LEW Newsletter 2-26-2016

Good Day, LEW Families,

This month...

We had a fantastic time at the Soiree last weekend and we enjoyed seeing many of you there. Thanks so much for all of your donations to make our homeless shelter basket. We had enough to make 2 whole baskets! This proved to be a great contribution to GRS and the Dorothy Day Homeless Shelter. Thanks again! 

This month has also been jam-packed with birthday celebrations. We make sure to celebrate the half birthday of the children whose birthdays happen in the summer, which meant that February held 10 birthdays to celebrate! Thank you to all of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come in and share stories and pictures of your child with us. We learned so much and it's wonderful to see a child that we are all so familiar with through their family's eyes. Thanks again for helping us carry out this birthday tradition :)

What we're working on

We finally had a full, 5-day week! This month has felt a little disorienting, so it was to get back into a regular routine. Here's what our week looked like:

First years discovered and proved how to classify triangles by sides. They are continuing their work with long multiplication and division with the stamp game. In language, first years are learning the basics of writing complete sentences as well as continuing to use their writing skills in story-writing and their research. In geography, the students are doing a USA study of recreating the map of the U.S., learning the names of some or all of the states, and even recreating some state flags. 

In geometry, second years are learning the names of curved figures such as quadrilobes, ellipses, and curvilinear triangles.  They are also continuing their work with multiplication and division, using the stamp game.  In language, the second years are learning about antonyms and adding the finishing touches to their Amazon research and study of Spiritual Fundamental Needs.  Second years are also learning more about the Amazon and our responsibility to preserve it.  To put a cap on our Amazon study, we are looking to go to the Rainforest Exhibit at Como Zoo on March 10th or 11th. If you would be interested in helping us chaperone this special going out with the second graders, please let us know (2 chaperones should be plenty). 

Third years are reviewing terms and concepts they've learned in geometry up to this point - i.e. names of polygons, types of lines, and types of angles.  Third years are also learning how to analyze multiplication and some are even at the point where they can do long division abstractly.  In language, the third years are exploring the world of homophones and many of them are "publishing" their creative stories.  We're also coming to the point where the students are finishing up their Study of a Nation project. The last phase of the project is to choose an area of interest based on the study of a nation - ask your child where their interests took them. 

Important Dates to Remember

March 16: Half Day - Dismissal at 12:30

March 17-18: Parent & Teacher Conferences

Volunteer Opportunities

Bring flowers to our community

We are looking for volunteers to bring in flowers to our classroom. This was the first year the LEW has done this and our community has grown to appreciate the beauty that fresh flowers bring :)

If you decide to volunteer, you are agreeing to bring in flowers once a week or once every two weeks for the month you sign up for.  We need volunteers for March, April, and May. Please let us know if you are interested.

All the best to all of you on this sunny weekend!

--

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 2-13-2016

Good day, LEW Families,

Hope all of you get to enjoy the long weekend along with your children. The GRS faculty had a incredible and meaningful retreat together this past Thursday and Friday. We truly value the time that we can all spend together as a group and we appreciate the time that our administration sets aside to allow us to do so. 

What we're working on

It was a short week, but we still got plenty done!

First years have officially been introduced to all of the vertebrates and their external characteristics. They got to observe and study Bella, the school rabbit, for their study of mammals. First years also got to use the stamp game for their introduction into long multiplication.

Second years are studying the fascinating invertebrate called the nematode. They are also using the stamp game to complete long division problems.  In addition to this work, the second years are continuing to build murals and displays of the Amazon Rainforest. The students look at each layer (the forest floor, the understory, the canopy, and the emergent layer) and tell us what types of animal and plant life we would find. There is a chance that the second years will get the chance to check out the rainforest exhibit at Como Zoo to culminate this study - stay tuned!

