Lower School Book Club - This Monday!

 Lower School Book Club

Join us for our next Lower School Book Club for adults led by Ann Botel-Barnard, our Language Arts Specialist. We are excited to come together to share a love for a great story!

Book: The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Location: Lower School Library

Date: Monday, February 23, 2015 from 8:00-9:00am.

Enjoy a light breakfast and great conversation as we discuss what we loved about the book, what we had questions about and what we could connect to. Feel free to join us even if you have not read the entire book. You will still have a lot to contribute and the discussion will enhance your reading of the book. You are welcome to bring adult friends and relatives that are also interested in discussing this book.

RSVP: Ann Botel-Barnard  abotelbarnard@abingtonfriends.net

This powerful novel portrays a forgotten part of American history through the unlikely friendship of a rebellious young woman searching for family and a woman in her nineties. As their stories unfold, the experience of hundreds of children who rode the Orphan Trains during the time period from 1854-1929 is revealed.  Children traveled from the East Coast cities to join Midwest farm families as either a treasured member of that family or as a child forced into hard labor and servitude. Christina Baker Kline is the One Book, One Philadelphia featured author.  

Reminders

There is no school this Monday due to the President's Day holiday.  We hope you all enjoy time with your families this weekend, and we'll see you on Tuesday!

We look forward to sharing your children's progress with you on Conference Day, this coming Friday, February 20.  Your child's electronic portfolio will be shared with you at that time, giving you a unique window into their learning and their reflections on what they are learning.

The Lower School Book Club for adults, guided by Ann B. B., will meet Monday, February 23 in the Lower School library to discuss Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.  Coffee and pastries will be served. Please join us to discuss this compelling story.

Join us for Lower School Movie Night on Friday, February 27!  We will enjoy pizza, popcorn and more while watching Wreck It Ralph in the Lower School Extended Day room.  Bring a pillow and sleeping bag or something comfy to sit on.  The evening will begin at 6:00 and conclude by 8:30.

Phenomenal Colonial Trade Fair

This past week, the fourth graders slipped into their colonial attire in preparation for the annual Colonial Trade Fair. They set up their hand hewn trade signs, laid out all their antique tools and materials needed to explain and demonstrate their crafts and skills, and then engaged all the attendees with their well researched knowledge. The classroom was delivered back to the 18th century. Parents, siblings and students from the Lower School came to listen, learn and participate in activities that gave insight into how difficult a job might be back then. When the fair concluded, the students went to the music room and learned to dance the Virginia Reel. They spent an hour dancing and letting all their excitement out.
The colonial unit in fourth grade is one that works across disciplines. The students have opportunities in art, technology, reading and social studies to learn and apply their accrued knowledge in their different classes. Students were thoroughly consumed by their research, creating their pamphlets in technology, carving trade signs in art, and they were transported  back in time by reading historical fiction stories.  This year's Colonial Trade Fair was phenomenal!

Our Busy Week

Last week, we passed the halfway point of our second grade year, and it feels like we are picking up speed!  This was a busy week in second grade.

We are continuing our exploration of ancient Egypt and becoming more adapt with multiplication skills.

On Wednesday, we visited A Step Up Academy and enjoyed a music class and lunch with some new friends.









We celebrated the 100th day of school with some math activities including counting our steps to the gym.

                              

We also participated in a special JAM session! With 6th graders leading us, all the students of Lower School performed 100 exercises together = 10 different activities X 10 times each!!





AND we celebrated Valentine's DAY! Thank you to our families for sending in delicious treats.

Magnet Exploration in Kindergarten

In Kindergarten, we've started to explore magnets. Students began by testing a tray of materials and predicting which items were magnetic and which were not. Most of the students predicted that the metal items would be magnetic, but some things were a little surprising! Pipe cleaners and twist ties were magnetic, even though they did not appear to be made from metal. Money is not magnetic, even though it is metal. Another discovery was that there are lots of items around the room that are magnetic, including table and chair legs, and the door frames. The students recorded their discoveries by drawing which things were magnetic.

In our most recent class the students were challenged by two activities. First, can rocks be magnetic? We answered that question by exploring a set of rocks that contained magnetite, which is a highly magnetic rock. Next, can you get a paperclip out of a beaker full of water without touching it? Ask a Kindergarten student how to do it! It's easy if you have a magnet to help! We'll continue for the next few classes playing magnet games and creating magnet mazes.

Graphing with the Catbirds

The Catbirds recently created their own graphs.  We learned about graphs as one way to represent information, and chose a real world problem to represent with a graph.  Some of the catbirds felt that they were being chosen last for choice time more often than they wanted, and some even thought that they were always chosen last.  To find out if this was in fact the case, Carol and Amy kept track of the selection process for a full week and made a poster that showed the order in which each student was chosen for choice time. 

This poster served as the springboard for our graphing project.  Each student looked at the poster and counted the number of times he or she was chosen toward the beginning, in the middle or toward the end.  After counting how many times they saw their face in each section, they got the correct number of squares for their graph and glued them into the correct spaces.  After completing the graphs, students began to make new observations about the selection process.  One even noted, “I was chosen most often at the beginning!  It had felt like I was mostly chosen at the end” The Catbirds did a wonderful job with graphing, and we will continue to work on graphing projects in the near future.  

Come check out the graphs in the Catbirds room- they will be going up soon!