First/Second/Third

Language Arts – Students are learning about Native American history and culture with a focus on their connection to the earth and their deep respect for nature.  We read "Giving Thanks", a message of gratitude that is still spoken at ceremonial gatherings.  We also read “Spirit of the Corn”, a Native American origin myth. Students learned about the three sisters – corn, squash and bean.  We also read “The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush” by Tomei De Paola and reflected upon on the gifts each of us bring to the world. 

Art/Science – students continue their focus on leaves and nature cycles.   Students collected leaves, sorted by size and color and strung them on a twig to create a fall ornament.

Students continued observing symmetry in nature and in ourselves.  We collected leaves, twigs and seeds and created our own self-portraits. 

Corn and pumpkin oil pastels – students explored different techniques using oil pastels and 3d imagery.

Stone Soup - we read Stone Soup and created a partial reenactment of the story as part of our celebration. Students prepared the soup, chopped all the ingredients, baked corn bread and made a gratitude chain as decoration for our feast.

Kaleo – Students made a beautiful Memory Book for Kaleo, each creating a page for the book. In addition, students created an acrostic poem for Kaleo: Kind, Awesome, Loving. Everything, Open-hearted.

Creative Movement – Students are creating duets using action words as the basis for their movement phrases. Next students will explore mirroring and shadowing to add beginnings and endings to their movement phrase.

Can you solve our class riddle?

First Grade Math – The students continued to develop their number sense through games like Monster Squeeze, Top It, and Rolling for 50.  And, many of the students have begun a number scroll that highlights number relationships and patterns. 

They explored compliments of 10 in a variety of ways.  In Two-Fisted penny addition, the students had 10 pennies that they would gather up in their left and right hands, noting the combinations of 10.  Interesting how many times they had 5 in the right hand and 5 in the left hand!  They played a game of Go Fish where they were searching for the compliment to one of their cards to make 10.  Later, they found all the card pairs that made 10 and laid them out. 

With the story, “Mouse Count”, the children listened to a tale about 10 field mice being caught in a jar by a snake.   They re-enacted the story with props and noted the different compliments of 10, recording them as an addition equation. 

The students explored calculators and began working with task cards, an independent activity that provides drill and practice with a problem solving component. 

Second/Third Grade Math – The students continued to enhance their number sense while working on their number scrolls, number grid puzzles, the logic game of Digits and Place, and the Broken Calculator activity where they figured out ways to have a calculator display a given number even though the key is broken. 

The students worked on their Fact Power, playing Beat the Calculator and the Doubles or Nothing Game.  The students practiced the doubles facts through 20 and noticed how knowing the doubles facts can help them quickly figure other facts.  For instance, if they know 8+8=16, they can use that knowledge to figure 8+7 (one less) or 8+9 (one more). 

The second and third graders worked on the Add-A-Dot task cards, practicing the addition facts with a problem solving component. 

Roxaboxen - The students continue to enjoy their time in Roxaboxen as they navigate relationships, neighborhoods, resources, and jobs. Our Peace Builder’s rules are ever present as a guide to living harmoniously.

Animal Care - We are so impressed with how efficient and caring the students are during animal care. Of course, everyone has their favorite animal whether it’s one of our beautiful alpacas, lovely chickens, or our grumpy pot bellied pig! The kids take care of their every need from food, water, a clean space, and more. They enjoy the fun of hand feeding and the responsibility of taking care of the waste! A number of students have shown their artistic talent as they observe and sketch the animals.