Third years are continuing their Study of a Nation work and will be doing so for the next few weeks. It's a large project, but it hasn't stopped some of them from creating their own maps based on their interests. For example, one student wanted to document natural disasters that have happened around the U.S.A.  Another idea was to write down which NBA teams are located in each state. See what your child might be interested in exploring in our nation.  Third years are also practicing their long multiplication skills with the checkerboard and the golden bead frame while simultaneously mastering x facts. We've gone from skip counting by 2s all the way to the 6s at this point, see if you can practice, play, and master them together :)

On Wednesday we had a wonderful trip to Dodge Nature Center. The children were engaged in learning and fascinated by the reptiles and amphibians. Mick, the animal expert, was incredible about captivating the students in stories about the so-called "creepy creatures" and encouraged the students to not be scared of them.  We also had the chance to explore outside and check for animal signs such as prints, scat, fur, etc. Although many tracks and pieces of evidence were accidentally trampled over by eager and inexperienced feet, we still enjoyed the outside time on the beautiful land surrounding Dodge. We ended with kick sledding - very fun. Check the photos below. 

Reminders 

 We apologize in advance for having two large items due on our first day back from the long holiday.

Celebrating Valentine's Day on Tuesday, February 16t

- Please do not send candy or sweets with your child!  It's a sweet holiday, but we strictly limit sugared food in the classroom.  Please honor this.

-Please do not label your child's valentines with the names of the other children.  It becomes extremely complicated to pass out valentines by name.  Valentines should be unaddressed, with no names.  We have 30 children in the community

-Participation is not mandatory by any means.  Feel free to opt out if you wish.

Donations for Soiree Homeless Shelter basket due Tuesday, February 16th. Hope you all can make it to the Soiree on February 20th!

Donation ideas:

- soap

- shampoos/conditioners 

- socks

- hair brushes

- toothbrushes

- toothpaste

- floss

- wash clothes

- deodorant

- great clips or target gift card

- diapers

- baby powder

Enjoy the remainder of your long weekend. We wish you all well. Don't forget to check out the photos from Dodge :)

Warm wishes,

--

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    

Please Read: Information about Field Trip to Dodge Tomorrow

Hello Parents of Lower Elementary West,

This is just a friendly reminder that we will be going on an all-day field trip to Dodge Nature Center tomorrow.  Due to the cold weather, it is imperative that your children be dressed in layers and cold weather gear.  

We will be eating our lunches at Dodge (lunch boxes are fine).  Please keep in mind that we will not have access to silverware or to a microwave.  If your child normally orders lunch from school, we will bring it for them.

We are looking forward to a great day of learning about Reptiles and Amphibians, Kicksledding and Animal Tracks and Signs.  

Thanks, as always, for your support!

Fondly,

Erik and Jessy

Correction: Donations Request for GRS Soiree

Sorry, Everyone, 

Quick correction and suggestion...

The PEG committee would actually like all donations in by Tuesday, February 16th.

Someone also had the clever idea of adding diapers and/or baby formula to the list of acceptable donations. Great idea, Jennifer!

Thanks in advance.

Jessy

On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 6:41 PM, Jessy Fabel <jfabel@greatriverschool.org> wrote:

Hello LEW families,

We have a request from the Parent Engagement Group to create a basket for the upcoming Soiree on February 20th. This is Great River's biggest fundraiser of the year and it's a blast. Basically, there are a number of items up for auction and the elementary classrooms usually contribute by making their own basket. Last year, we created baskets that would later be donated to a homeless shelter. This was a great way to donate funds to Great River while also buying items for those less fortunate. This basket was also popular for families that wanted to contribute, but were not necessarily wanting to buy anything for themselves. Last year, families contributed the following types of items:

- soap

- shampoos/conditioners 

- socks

- hair brushes

- toothbrushes

- toothpaste

- floss

- wash clothes

- deodorant

- great clips or target gift card

Basically any type of toiletry item would be acceptable.

If we could please have your donations by February 17th, that would put us in good shape. Thanks so much for your contributions!

All the best from the both of us.

