Newsletter: February 19th

Dear Families,

The past two weeks have found us exploring biographies, division, opinion writing, and the daily lives of the Native American and West African people prior to the colonization of what is now South Carolina. It feels good to be immersed in such rich content. One of the greatest aspects of looping is seeing these kids learn to take on such challenging work while celebrating their incredible growth. Here is a glimpse of what some of this work (our study of biographies) has looked like...

After studying biographies as a whole class, the kids were put into book clubs where
they could read the same book as their friends and get together each day to discuss what
they were learning, noticing, and wondering. These were such a hit a number of the kids
even asked if they could borrow some of the other books in the collection to read on
their own. 

Once strategy some of the kids used to get ready for their book club chats was to stop
every so often and jot down something they were thinking about. These notes eventually
fueled the discussions they had with their peers later in the day. This process of stopping and
 jotting also helped them become more deliberate readers.

Yet another way we used these books to support our literacy learning was to
pay close attention to the text and visual features used to convey meaning
to the reader. We are now creating a class chart detailing what each of these
features looks like and naming its specific purpose. In a few weeks the
kids will begin writing their own biographies and use these very same
features in their own writing.

We have lots of great short biographies in the room as well - in the form of picture
books. Ms. Myers has been doing a wonderful job of selecting some of these
to read aloud to the class. We've learned about lots and lots of different historical figures.

Speaking of historical figures, our class has also been presenting "History You Should Know"
projects to one another every Tuesday and Thursday during Morning Meeting. The kids were told
a few weeks ago they needed to find a historical figure most people don't know about (preferably from
a social group that is often underrepresented in historical texts), research them enough to find out what
they did that was so notable, create a small poster displaying what they learned, and present these to
the class. So far we've learned about people ranging from Elie Wiesel to Muhammad Ali to Dorothy Height.

Leah's grandfather, I.S. Leevy Johnson, was kind enough to spend some time with us earlier
this week to tell us about some historical figures from his own family that have inspired
him by their efforts to make our community a better place. We always love visitors!

Lastly, this isn't part of our regular curriculum but we did have a fabulous time celebrating
Friendship Day last Friday. The kids loved wearing their PJs, enjoying a snack (a choice of either chips
or chicken biscuits), a Valentine's-themed word search, and a special ceremony in which each person
in class was individually recognized and celebrated for all the special qualities we appreciate about them.

The appreciations were compiled from work the kids did in class earlier this week. Ms. Myers
then did a beautiful job of forming these into a poem, typing them up, and framing them
on colorful card stock.

I can't possibly say enough how much we appreciate these kids!