Our Como Adventure

Up close with the polar bears!

Shhhhh wolves nearby

Purrrrty adorable

Lunch Challenge! We had one day where we only had 1.25 lbs of waste :)

Making enrichment for the emperor tamarins and spider monkeys!

We met Kelly the zoo keeper!

We built trees!

Enrichment for the polar bears!

Tundra olympics!

We built houses for the rainforest and the tundra!

A couple of puckered out como kids...

See the mustaches on the box?

Chloe the sloth

Schroeder says!

How long can you keep your hands in ice water without blubber.

In the sprit of our Asia study...

Vaishalee, a mother of one of our first years, came to give lessons on India! We witnessed, the beautiful, traditional, Indian dance called Bharata Natyam. We practiced Himalayan Yoga and we learned about what life is like in India.

We are so grateful for the experience you've shared with us, Vaishalee!  

Bharata Natyam

Himalayan Yoga

She put us in a trance!

GRS parents meet up for dinner before Soiree on February 21st.

Click on the link below to sign up:

https://docs.google.com/a/greatriverschool.org/forms/d/1TP_JsVhkPRQXlEM37iJnSab-Lxd6qL4dXZ15vewolP4/viewform

LEW Families,

With so many events coming up, I'm going to try and keep this as concise as possible.

News on Como Residency - February 2-6

Lunches

We will be eating lunch at Como each day, so please make sure to send a water bottle and a nice, hearty lunch to keep your child energized for the day.  If you're signed up for GRS lunch and would like your child to have GRS lunch each day, please let us know and we'll make sure to bring them with us. 

Volunteering

Thanks to those that have already volunteered to join us for our Como adventure! If there are more of you that are interested in joining us, we're looking for extra help on Monday, February 2nd from 11:00-2:30 and all day on Friday, February 6th from 8:30-2:30.  

Donations

Part of our experience at Como will be to create enrichment activities for the animals.  Como is always looking for empty gallon water jugs, wicker baskets, plastic coffee cans, kitty litter jugs/pails, basket balls to help make practical life activities for the animals. If you're interested in donating enrichment materials, you can send items with your child or you can take items straight to the Como conservatory.  

Preparing students for Como

I've been doing mini-lessons with students on how to observe, so some students haven't heard about Como quite yet. We'll be talking about it more as a group this week, but I encourage you to have discussions with your child about what they might see and experience. So excited!

2015 GRS Soiree - February 21, 2015 

A letter from the lovely Lydia McAnerny ... 

Greetings,

The 2015 GRS Soiree (Great River’s biggest fund raising event) is only a month away on February 21, 2015.  I hope you are planning to come.  Today, the Lower Elementary classrooms explored an innovative plan for a donation to the silent auction.  Instead of collecting items that would go into a basket someone would take home, the Lower Elementary students have decided on a combination community service project that goes hand in hand with raising money for GRS.

The LE classrooms understand community service as a value of GRS.  Their project will be to collect items for a homeless shelter that will go into a basket (or several).  The basket (s) will be part of the silent auction.    The highest bidder will see their monetary donation go to GRS and the contents of the basket go to a homeless shelter run by People Serving People.  

When someone arrives at a homeless shelter, they often carry nothing with them.  In the classroom we talked about what kids need before getting ready for bed at night and what they need when they get up in the morning to go to school. Items like socks, underwear, toothpaste, shampoo etc.  are all items that are possible donations.  Please see the list below for ideas.  Then, have a thoughtful discussion about what you and your child think is a good donation. Please make sure your items are in the classroom by February 11^th so students can make up the basket or baskets by t2/13 so they are ready by 2/21. 

Toiletries Wish List developed by People Serving People

Have a discussion with your child about the best item from the  list below or come up with your own ideas. 

NEW UNOPENED ITEMS ONLY

- Full or Travel sizes welcome

- African American hair gel

- Baby oil

-Baby wash

-Body wash

-Dental floss

-Deodorant for women and men

-Hair conditioner

-Shampoo

-Moisturizing body lotion

-Razors & shaving ream

-Soap

-Toothbrushes & toothpaste

-Hair ties

-Hair brush and/or combs

Other ideas you have are also welcome!

Please have your donations to the classroom by 2/11/15.

Thanks for your involvement and support,

Lydia McAnerney

Project Manager

That's all for now. If you have any questions about how to prepare for Como or what items to donate for the Soiree, please let me know.

Have a fantastic weekend!

All the best,

Jessy

Greetings & Happy MLK Jr. Day!

What we're up to...

First years have finished up their study of amphibians and all of the differences and similarities they have with fish. They are also practicing addition facts and using the snake game (ask your child about this game - it's a fun material). They are also studying basic land forms and water forms, defining them and identifying different forms on a map.  Florida is a popular peninsula! They've finished up creating their own Asia maps and now they're working on labeling all of the countries. Quite the task.

Spelling words: ship, hip, lip, dip, trip, flip, drip, skip, chip

Second years have been working hard on finishing their Clock of Eras. Some are learning to use the checkerboard to learn long multiplication for the first time and all of them are using their geometry skills to categorize triangles by sides (equilateral, isosceles, scalene) and angles (acute, obtuse, right). Ask your child how many angles have to be acute for a triangle to be called an acute-angled triangle or if it's possible to build an obtuse-angled, equilateral triangle. See if they can rebuild all seven triangles that we built at the lesson! They are also using grid drawing to recreate a huge map of asia. They're learning to take a map and draw it square by square to recreate a map 3 times larger. Very fun.

Spelling words: Pond, end, land, lend, send, bend, wind, sand, band, mend

Third years have gone head first into studying the history behind the Great Wall of China. They had some amazing questions and made some fascinating discoveries.  See if they can share some facts about the Great Wall's complicated and scary history.  They have been practicing the commutative property and the multiplication facts and they're joining the second graders in creating the large Asia map.  

Spelling words: /s/ spelling - ce & cy

cereal, fence, bounce, concert, peace, bicycle, mercy, bouncy, fancy, spicy

Breaking News! Como Residency Program February 2-6 - 9:00-2:30

All of the students are also practicing how to observe using all 5 of their senses. They are observing classrooms, other students playing at recess and lessons.  They're honing in on their scientific observation skills so that they can get the most of of this amazing opportunity that LEW gets to experience at Como Conservatory for a whole week! Check the brochure below for more information. I'll be sending these brochures home next Thursday.

Volunteer opportunity

 It would be wonderful to have a couple of parent volunteers each day of the week to help the students during activities and to break out into smaller groups. Let know if you'd like to join us on this adventure!

Big Thanks

To Heather Thomas, Susan Sochacki, Michael Winikoff, Jessica Coburn and Jennifer Taylor for their continued support and help during the day to day in our classroom. The work you're doing is truly meaningful to our community.  

To Rebeccah Berry for practicing math facts with the students!

To the Shay family for doing our laundry.

To the Martinez family for our delicious snacks and rolling so many yarn balls. 

To all of you for your help and if you donated any supplies to the class.

We are eternally grateful for all of the support and care that all of you give LEW. 

That's all for now.

All the best,

Jessy