I hope everyone can get some rest this weekend after the eventful week we just had.  On Tuesday, author Margret Read MacDonald read some of her stories to the elementary and even got to talk to the students about her experiences editing and publishing her works.  On Thursday, we had school pictures and it was really nice seeing some of the students dressed up and looking nice.  Highlights from lessons this week were Ms. Mary teaching about solar heat and energy that comes from the sun and Mr. Ben introducing students to some of the different parts of cells that make up all living things.

A very special thanks to Ms. Linda (Claire’s Grandmother) for making Pumpkin Muffins and some fun Spooky Treats made out of different fruits on Friday.  Also of Friday, the students were feeling very festive and made pumpkin and bat decorations for Morado.  This helped make our tradition of Spooky Lunch look really great.  During Spooky Lunch students get to sit all together in a circle and eat lunch with the lights off.  Then they get to hear some slightly spooky and fun stories sitting around a campfire playing on a tablet.

The final part of our Friday, the students got to watch and participate in the Vocabulary Parade.  Students really enjoyed designing, building, and showing off their costumes on a runway.  There are photos of the event on this weeks’ Bloomz post.  Sorry for the low quality, there were higher-quality photos taken, also.  

Believe it or not October is over tomorrow and we are preparing for another eventful and fun month.  Here are some important dates to remember in November:

• Friday, November 6th – Field Trip to Seattle Art Museum – Students will need a disposable lunch, jacket, and walking shoes.
• Wednesday, November 11th – School Closed for Veteran’s Day
• Friday, November 13th – Kindergarten & Elementary Family Night – This is a big event for the Elementary classes, so save the date.  There will be more information coming soon.

It was great to see so many Elementary families yesterday at the Harvest Fest which turn out to be a grand one on a beautiful day.

This Week in Morado, children were getting math lessons and finishing up on the follow-ups from weekly lessons.  Every student is practicing math at least 20 mins a day. They are also exploring other areas of curriculum by reading literature books and having discussions with their groups.  We will be moving away from Great Lessons and learn more in-depth with science experiments, observations, language lessons and geometry.

On Thursday, children did an Earthquake Drill at 10:15 am.  This was both school-wide and state-wide in order to prepare the children for natural disasters.

Finally, the teachers got together and prepared the school for Harvest Fest, and Elementary students were seen during recess playing on the hay bales and building a maze.
  
A few things to note:

1st graders will be joining the K 's for nature club on Thursdays and Fridays.

Our first sharing for the year is on this Friday; please remind your child to bring something that's 
meaningful for them and fits in the backpack.

Picture Day for Morado is on October 29th; both individual and classroom pictures will be taken. No costumes.

Our first field trip to Seattle Art museum is on November 6th.  We need volunteers to drive children; so please sign-up on Bloomz.  It will be a lot of fun.

Have a good day,
Ben, Mary, & Khavitha

​ We want to start this blog post with incredible thanks for the overwhelming parent support this week.  It is very important and gives us a really great feeling to have so many of you interested in your child’s learning and I hope this week has given you all a greater understanding of what your child does at MCH.  Also, thanks to everyone coming on Friday for Goal-Setting Conferences.  A lot of great things were said and show and asked

This past week, students got to experience the 4th Great Lesson.  This lesson talks about the early humans and how language has been developed and changed to what we use today.  Students enjoyed hearing about different ancient cultures and how they used written words to help communicate to each other.  They also got learn more about the evolution of different symbols that influenced the creation of the English alphabet.

Students chose new Literature Circle books and have a new group of people to read together and talk about the book.  They have been really excited to read as much as they can and discovering more about what they just read.  There has also been an increase in students choosing either new or challenging math lessons from teachers.  They have weekly lessons that help with memorization fact practice and place value, where they get to use different materials to deal with larger numbers.

Highlights from this were students having fun with words and adding different suffixes to make the word change to have a different meaning and an art lesson where students learned about negative space.

This month, we will be starting a sign-up for parents to observe in the classroom.  We feel it is feel it is very important to understand the flow of the classroom and great to see and get to know what your child experiences at school.  Observations will be available during work time for 30 minutes.  More information will come soon.