October 12, 2014

 hope you've been enjoying your weekend! HarvestFest was really fun, and it was such a pleasure to see so many of you there.

Turquesa is truly feeling settled these days. One of our more exciting undertakings last week involved our weekly geology lesson. As you may know, we are learning about rocks and minerals. Last week's lesson focused on the difference between rocks, minerals, and crystals. We are following a specific sequential curriculum sequence that is completely hands-on and investigatory. Geology lessons happen with small groups; every student belongs to a team of 4-5 people that they meet with weekly for a lesson with me and then share follow-up work with teammates. During our first geology lesson, each team gave themselves a name. Our teams are Mineral Miners, Gem Miners and Group Geode. I recommend that you ask your child about their team and their geology experience.

In other learning news, we formally began our Nanowrimo preparation lessons this week! For more information about Nanowrimo (in case you missed curriculum night on Tuesday), please go to: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ or send me a quick email. This is a huge undertaking and we are pretty excited about it!

 This week, there are a small handful of logistical things I want to bring to your attention...

First, we have a library trip this Wednesday from 9:45-11:30. Please send your child to school on Wednesday with his/her library books and their library card. Before Wednesday, please go to http://kcls.org, use your child's library account number and pin to sign in, then check to make sure that their account is in good standing. If you would like to drive us to the library on Wednesday, we would be excited and grateful for your support.

We will have our Spelling Pre-test tomorrow, Monday and your child will bring home new spelling words in their homework folder tomorrow. We will have the weekly Post-test on Thursday, as usual. I strongly suggest that you help your child practice spelling words daily using  one or more of the fun games we have provided over the last month in the homework folder. Spelling words are rapidly becoming much more difficult at many different spelling levels and dedicated practice is essential.

Last Thursday students brought home their Choice Book Project Guidelines. This book project is similar to a book report, but with a variety of fun options to choose from. Over the course of the last three and a half weeks, students should have been reading an independent book of their own selection. This is considered their Choice Book and it is the basis for the project. Projects must come to school on Friday morning to be presented to the whole class. 

Speaking of projects, on Thursday I introduced students to the new in-class history project on the Early Middle Ages. I will be handing out the project guidelines on Monday afternoon, and I will email them out to you then as well.

Thank you for the continued support!

Peace,

Nicole