Field Day Tomorrow! Please have your child bring the following...

Hello families!

Tomorrow, the adolescents are hosting a field day for all of elementary. They will be grouped up with students in the other elementary classes to play some fun outdoor games. It should be a blast!

We will be walking to McMurray Field for this fun event, so it would be wonderful if your child could bring the following:

- Water bottle 

- Running shoes that can also get wet

- Clothes that can wet and a little dirty (cotton takes a long time to dry, so clothing made of polyester would work well)

- Sunscreen. Please let us know if it is not okay to apply sunscreen to your child, if necessary. 

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Should be fun!

Warm regards,

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 5-18-2017

Hello LEW Families!

As the count down for summer break begins, it's easy to indulge in outdoor lunch and daydreams about como pool... But we're still trucking on and big work is happening! Important dates and reminders listed below....

This week's lessons:

First Years:

- Time Masters

- 4 Operations (+ - x / ) Challenge with the stamp game

- Writing their first draft for the Museum Project

- Vertebrate Review in anticipation of their trip to the zoo next week :)

Second Years:

- Constructive Triangles (turning stars into polygons - ask them how many sides a dodecagon has )

- Parts of a Flower

- Abstract + and -

- Writing and completing the first drafter for the Museum Project

Third Years:

- Hierarchical Material - ask them this riddle - 1. I am red 2. I am a square based prism 3. You need 10 ten thousands to make me. Who am I? (answer: 100,000)

- Test Tube long division

- Sentence Analysis work 

- Finishing and editing their first draft of the Museum Project.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS :)

SATURDAY, MAY 20: SPRING FESTIVAL

There will be games, prizes and a dunk tank to welcome spring! The whole school is invited.

SATURDAY, MAY 29TH: MEMORIAL DAY - NO SCHOOL

THURSDAY, JUNE 1: FIELD DAY

This event will be lead by our Adolescent students and is for the kids only.  However, they will be spending extended time outside on this day, send children with sunscreen, tennis shoes and a hat if needed.

FRIDAY, JUNE 2: THE MUSEUM PROJECT - 1:30-3:00

We invite you to come and enjoy a museum experience, designed and created by your children.  This is an open house event and we hope to see you there.  More details to come as the time approaches. This event is scheduled the same day as the Upper Elementary work share for your convenience.     

TUESDAY, JUNE 6: PARENT APPRECIATION DAY at 1:30-3:00

We will host you for an event that is all about You, and how wonderful you are to and for all of us.  Come and let us shower you with gifts!  Let us show you our talents in the LEW 2017 Talent Show!  The classroom opens at 1:30, and the talent show begins at 2:15.  (For parents of child in both  lower el classrooms: LEE will start their parent appreciation day celebrations at 1:00 and their talent show will begin at 1:30.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7: COMO POOL

Thanks to all those who signed up to help!

FRIDAY, JUNE 9: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL: HALF DAY - dismissal @ 12:00

After an official goodbye to the third years, and a final all-school ceremony, the year will be over. It's almost here!

 REMINDERS

 

1. Picnic Lunch. As we move through the end of the year, with this lovely weather, we often like to be spontaneous and head outside for lunch.  You can help make this a convenient choice for all by helping your child pack a lunch that does not need to be heated.  Please keep this in mind when it works for your family.  Thanks!

2. Thursday Folders.

 Please remember return your children's Thursday folders each week.

SUMMER HELP NEEDED

1. Gex, our Beloved Bearded Dragon, needs a home for the summer. We appreciate all those families who have helped in the past and look forward to sending them off for a great adventure with a family this summer.  He is quite easy to care for, and this a great opportunity to commit to a temporary pet if your family is not ready for a pet of your own.  Please email Jessy if you are interested in taking in Gex for the entire summer or if you're interested in taking in Gex for a portion of the summer.

2. We're Moving! Would you like to help us pack? We will need to be all packed up by June 14th. If you're interested and enjoy heavy lifting, we would love the extra help.  

3. Volunteer Sign up for September 2017 (can you believe it?!).  We are already looking ahead to September and looking for volunteers to do laundry, snack and flowers. If you're interested please type your name on the "September 2017" slots here. 

4. Replenishing our Library. If you happen to have any books appropriate for first-third graders, we are looking to replenish our library. Nonfiction books about animals, science, history, geography are wonderful are always in high demand.  Poetry, picture books, and easy readers are also great to have on hand.  This can be something that you can donate to us by June 14th, so we can pack it up or we can coordinate at the end of August when we're starting to work on our environments.  

Wishing you all so well. Apologies for the long-winded newsletter. We're enjoying these last weeks with your children and are looking forward to all of the celebrating!

--

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    

Snack and dress warmly up for the park tomorrow

Hello LEW families,

The LEW is currently still looking for a snack volunteer for the month of May and the first week of June. If you're interested in volunteer, please let me know or sign up here.

Also, weather permitting, we will still go to the park tomorrow and it looks like the next couple of days might be cold and soggy, so if you could help make your kiddos are dressed appropriately, we would greatly appreciate it.

Warm regards,

--

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 4/21/2017

Hello LEW Families!

This week has been filled with concentration, determination, spring fever, hours of play time outside, dodging the rain, and poetry!  Erik and I found ourselves holding back more and letting the children go deep into their work. Having a sustained and uninterrupted work is one of the hallmarks of a Montessori classroom, but at the beginning the children need lots of assistance to get to that kind of concentration.  It gave us a sense of joy to see the children naturally going to the big cultural work, huge math problems, poetry (so much poetry!), and science projects with little to no guidance from the guides.  This is a sign of a classroom that is maturing and strengthening its culture.  

This Week's Lessons...

First Years:

- Triangle Math - relationship between + and - 

- River Study

- Poetry - line and shape

- Seed to Plant

Second Years:

- Multiplication Board

- Continued work with the Timeline of Life

- Poetry - line and shape

- Parts of a Stem

Third Years:

- Mississippi River Interest Project - the students are creating displays about animals, plants, invasive species and some are creating broadcasts! Our work will end with a trip to the Mississippi River Exhibit at the Science Museum on Friday, April 28th. 

- Dictionary Booklets

- Mabel Marble (Ask them what they had to construct for this)

- All third years have completed their MCAs! Hooray.

Announcements and Reminders

1. Parent Partnership and Homework

Lower Elementary is going to start sending games and activities in your child's Thursday Folders in order to practice math facts and spelling (for some).  Some of the ideas are as simple as using a deck of playing cards to practice addition facts.  We have noticed that the children are truly beginning to understand the concept of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but learning the quick facts for these operations is incredibly helpful as they learn more and more complex concepts.  They do math fact work and spelling work in class, but the added (and hopefully fun) practice that you do at home will help enhance this learning and help the students get them down solidly.  We were thinking that this would something that you could do together around 3 times per week.  No need to turn anything back to us.  If you have any questions about this change, please feel free to contact us.  

2. School Lunch

If your child needs school lunch for May and June, please make sure to contact Natalie Yaeger at nyaeger@greatriverschool.org.  The school is trying to get an accurate record of who needs lunch as a result of ending up with a lot of extra, uneaten lunches.

3. Gardening on Mondays 

We'll be choosing a small group of students each week to go to lessons for about 30 minutes on Mondays in our community garden.  They will be guided by two experts - Tami Limberg (Adolescent Science Guide) and Cate Williams (Upper Elementary Guide) - on how to care for and maintain the garden. We've let them know to bring clothes that they don't mind getting a little dirty, but please keep this in mind of Monday mornings :)

That's all for now. Have a joyous 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 4-7-2017

Hello LEW Families!

Hope you are all going to get the chance to bask in the sunshine this weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed our outside time and have every started our Yoga specialist (which happens on Tuesdays) outside with mats on the playground.  Our art specialist, Jenny Kordosky, will be doing specialist with us on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.  Glad to hear some of you got the chance to go some the children's artwork at Can Can Wonderland!

Work from this week...

Some specific Big Work that's happening includes various timelines, including the Timeline of Life through the history of the Earth and the Timeline of Plant Evolution and the Coming of Life to Land.  I told the story of how life has developed since the Earth came to be.  (This is one of Montessori's "Great Lessons," that aims to add fuel to the fire of a child's interest.  It seemed to successfully echo a few of the lessons of the week.)  There has also been some activity around used and broken electric objects, which have been meticulously dissected and examined.

First Years:

- Knowledge of Animals (classification work)

- Money Equivalence (different the ways to make 10 cents, 25 cents, etc. See if you can practice this with them!)

- Ecology webs

- Parts of a River

- Addition Math Facts

Second Years:

- Stamp Game Division

- Fraction Addition

- Timeline of Life (Huge work!)

- South America Political Map Study

- Subtraction Math Facts

Third Years:

- The Story of Plants coming to Land

- Final Algebra Work, using equality through subtraction

- Writing Dialogue

- Mississippi River Study (A fun study that ends with a trip to the Mississippi River Exhibit at the Science Museum!)

- MCA Math practice - the children will take that last MCA Math test on Wednesday, April 12th. 

- Also there's an enormous checkerboard multiplication problem occurring right now ---- pictures to follow :) 

Friendly Reminder

Water Bottles - With the weather warming up, it's especially important to send a water bottle with your child if you haven't already.  

Have a wonderful 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 Announcements. Welcome back!

Hello LEW Parents!

Spring has sprung and we are all back in the swing of things. Hope you all had a chance to relax and rejuvenate last week.  Here are a couple of time-sensitive announcements...

1. Volunteers are needed for...

- May Snack

- April Flowers 

- Food for Gex in April and May

If you're interested, please sign up here.

2. An invitation to see elementary artwork at Can-Can Wonderland from Jenny Kordosky, our art specialist.

What - A low-key reception at Can-Can Wonderland for the GRS community, students with art in the show will get a little treat and a Can-Can button for participation, some chose a different piece to share, so there will be a sweet mix of projects along with UE's homage to the Guerrilla Girls and LE's homage to women-identified artists. (FYI: not all elementary students wanted to have their art in the show but all GRS students are welcome to attend the reception, and all elementary students will get a button.) This show will be up for a full month, displayed on a floating wall near the mural that A2 student, Olivia Reinhart painted, so if folks can't make it on Thursday they'll have other opportunities to check out the show!

When - Thursday, April 6th from 6-7:30pm

Where - 755 Prior Ave N, St Paul, MN 55104, in the large hallway just to the side of the main entrance.

Hope some of you can make it!

Warm regards and welcome back!

--

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    

Care for Gex over spring break :)

Hello Families,

We are looking for any family that would be willing to care for Gex, our beloved bearded dragon, over spring break.  If you are interested, please let me know.

Warm regards,

--

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