Fwd: Greetings LEW Families!

Greetings all LEW families!

Erik and I were so grateful to have the chance to meet with so many of you last night.  We're looking forward to getting to know all of you better as the year progresses.  

We just wanted to take moment to send all of you message to say, "Welcome!" and that we are so excited to work with all of you and your wonderful children this year.  

I've attached a copy of the Orientation Letter which has information about our day-to-day operations in LEW.  Also, here is a link to volunteer opportunities this year:

LEW Volunteer Opportunities 2015-2016

We have a lot of volunteers already which is wonderful! The only immediate volunteer we need is for someone to take care of our weekly laundry (washcloths mostly) for the month of September. If you've signed up to volunteer, I will connect with you when it's about to be your turn.  

If you have any questions or would just like to check in, don't hesitate to contact me and Erik.  I will mostly answer questions regarding logistics and Erik will most likely answer other questions regarding life in the classroom. Also, if you know of someone else in your family that would like to receive communication from LEW, please let me know.  

Here's to a wonderful year!

All the best,

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary West 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    

--

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    

Fwd: LEW Newsletter 9-12-2015

Hello LEW families on this beautiful Saturday evening, 

Erik and I had an incredible first week with your children. Let me share some of the highlights (apologies in advance for the length. Every week won't be this long). 

 

To welcome the new members of the community, we had students last year buddy up and show the newcomers around the school, walk together to the park, and help to answer any questions about how things work at Great River. For instance, we observed one of the third year students show 5 second years how to create their own world map after their world study lesson. It was also heartwarming to see some of the second years befriend the new students and share their favorite works or favorite games at recess.  As we transition into this new year, we noticed another third year (who has been in LEW for three years) console some students that were feeling anxious or scared about the new year.  We discussed all through the week the importance of community and how this is our classroom. We each have our own light that we bring to the community each day - it may be bright or it may be dim - but when we all come together, are flame is so much brighter.  

What we're working on...

All of the students have been getting accustomed to practical life works such as napkin folding, knot tying, solving puzzles, pin punching, finger knitting, and much, much more.

 

First years have  started working on the beautiful Montessori material known as the bead chains. The bead chains help the students see exactly what skip counting by 2s,3s,4s...all the way up to the 10s looks like.  They are also beginning their world study and experimenting if the earth contains more water or land with a globe tally experiment.

Second years have begun their world study by recreating maps of the world and labeling the continents and oceans. They will also be creating compass roses and answering questions like: Which continent is the furthest south? Which continents touch the Atlantic ocean? 

Third years have begun their solar system study. We had a blast examining scale models of the size of each of the planets (Did you know that you could fit around 11 Earths across Jupiter's diameter?). We also got to go outside and experiment with how far each planet would be from the Sun if 1 meter represented 93,000,000 miles (the Earth's distance from the Sun). They are also working on researching and/or creating plays about the Cosmic History of the Universe. Nobody knows exactly what happened when the universe began, but these students decided that they'd like to act out the Big Bang and we're so excited to see what they come up with.  

Restitution

This year our school as a whole is adopting restitution, a method created by a school teacher named Diane Gossen, as a way to instill the importance of community and self-discipline.  

For example, this past week we discussed how everyone has specific needs. We all have the need to survive, to have a sense of belonging, to feel power, to have fun, and to be free. When our needs our fulfilled we feel happy and content - our light is bright! I attached a picture of the chart we created during this discussion. The children came up with profound ways to meet their needs.

We also discussed what we believe our ideal classroom would look like, sound like, and feel like.  I also attached a picture of that chart to this email. Be sure to take a look!

Next week, the restitution topics we will cover include:

- An outline of what is our job (the guides) and your job (the students)

- Creating a social contract based on our needs and beliefs

- Outlining bottom-line behaviors and how students can come back to the community restored.  

The discussion and work we've done in just 4 days has already been fruitful.  We can see how having common beliefs and language are essential to developing a strong community. If you're interested in learning more about restitution, click the link below:

http://www.realrestitution.com/

Big Thanks!

To all of you that signed up to volunteer. It means so much to us to have your support. 

Thank you Joanna Chao for bringing in our snack this week. The students love learning how to prepare snack and use the snack area. Great practical life skills happening here :)

Volunteer Opportunities

If you are still interested in volunteering. There are still a few spots available. Check the link below.

LEW Volunteer Opportunities 15-16

Coming Soon...

A class blog! That's how we will primarily communicate the news from the week. 

That's all for now!

In gratitude,

Jessy & Erik

End of the year glimpses...

Como Pool

 Serious... and silly

Burying the Time Capsule

 Paradise Falls Resort

Parent Appreciation Day

Talent Show 

 Dancing with Miles

 Riddling with Wyatt and Finn

 "Moonshadow" with Soren

 Dino Stomp with Jeremy

 Tumbling with Violet, Isabel & Syrie

 Jumping with Hayden and Evelyn

 Running with Mymy

Alto Saxing with Calvin

Have a great Summer!

