regards,

Jessy