Newsletter: February 28

Dear Families,

We have had a wonderful week of fun, sun and rain.  Every Tuesday a handful of the students work hard on guitar lessons.  They have been learning new chords and a few melodies.  Afterward they hit the playground for recess. It's a great time!

Thank you to all the parents that contributed boxes for our explorations.  We're having a blast creating! In Explorations we have been working on our own version of Caine's cardboard arcade.  Caine is a nine year old boy who made arcade games out of cardboard.  The students have utilized their creativity and imagination to make the games they enjoy.  Each morning many of the kids make a sketch of what they would like to create.  After their sketch they begin working on making the game of their dreams.  They are having a fantastic time playing each other's games, as well as, coming up with different games daily.  Here is the link to Caine's arcade.
http://cainesarcade.com/

Look at the great ramp Liam devised to create a ball return for his game.

In math we have been learning the value of money.  Well, learning coin value amounts would be a more accurate description.  I provide the students with an amount, such as $.34.  The students then give the different possibilities for achieving that money amount.  They had a great time coming up to the smart board and counting out the money as a class.

In Social Studies we have been working really hard on our China research.  The students have been using headings, topics and pictures with captions to help tell their stories about China.  Everyone was broken up into a group consisting of geography, cuisine, people and culture and the history of China.They worked together to find information on their topics and used illustrations to help them tell the story.  Finally, each group presented the information they learned to the class.