Jessy and Erik

--

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    

--

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    

Donations Request for GRS Soiree

Hello LEW families,

We have a request from the Parent Engagement Group to create a basket for the upcoming Soiree on February 20th. This is Great River's biggest fundraiser of the year and it's a blast. Basically, there are a number of items up for auction and the elementary classrooms usually contribute by making their own basket. Last year, we created baskets that would later be donated to a homeless shelter. This was a great way to donate funds to Great River while also buying items for those less fortunate. This basket was also popular for families that wanted to contribute, but were not necessarily wanting to buy anything for themselves. Last year, families contributed the following types of items:

- soap

- shampoos/conditioners 

- socks

- hair brushes

- toothbrushes

- toothpaste

- floss

- wash clothes

- deodorant

- great clips or target gift card

Basically any type of toiletry item would be acceptable.

If we could please have your donations by February 17th, that would put us in good shape. Thanks so much for your contributions!

All the best from the both of us.

Jessy and Erik

--

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 1-31-2016

Happy almost February!

 

I had the pleasure of a having a short respite from technology up in the beautiful north woods of Minnesota for the past two days and it was wonderful. Hope all of you get a chance to get some downtime this weekend as well. 

We enjoyed another great week - a 5 day week which will be somewhat few and far between in this coming month.  Coming up this month we have one more week of movement before we switch to our weaving & felting specialist for this next "quarter." We will also get to look forward to guest speakers and a couple of field trips! Check the dates below.  

 

What we've been working on

This week, Erik and I told impressionistic and historical stories about the beginnings of written language.  I told the story of "The Paper that Sees and Speaks" and Erik told the "History of Written Language." These stories are apart of the Great Lessons that Montessori found students to be incredibly drawn and inspired by. This might be a fun topic for discussion at home if you have time.  

All of us have been continuing our work with phonics and spelling as well as daily math practice, but in addition...

First years have been having fun classifying things like animals, habitats, star wars characters... and producing an incredible amount of writing! They have also learned about the three ways in which to classify triangles by sides - equilateral, isosceles, and scalene - see if they can remember what these words mean. They are also practicing more with clocks and they have begun creating dioramas and biome boxes based on the temperate forest of North America.

Second years have learned the meanings behind the names of polygons such as triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons...all the way to decagons.  They are continuing to work with art of language and understanding how to use affixes. Second years are also learning about the meanings of the colors and symbols  on flags, specifically flags in North America.

In geometry, third years are learning to find the perimeter of more advanced shapes. Some are even creating blue prints for a pool that they will then need to find the distance around.  We are also beginning a huge project called "Study of a Nation" or S.O.A.N for short.  We learned that a nation isn't just a random country on a map - a nation is made up physical features like rivers, mountains, canyons. A nation has railway, highway systems and airports. Our nation is made of up 50 states each with their own name, capital, state flag, state bird, and state flower. By the end of this work, each of the students will have a collection of maps that demonstrate how dynamic our nation is.  We ended the week by celebrating 5 ancient civilizations that the students chose. There were Native American plays, medieval outfits, Roman "wine" and artichokes, viking goddesses and traditional oat cakes - it was a blast! Check the photos.  

 

Upcoming Events

 

February 8^th – Guest speaker, Thomas Fabel, will be coming in to do an Abraham Lincoln impersonation and discussion with the students

 

February 10^th – Field trip to Dodge Nature Center to explore animal tracks outdoors and to learn more about reptiles and amphibians.

 

February 11^th, 12^th, & 15^th – No School – All Faculty Retreat and President's Day

 

February 26^th – Field trip to the Ordway for a dance performance

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend!

All the best from us both,

Jessy & Erik

No School Monday, February 1st

Hello LEW families,

Monday is a grading day for all faculty as progress reports will be coming out soon.

This was surprising news to me and Erik, so we had a feeling it might be a surprise to you as well. 

Let us know if you have any questions.

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