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New and Now

10/31/2017

We had such a fun time at HarvestFest on Saturday and we were glad to see so many familiar faces. We saw a lot of really great costumes and happy smiling faces. Here are the highlights from the past week and upcoming news:

Last Monday we introduced the new Invading Forces project for History. Students chose an invading force to research this week and do some pre-writing on their histories. Students chose groups like the Vikings, the Celts, the Goths, and several other groups. A bulk of the work last week involved researching and reflecting on the lives of these cultures. Students have been researching a page worth of notes on each of the following topics for their culture: Art, Religion & Death, Daily Life, Leaders, Dress & Ornament, Tools & Technology, Warfare, and a general "Others" page. Students are recording their notes using what's called a "Double Duty" log. They are writing their facts and notes on the left-hand side while they reflect about their own thoughts and opinions about the fact on the right hand side. Students will finish up their Pre-Writing Research early next week and will move into their draft writing portion.
During Informal Writing we talked about fact-based vs opinion-based writing. We discussed how much of the written history of many civilizations was written by the Romans which led to questioning whether certain writings had a bias of their opinion put in them. This was to lead into our History Project writing proponent.
In Geometry, 4th Years worked on Equivalence with Hexagons and a few others worked on either Area of a Triangle or Area of a Rectangle.
For one group, Ms. Nicole taught a grammar lesson on compound predicates while others worked on Common and Proper noun work.
The 6th Years will be presenting the first chunk of their Island Projects tomorrow to the class. They have been working everyday with each other to help finish their Nearest Neighbor reports and their basic Island Information for the presentation.
Program Director tea with Ms. Nicole is happening Wednesday morning from 9:30-10:30 AM. Here is the description of the event: Elementary Coffee Talk with Ms. Nicole: Can You Hear Me Now? November 1, 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. at La Casa

Communicating with children can be hard! It’s important to lay a solid foundation throughout the Elementary years in order to be an in-touch, supportive, responsive parent who is raising a responsible, confident, healthy child. Join Ms. Nicole, Elementary Program Director in a lively discussion about how to have real, authentic conversations with your child.

Including a lot of discussion about how to:
- Start a conversation
- Really hear what your child’s saying
- Ensure that your communication builds trust
- Give your child hard news
- Learn what your child is thinking about
- Find out what your child is worried about
- Share your honest opinions
- Help your child build a sense of your family history
- Give your child constructive feedback and coaching in way that helps them make good decisions
- Much more
Please bring your questions, challenges and suggestions. We’ll provide hand-outs and other suggested resources, refreshments and coffee.

We hope you have a nice week and enjoy the sun. Have a fun, happy, and safe Halloween!

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Back in the Swing of Things

10/26/2017

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After starting out the month at Islandwood, it felt really wonderful to be back in the swing of things.

Here is an overview of all the things going on in Turquesa:

We finished up our historical period of the Roman empire with lessons on the rise of Christianity and Emperor Constantine of Rome. We also started talking about religions of the world and the role they play in history. This week, students chose a religion to do some basic research on. They learned about the history and development of the religion as well as the basic belief structure and holidays.
Our hearts warmed with a special campfire-like glow this week. We felt the sweet sound of beautiful story leads dance into our ears this week during Informal Writing. We are moving students to go beyond "Once Upon A Time" to instead start a story off with sensations and descriptive words.
We had a Science lesson on an introduction to the Biosphere
In Grammar, 4th grade students had a lesson on common and proper nouns; ask them about the bill/Bill story! 5th Graders are working on compound predicates and compound direct objects.
Geography was a fun and popular lesson this week that involved hands on creations of mini-islands to model and label land and water forms they've been studying. They used Sculpey to create mini-islands and have been creating a map key and outline on paper to accomodate the island. This was a fun way to apply concepts that students have been learning about this year.
The 6th Years have decided to have daily meetings at 10 AM to work together on their Island Projects. They are currently working on their Nearest Neighbor reports and have been working on creating a ceramic model of their island. Many geography components will be emerging next week!
We have finished our Lesson 3 test in Wordly Wise today. Next Thursday we will meet and correct Lesson 4 activities A-D.
Ms. Nicole has been giving Geometry lessons on either Nomenclature of Polygons, Area of a Triangle and/or Equivalence with triangles.
Scholastic packets went out today and the children had fun choosing which catalogs they wanted to bring home. Scholastic orders are due back 10/31 (Halloween!).
Picture day is October 30th, 2017 for Turquesa.
Just a friendly reminder that there are no costumes allowed at school on Halloween, but we fully encourage costumes at Harvest Fest!
Harvest Fest is October 28th! This is one our favorite events of the year at MCH. It's always a ton of fun and there are SO many activities, games, and things to do.

Keep an eye out on Bloomz for photos soon!

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Excitement in Turquesa

10/3/2017

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Collaborative group work is so important for children at this age; it's an opportunity to teach and learn from each other, to practice leadership and listening skills, and to learn he importance of follow-through.

I'm sure the kids like it because collaboration is a chance to hang out with your friends and classmates while working on a shared project.

There is quite a bit of research about the importance and significance of peer teaching and social navigation; we are thrilled that last week we saw so much healthy engagement and investment in the history projects. Groups proudly presented their first history projects of the year and a group science follow-up.In the coming weeks, we'll be turning our attention to the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Medieval times. A new project about Invading Forces will accompany that transition. You'll be hearing a lot more about it soon!

We are doing frequent writing lessons that are focused on helping students develop their ability to find interesting ideas for their writing. We use the 6 +1 Traits sequence in our informal writing because it helps children build a strong foundation of skills and more importantly it helps them sees themselves as capable, energetic writers. We have informal writing every Tuesday morning, a writers' showcase every Friday, journaling a couple times a weeks, and lots of story writing happening spontaneously. Poet Marge Piercy said, "A real writer is one who really writes." That's our motto! Please take a few minutes to ask your child what they are writing about and share in the joy.

Children are selecting their first literature circle books tomorrow. They are invited to read as much of their book as they'd like. Each child will have individualized reading goals based on their reading speed (correct words per minute), and they are welcome to read at a pace that is comfortable for them. Each week they will participate in a lit circle discussion, and they will also have an assignment to complete in their new lit journal. When they finish a book, they will select another book and join a different group. The groups will change and morph over time. We will be talking more about our new lit circle system at Goal-Setting Conferences.

We are preparing for our trip to IslandWood next week, and we'll be sending out a detailed email towards the end of the week so. In the meantime, please reach out if you have any questions.

Please remember to send your child's Goal-Setting forms back to school! We need to see them in advance of conferences in order to prepare.

We'll be hosting our Goal-Setting Conferences in Ms. Nicole's office.

We'll see you at Goal-Setting!

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TURQUESA BLOG

New and Now

Back in the Swing of Things

Excitement in Turquesa

Ms. Nicole & Ms. Alyx

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