IRACE tomorrow

Hello families,

Tomorrow, all of the students will be joining in activities and discussions regarding IRACE (Identity, Race Awareness, Community Education). As Erik mentioned, our lower elementary students will be discussing the difference between equality and equity - what fairness really looks like for each individual.  If you have time, you can share the information below with your child to better prepare them for tomorrow. It will be a different kind of day with activities run by adolescents, sharing a beautiful potluck lunch with the upper elementary students (provided by all of you wonderful families), and ending the day at the park (weather permitting).  Just another friendly reminder to send your child with a dish and silverware to help reduce waste. If you are bringing food for the potluck, please bring your dish upstairs to the upper elementary commons. Thank you in advance.

Here's more information about tomorrow in case you're interested. I got this from the GRS website:

Identity, Race Awareness, Community Education

Great River School's iRACE day - a student-planned social justice event

The iRACE summit is an important school event, taking place on March 30th, in which we explore the process of opening productive dialogues about race and racism and educating our students about important racial issues in our community, country and the world.  We want to encourage you to encourage your child to not only attend but to make the most of this unique opportunity.  We would also like to encourage you to reflect with your student after iRACE on the evening of March 30th.  

We also need a few additional things from our community:

• We need as many students and families as possible to bring dishes for our potluck lunch. Be sure to label ingredients for students and staff with allergies. Bring food straight to the kitchen!
• In order to reduce our waste from that day, we are asking each student to bring a mess kit to eat off of.
• We also are still in need of parent volunteers for either lunch or the whole day— Click here to sign up!!! if you have questions about signing up, please contact Adam Koehler (adam.r.koehler@gmail.com)
• We are also looking for families to donate rice cookers just for the day. (contact Adam adam.r.koehler@gmail.com)

Thanks!

The iRACE Planning Team

All the best and thanks again for your support!

--

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    

Work Share Tomorrow 1:30-3:00

Hello LEW Families,

Just a friendly reminder that our lower elementary work share will take place tomorrow from 1:30 to 3:00. It will be styled kind of like an open house where you can come any time between 1:30 and about 2:45.  As soon as your child has finished sharing their works with you, then you may all leave together. Just have your child shake my hand before you leave.  

Looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow. The children are excited as well:)

Best,

--

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    

LEW Newsletter 3-11-2016

Dear Lower Elementary West Families,

We're enjoying the beautiful weather and the Gaga pit that the adolescents made for us to use at recess.  We've had the chance to have more time outside and the second years got to have an comfortable walk to the Como Conservatory to check out the rainforest exhibit. We had a blast and ended our study of the rainforest on a high note. Some of the second graders didn't get the chance to finish their scavenger hunt, so we sent it home just in case you get the chance to visit the conservatory together. I've attached some pictures and the scavenger hunt to this email just in case anyone else would like to give it a try. Big thanks to Courtney and Joanna for making the trek out with us.  These "going-outs" are a large part of the students experience at GRS and they are highly encouraged. Going out into the real world forces the work to come to life for the students.  All the students will get many opportunities to organize and plan special interest trips based on their studies.  

What we're working on

First years: Stamp game subtraction or division with four-digit numbers; an in depth USA study where the students learned about state birds, flowers, flags and other animals you might find in states across the U.S.; an absorption experiment to find which paper towel is the "Quicker, Picker, Upper"

Second years: Erik showed the students how dissect and identify the parts of a flower (Thank you Mary and Mike for the lilies!) ; division with double-digit divisors; math fact work in + and - (watch out for flashcards coming home - practicing math facts and playing math fact games at home really helps the students out); trip to the rainforest exhibit at Como Conservatory - students either wrote and drew what they observed or did a scavenger hunt.

Third years: Have practiced examples of MCA reading - they will be taking the reading portion of the assessment next Tuesday and Wednesday; Checkerboard multiplication with double-digit multipliers; Surface Tension and the chemical structure of H2O that allows this to happen!; In depth research of a particular element of our nation - ask your child what they plan to do.

Upcoming Dates

1. Early Release at 12:00 - Wednesday, March 16th

- We will still each lunch

- BUSSERS will be picked up at 12:30

2. Parent/Teacher Conferences - Thursday, March 17th & Friday, March 18th

- In lower elementary, the conference should just be with teachers and parents. Students should not attend unless families have been specifically told otherwise.

- Students can read or do an activity in the hallway. 

- Click here to sign up for your conference: http://grsannouncements.blogspot.com/2016/03/spring-conferences-march-17th-18th-sign.html

- Click here to sign up for the pot luck to help feed the teachers during conferences (Thank you in advance :) http://grsannouncements.blogspot.com/2016/03/conferences-food-needed-for-teachers.html

3. Work Share Day - Wednesday, March 23rd at approximately 12:30 

- Families come in and allow their children to demonstrate some of the works they have learned this year. Hope you can make it!

Enjoy your weekends, everyone :)

Best,

--

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