The Story of the Great Wood: A Fairy Tale - An Amazing Spring Program!

The joy, beauty and skill embodied by the Lower School Spring Program were stunningly glorious. 

Many thanks to Keisha for dreaming a story that helped every student to shine and for teaching students how to share that story through music and movement. 

Thank you to Amanda for crafting the scenic world through which the story and the students' artistic talents were interwoven. 

Thank you to all the faculty for their tremendous support and to the families and friends who joined us to celebrate the work and the accomplishment of the students!

Additional photos -  HERE!

We hope you have a wonderful long weekend!

Spring Program THIS Friday at 1:00, Spring Celebration Immediately Afterward!

Español en la primavera / Spanish in the spring

Bienvenidos familias, amigas, y amigos! Can you believe we are only a few weeks away from ending our 2015-16 school year? ¡Increíble! In Spanish classes we have been busy with singing songs, dancing and moving, viewing YouTube videos, writing stories, creating skits, and so much more. Some classes are beginning to culminate their themed study while others have been playing games to review previous vocabulary introduced.

In the Catbirds’ and Cardinals' classroom, students continue to have massive fun learning the different words to describe some of our external body parts. After learning the words in the “Head and Shoulders” song, we listened (many times) to the hilarious video of Rockalingua, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOg6y-Q59eM. This song has been helping the students learn the Spanish vocabulary for other parts of the human anatomy such as…

pelo - hair

cuello - neck

garganta - throat

espalda - back

barriga - belly

dedos de los pies - toes

labios - lips

dientes - teeth

lengua - tongue

frente – forehead

To compliment the Owls’ research study on "Flowers," the Spanish name for the flor that each student researched was introduced. The vocabulary for the parts of a flower (tallo, pétalo, hoja, y raíz) and the four necessary items required to help flowers grow (tierra, agua, sol, y aire) were also presented.

To review the vocabulary for words that describe some of our feelings, the Kindergarteners have been playing a new game titled, ¿Qué está en mi cabeza? (What’s on my head?). How do you play it? Well, the title says it all!  One student places a flashcard on their partner’s “glasses” and then s/he acts the word so that their classmate can guess, en español, ¿Qué está en mi cabeza? This game continues to be a huge hit!

To culminate the first graders study on Ayudantes de la comunidad (Community Helpers), the students have been working on their individualized activity book. Many worked on challenging crossword puzzles and activity sheets while others colored a drawing of their favorite community helper.

During cinco de mayo (five of May) the second graders were introduced to a brief and simple history of this popular celebration. We read a story, watched a brief YouTube video and danced to a song. ¡Divertido!

The third graders have been busy creating stories. To conclude their Horóscopo Chino (Chinese Zodiac) study, each student has crafted their own zodiac animal, given it a name and three characteristics, and is writing a short story about how their symbol came to be. What hilarious tales! To help them translate their story, they have been using iPads as well as good old fashion…diccionarios (dictionaries)!  

And,….the fourth graders have been working diligently on their restaurante simulation project. Soon, very soon, they will be dazzling us with their hospitality services…as well as delicious aromas!

Hasta la próxima noticias (until next news), ¡Adiós!  

Cordelia Jensen, Author of Skyscraping, joins the Adult Book Club May 24th!

The last Adult Book Club of this school year for Lower School Adult family members and friends is proving to be very special. On Tuesday morning from 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. over a light breakfast, Cordelia Jensen, the author of Skyscraping, is joining our discussion about her beautifully written book. We will have the opportunity to hear her share what caused her to write the book and how she came to choose the form of the book. We will then be able to ask her questions and engage in conversation. Skyscraping is a novel in verse about family, identity and forgiveness. 

You are welcome to attend even if you haven't read the book. After listening to Cordelia share her journey as a writer, you will surely be inspired to read this book as one of your first summer reading selections. 

Fourth Grade Detectives ~ What's your angle?

In math, the fourth grade has been studying angles and how to use a protractor to read the degrees of an angle. This week they did some sleuthing around the school to find the perfect angle.

 The rain let up enough to let us venture outside. Armed with large protractors and chalk the students broke up into groups according to what they were looking for -  acute, right or obtuse angles. 

They discovered the sidewalks in front of the Lower School had a ton of all of them.

 They were tasked with measuring the exact degrees of the angle and then recording it in chalk. 

 Each group was color coded and they made a key to correspond with their type of angle.

By the end of the day the side walk was covered with degrees of angles and they proved to be an interesting discussion topic with those passing by at the end of the day. One student demonstrated with their body a right angle for the picture above.

Fun was had by everyone and they are now pretty good at estimating the degrees of angle by looking at one. We would call that success!