Good afternoon to all!
Gratitude
As I took a stroll around Lake Calhoun this morning, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to all of you and your children. I told the students the other day that I absolutely love coming to my job and working with them each day. With Erik being away and with all of us missing him dearly, it's heartening to see the students stepping up and helping out in any way that they can - like greeting each other at the door, or showing someone how to do a lesson that they missed, or problem solving together at the peace table with little to no guidance at all. I'm not going to say that it has been easy - this kind of work is never easy - but it's obvious that the students believe in this community and they enjoy working with one another.
On Monday, Erik's wife, Monica, will be coming to the class to talk to the students a little bit about appendicitis and to answer any questions they might have. We're grateful that Monica has offered to do this for us :)
What we're working on
This week's lessons were really fun. We are all studying the water cycle and we've created our own water cycle experiments. See if they can tell you what we did.
First years are studying the months of the year and the history behind the name of each month. They are also practicing subtraction with borrowing and researching amphibians.
Second years are practicing fraction addition and beginning their study of invertebrates - yay porifera!. They have also been introduced to the Fundamental Needs of People lesson - we will be seeing some big work come out of this.
Third years are practicing multiplication facts and long multiplication. They are also getting really good at using protractors. They need to prove that when you add up all of the angles in a triangle, it adds up to... ask them :) We have also begun our study of the Timeline of Humans. They have been asking for this work for a while now, so they have already made a lot of progress, making their own timelines, studying the origins of the first tools, the first fire, the first shelters, the first burial... This work will take us all the way to winter break.
Upcoming Events
LEW Book Drive - December 1-18
Have loads of books gathering dust? Are they books that are appropriate for young students between Kindergarten and third grade? We would love to have them for our book drive! This will be the second year that we will be gathering books to donate to the MN Literacy Council. The Council will donate the books to families that cannot afford to purchase all the books their children crave. If you would like to learn more about this organization, click on the link below:
Clara's Dream - December 18
We have a field trip to see the St. Paul Ballet once more on December 18th. This time the SPB will be performing Clara's Dream just in time for the holidays and the student will get a behind the scenes look at the costumes, set up, and stage. Thank you to the families that already offered to chaperone :)
Enjoy this unseasonably warm weather and the rest of your weekend.
Peace,
-- Jessy Eaton Fabel
Lower Elementary Guide"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori
