Weekly Update 5/31/16 - 6/3/16

The countdown is on! Only one more Monday left in the school year and not a day goes by without a little something "extra" going on around here. On Monday, we paired up with Third Grade for All Trinity Builds where teams were challenged to find a way to drop a plastic cup of water from the balcony of our classrooms to the courtyard without spilling the water. It was a treat for the teachers to watch creative, problem-solving minds set to work with the limited supplies of fabric, tinfoil, string, and plastic. Most every team attempted to create a parachute of sorts before realizing that the plastic wrap and extra padding was a better route. All Trinity Builds revolves around the Engineering Design Process, which includes a cycle of imagining, planning, creating, improving, and asking.

The other exciting piece of our week came Thursday morning, when we were able to celebrate the year with your families. Not only did everyone enjoy starting their day with donuts, but it was a joy to reflect upon the year, see pictures, read poetry, and be in community. If you'd like to view the slideshow again, please click HERE.

In the classroom, we are squeezing things in! In Writer's Workshop, your students have been working on their realistic fiction stories. This will be our final writing piece of the year and we will work on publishing next week. In Reader's, we end the year by enjoying our just-right books -- and we must say, what is now "just-right" for your children is far different than what we saw in August! Perhaps one of the biggest joys about this time of year is our chance to see all the growth that has happened, and these second graders have truly grown like beanstalks. In case you haven't heard, a new series has taken our class by storm -- Wrenly! Our Unit 8 Assessment from Investigations will be sent home this week and we ask that you please review, sign, and return it by Friday. This will be the last math assessment that comes home. We will begin a new unit on measurement, however will not take an assessment on the material. Aside from these core subjects, our days are filled with end of year activities and as much community time as possible. We love our classroom and we love your children -- we just have no idea where the year went!

Reminders for the upcoming week:

• Please return your the Student Math Handbook that went home at the beginning of the year. We hope this has been a helpful tool for you throughout the year and appreciate your cooperation as we collect these books for next year.
• Monday, June 6th -- 8th Grade Commencement. We will celebrate with 8th Grade next Monday and then gather on the field at our normal lunch time (12:00) for a picnic lunch. 
• Tuesday, June 7th -- Alumni Book Buddy Day! A few weeks ago, students wrote invitation letters to alumni, which we know were well received and we look forward to having a few graduates visit next week!
• Wednesday, June 8th -- Last day of school! Moving Up Chapel will be at 10:30 in the gym and dismissal will be at 11:30 following the service. We hope to see you there!

Weekly Update 5/9/16 - 5/13/16

We all know that May is a busy month and this May is certainly no exception! It is almost hard to know where to begin. The children would undoubtedly pick our recent Grandfriends Day where we were blessed to have so many visitors come and see all that we are doing in our classroom as a highlight. The children were so proud to show off their work and explain all of the different subjects we have been learning as they took their grandfriends on tour of our classroom.

The children would also say that the visit from Calef Brown, our beloved poet, was truly a highlight of these past two weeks. Mr. Brown came to our classroom and showed how he always starts writing a  poem by making a drawing. Once he has the drawing complete, he makes a list of things that come to mind as he looks at his whimsical drawings. Only then does he begin to look for words which rhyme, or nearly rhyme words that are on the list.
Mr. Brown also shared his belief that poems can be fun, but never at he expense of someones feelings. The children were fascinated to learn that he really didn't start writing poetry until he was grown. Mr. Brown started as an illustrator. His visit was inspiring and he left a treasure of his whimsical art which can be found on our classroom door. The children loved trying to use the "Calef Brown" method to create their own poems.

In writing, we have just finished our unit on poetry. Hopefully everyone received their Mother's Day poems this weekend. We will share more of their published poems during our end of the year celebration. We will be creating realistic fiction in our last writing unit. In reading, we have just completed our unit on series book clubs. We celebrated our work by having each book club present what they liked and, in some cases didn't like, about their series. This was a great exercise to get them ready for the work they will do in book clubs next year.

In math we finished up our study of fractions and the End-of-Unit assessments will go home this week. We are now exploring new addition and subtraction concepts as we work to manipulate odd and even numbers.

In science we have learned about the three states of matter and how they change. A highlight was a visit to the middle school science lab where Margaret Rudisill let them examine what happens when you melt an ice cube. The children loved discovering what happens when you mix dry ice into liquid or what happens when you put an object such as a coin on dry ice. Later, we planted various green beans which we are watching grow rapidly on the light cart outside of our classroom.

Finally, in social studies we are studying about how ordinary citizens can make a difference. We will soon share with the children that the persuasive letters they wrote about the rainforest did make a difference as they listen to letters we got back from International Paper and Robertson Lumber. We will end our social studies unit with an exploration of how leaders get elected. Given our election cycle, this material is timely. It was so gratifying to hear the children explain to their grandfriends how they have been tracking the Republican and Democratic nomination process. Ask your child to explain what we have done!

Last but not least, we welcome Mary Kate back from her mission trip to Kenya where she was doing important work at the Renguti School. She was able to Skype with the class which was very exciting. She also wrote letters that we read every day so we knew exactly what she doing. The children loved hearing from her and they are all excited to hear all about her trip!

Reminders for the Upcoming Weeks:

• Discovery Place visit TOMORROW, May 10th, for a lesson on matter. We will have time after the lesson to explore the museum.
• End of Year Celebration! Thursday, May 26th from 8:00 - 9:00. Please meet us outside the classroom for a poetry share, much like the Coral Reef Museum, where we will celebrate the good work of our poets! We will then make our way to the dining hall for a breakfast and slideshow of the many exciting things we've done this year!

Lastly, please use THIS LINK to see an update from Senora Guerrero!