MUSEUM PROJECT 

2015

 Medusa

Snow Cone & Food Truck Exhibit

 Armor Exhibit

 Armor Exhibit

 Snow Cone & Food Truck Exhibit

Mount Olympus!

 Mythical Creatures!

Mount Olympus

Hello LEW Families,

In light of recent news and changes, I'm sure many of you have questions about what next year may look like.  Please feel free to email me with any concerns or questions you may have and I hope to see many of you Thursday at 4:00. 

Museum Project Supplies Needed

We still need to end the year strong and the students are feeling motivated. We have the Museum Project coming up this Friday afternoon and the students have helped us create a list of supplies that they will need to build their exhibits. If you are able to donate any of the following items, the lower el students would really appreciate it: 

• Modeling clay (lots and lots)
• bag of sand
• cardboard (lots and lots)
• duct tape 
• tinfoil (probably one package will do)
• toothpicks
• salt and flour for saltdough
• white poster board
• popsicle sticks
• binder rings (the metal rings that clasp and unclasp)

Upcoming Events and Field Trips

Museum Project Day ~ Friday, May 29^th 1:45-2:55

This is a day when all of the lower elementary combines and shares their projects and exhibits with families. It’s a fantastic experience for both classrooms since teachers and students get the chance to work in each other’s classrooms and learn and build their exhibits together.  You won’t want to miss this event!

Work Share Day ~ Tuesday, June 2nd 1:45-2:45

Come in and work with the some of our favorite classroom materials with your child.  It’s a great way to see how the Montessori materials work.  The students love giving presentations to the families.

Parent appreciation ~ Monday, June 8^th 1:30-3:00

It’s time to celebrate you! Please come and experience an event completely organized by the students to show their appreciation to you.  There will be gifts and performances! Thank you for all of your love and support.

Como pool ~ Thursday, June 4^th

We had a fantastic time at the pool last year. The entire GRS elementary had the whole pool to ourselves.  It was a great way to end the year.  We are still in need of chaperones, so if you are interested, please let me know. 

Paul and Tamarack in the Boundary Waters

Paul Brohaugh, a second year's father, is a DJ for KFAI on Thursday mornings. He shared this segment with me and we thought you would all enjoy hearing the sounds of the Boundary Waters. Tam is always on the look out for Big Foot... he has a LEW search crew at this point.   Take a listen!

https://beta.prx.org/stories/148719


That's all the news for now. Hope you're all having a fantastic, long weekend.

All the best,

Jessy

Hello All!

Quick announcement about Work Share Day

I mixed up the date! It will be held on June 2nd NOT June 5th 

Work Share Day ~ Tuesday, June 2nd  1:50-2:45

Come in and work with the some of our favorite classroom materials with your child.  It’s a great way to see how the Montessori material works.  The students love giving presentations to the families.

Field Trips

We had an amazing time on our field trips thanks to all of our fantastic chaperones :)

Science Museum with the 3rd graders

Cornucopia Farms with the 1st and 2nd graders

Dear LEW Families,

What we're doing

First years have been learning about the parts of a river and creating models to demonstrate their knowledge.  We're also learning about the purpose of a preposition.  The students are having fun creating stories with all of the parts of speech we've learned.  We're also continuing our practice with the stamp game--addition with carrying and even long division for some.

Second years have a lot of big works lately that take multiple days... parts of a mollusk, bead bar multiplication... so it was fun to get outside last week and do a fun science lesson. The students had to identify and collect 4 different types of stems: woody, herbaceous, aerial and underground. Here's a picture of our little adventure:

Third years are finishing up their study of the Mississippi River. A good friend of mine got to come in on Thursday and share her knowledge of the river with us. She has biked the entire length of the river, so it was fun hearing her stories and seeing photos of her trip.  We'll also be learning more about the lifecycle and importance of river mussels before our field trip on Friday.  In math, third years are continuing their practice with the test tubes and are also learning how to do long division with recording.  Currently, we are reading Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork. It's about a young girl who travels to France to visit Monet's garden. The book has taught us interesting facts about French museums, botany, and impressionistic art. The students will have a chance to be artists once we're finished...  

Field Trips this Friday, May 15th!

First and second years will be going to the U of M to explore the agricultural campus.  Third years will be going to the Science Museum to check out the Mississippi River Gallery. 

Thank you to all of you that have volunteered to chaperone.  Here's a little time table for all of you:

U of M Trip

9:00 - meet in LEW

9:36 - take city bus to U of M

10:00 - U of M activities

11:30 - bus back to GRS

Science Museum

9:00 - meet in LEW

9:15 - bus to Science Museum

9:30 - Science Museum activities

11:45 - bus back to GRS

Touch Tank

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of having some students from the U of M come and talk to our class about invertebrates! We learned about marine biology, the importance of diversity in the ecosystem, food webs, and what we can do to help preserve marine life. It was great for the students to see some real-life examples of all of the invertebrates they've been learning about, especially all of the echinoderms! 

Here are some photos from the experience: 

 Courtney, Brittany, and Sam

 Horseshoe Crab

 Sea Urchin

 Echinoderm

It was a fantastic time and we hope to have them back again next year.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards,
Jessy