February 21, 2017

​Hi Folks,
 
It's great to be back in school and getting back into our regular routines!
 
Last week we have wrapped up our Ancient Egypt studies with presentations of student projects. We hope you saw your child's work on SeeSaw and had a chance to discuss their presentation with them. Our next project will be introduced in a couple of weeks. It is an Ancient Greece Biography Project. This will be a six-week project and will involve careful use of the writing process. We are launching our studies of Ancient Greece this week with an introduction to the geography of the Mediterranean.
 
In preparation for this biography project, we are ramping up our formal language arts lessons. We will continue with Sentence Analysis, informal writing and journaling. We will add weekly Writer's Workshop lessons designed to help the students develop their use of precise language, construct effective paragraphs, organize their thoughts and more. Today, for example, we did a fun lesson called "Synonym Olympics." It was a team-based, mildly competitive lesson that emphasizes what a synonym is and drew a distinction be quality and quantity in word choice. There are times when we are looking for a perfect word in our writing, and there are times when we are looking for an interesting word that moves us forward to the next thought. This introduction today required both attempts in a supportive team atmosphere, and the kids really enjoyed it.
 
In science, we are going more deeply into human space travel, starting this week with an intro to the history of NASA's space program and continuing into an investigation of astronauts and NASA's scientists. We are really inspired by the movie Hidden Figures, and are thrilled to be incorporating some of its themes into our science work. If you have a chance to take your child to see the movie, we highly recommend it. We will also take this opportunity to help children strengthen their approach to reading and understanding non-fiction resources. 
 
We're also adding both formal cursive lessons and word problem lessons to the students' weekly lives. We find that our people are ready for more now that we're finished with the Odyssey!
 
Scholastic order forms are coming home today. You can order on the website using code MMJ3L. Book orders are due March 3. 
 
Students have Wordly Wise Lesson 13 to complete this week with a vocab test on Friday. They also have spelling words to practice, as well as Choice and Lit Books to read.
 
Stay in touch if you have questions. We love to hear from you!
 
Thanks,
Ms. Nicole and Ms. Alyx