March 26, 2015

What a beautiful spring day!

Well, we finished the ITBS and looking forward to getting back into our routines. The students seemed to enjoy the process and the extra recess/drawing/reading time. I'll be hand-scoring the tests and will get the results to you by the end of Spring Break.

This week, in the midst of ITBS, we had several wonderful afternoon work sessions. Our history studies have circled back around to medieval Europe, and this week our history lessons are focused on the dramatic story of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Next week, we'll investigate the Crusades from multiple perspectives. The kids were excited to make the spontaneous connection between Eleanor, her sons Richard the Lionheart and King John and Robin Hood. We're going to see the Seattle Children's Theater production of Robin Hood in May, so things feel wonderfully integrated in our minds right now! I share in the children's joy when things come together like this!

On Monday, I let the children know that their math requirement for the week was the ITBS. I also invited anyone who wants a math lesson because they are excited about their work to ask for lessons. As a result, I was delighted to give a whole handful of "extra" math lessons to our irrepressible students! I can't wait for you to see what they're doing at Math Day on April 17.

Today, students are going to be introduced to their new history project. This is a cumulative project called "The Medieval Book Project" and involves quite a lot of research, organization, and energy. We are following the formal writing process with this project, as with all of our other history projects. The research phase will last a couple of weeks, then children will create drafts, get feedback, revise, edit and publish. The end product is a hand-made book that summarizes the Middle Ages.

Tomorrow we are beginning our theater residency with Book-It Repertory. We will once again be working with talented and dynamic Gillian Jorgenson. We'll be sharing pictures and anecdotes along the way, so I hope you'll feel included. If you'd like to feel even more included, you can help us out! We need parent volunteers to help with costumes, running lines, and hosting next Friday's performances. Please let me know if you can give any time (either at home or in school) in the next week! Also, make sure you reserve your seats for the performance time you prefer.

Over the past several days, I've had been meeting with the MCH Leadership Team to create plans for next year. This is an annual process, and I always emerge from the meetings with a whole bunch of excited developments, and approximately 1,000 tasks. This year, one of the areas that we have identified as full of growth potential is our parent volunteer system. If you are interested in helping us revamp, re-ignite and reorganize our approach to parent volunteering, I would love to meet with you. At this point, we're still in the brainstorming phase so this is not a long-term commitment, just a couple of meetings. Please let me know if you are interested!

Enjoy the lovely day!
Nicole