March 3, 2017

Hi Folks,

This week we focused a lot on migration.  We started by looking at how animals and people move throughout their lives.  We brought a personal dimension to it by writing poems about home or moving.  Friday, we talked about how slavery brought an entire group of people to this country against their will, but they became free. They brought their old traditions here and started some new ones so that our country changed too. Next week, we will tell about Jacob Lawrence's desire to tell the story of the Great Migration in paintings.

Students finished their group projects on simple machines, migration, and amphibians.  They got to present their research to the class at the end of the week. Other highlights this week were lessons on the stem of a plant and learning about prepositions where students went under, on, and over a bridge.  

In our peace circles this week, we talked about ways to communicate our thoughts and feelings.  We talked about the importance of eye contact and how it feels when you communicate non-verbally with different faces.  We also talked about how tone of voice and body posture also effect people communication.

This week, students had their first weekly gardening time with Ms. Katherine.  We will continue gardening Tuesday and Friday afternoons.  We also had a very successful Hop-A-Thon on Friday.  Students from both elementary classes teamed up to count each other's hops and the all the 2nd-years helped the younger classrooms count their hops.

This week, please remember that we will not be having school on Thursday and Friday.

Have a good weekend,

Ben, Mary, & Ali