Dear Lower Elementary West Families,
If you don't have time to read this entire email, please just make sure to read the section titled Important dates, reminders, and requests down below.
Congratulations!
To everyone on such an incredible first week. Erik and I feel so grateful to all of the children in this community. Already we have seen so many children ready to step up as leaders in their work and sharing peace and we have also observed so many instances of genuine kindness from the new first years. As a group we've talked about how each of us has a light inside of us and some days it can be bright or some days it can be quite dim. See if your child can tell you more about this. At any rate, our lights feel pretty bright right now and that means something, especially on a Friday afternoon:)
As a community, we've gone over the norms of the classroom and together we have created these beliefs:
1. Our classroom should look clean and beautiful with decorative art.
2. We should be kind and help one another.
3. We want a classroom that feels safe, comfortable, and peaceful.
4. During work time, we should use a 0 to 2 voice level (your child can tell you what that means).
5. We believe in our work and that we should allow each other to focus on our work.
6. We want peaceful and fun music.
This was from a lesson that our whole school has adopted from a program called Real Restitution by Diane Gossen. We'll write about how we incorporate this work into the community as the year progresses.
What we're working on
Many of the students came into the classroom already knowing what they wanted to study. For instance, the amazon, gems and stones, Nasa, big math work with the stamp game and test tube long division... and many of them got started right away.
In addition to this work the students got the following lessons:
First years are working on practical life, creating a globe, playing a globe tally game and some are even beginning some big research.
Second years have begun their in depth study of volcanoes. They have all started creating their mini volcanoes with the parts labeled. Next week the students will decide what they want to do this new knowledge... do they want to create a map where all the major volcanoes are around the world? Do they want to study a specific volcano? We'll find out next week.
Third years are diving into their space work and have experimented with the diameter of the planets in our solar system as well as creating their own scale model of the the planets' distance from the sun ( see the picture below). I've told the third years to bring in any resources they have about space as well. ow that their curiosity is turned on high, they'll begin to hear stories about space on the news, the radio, from friends, and we want them to bring that information with them to share with the group!
Important Dates, Reminders, and Requests
Lunch and Water Bottles: Please make sure that your child brings or has access to a healthy and filling lunch with as little sugar as possible. This helps the students feel energized and prepared to do their best work and play. Also, please be sure to send a water bottle with your child every day - it's even better if they can just leave it at school. That way, during recess and park days they will always have easy access to water. We don't always have easy access to a drinking fountain, so water bottles really help.
Calling all shoe boxes! We have some bigger projects coming up and we would really appreciate it if you could donate any shoe boxes that may be laying around the house.
Harvest Festival & Folk Dancing - Oct. 15 @ GRS: Every year the school hosts a harvest festival around this time, but now lower elementary has an extra treat to share with the school community. We have a new specialist teacher this year and her name is Robin. She has been teaching folk dance all over Minneapolis Public Schools and we feel so honored to have her with us. She will be teaching some folk dances that the students will get to perform at the Harvest Festival, so mark your calendars. It should be a blast!
Volunteering: If you are still interested in volunteering in the classroom, please click here and you can sign up for any empty slots :)
That concludes our first newsletter of the year! We will try and send you a newsletter each week around this time or over the weekend.
Enjoy your weekend!
In gratitude,
-- 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
