Class Update

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Thank you for confirming your availability for conferences. Students are encouraged to attend conferences though they are not required to be present.

On Halloween this Friday, please send your student with his or her costume in a bag. We will be dressing up after lunch for our annual parade! After this event, we will celebrate a Dojo Party for positive student behavior and walk through the Haunted Library built by the Parent's Club.

Below is a photo of students checking out a density tower created in class. Students were asked to create a hypothesis ordering nine different liquids by density. I then "stacked" these liquids in a graduated cylinder and we dropped in various objects to check where they floated. Students were offered extra credit for making density towers at home for you!

Thank you for your support!

Maggie Orion

Class Update

                                                                                                      

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back from break! I hope you enjoyed some quality time with your child. 

We are three weeks away from the end of our first trimester which ends November 10th. I will be putting report cards in your hands the following week when we meet for our annual parent conferences. The conference schedule will go home next week. Feel free to send a note home this week if you have a strong preference for times between 1:00-3:30pm November 17th-November 19th. I have a couple 8:00 am slots as well.

Students have begun working on their Genius Hour projects which they will be presenting on the last day of the trimester for the rest of our class. Check in with your student to ensure they are on track with their time management.

The academic update: Students have become confident writing summaries of informational text and we are working on editing many of our manuscripts to publish on the student blog.  Math is moving along nicely, and I'm proud to see our school and our students grappling with the thought provoking questions of Common Core math. We have finished our key concepts overview of physical science and will be beginning on density and buoyancy this week. In social studies, we are wrapping up our agricultural beginnings and moving towards the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Sumer.

As always thank you for your support,

Maggie Orion

Synergia Ropes Course

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of students, families and community members we were able to participate in group building and experiential learning at Synergia Ropes Course. Check out our photos and what the students had to say!


  “Though we were the ones that chose the groups (partly), we ended up working with people we normally would not work with.” - Kyle

The first one was sort of easy but once we got to the X-wires, it was pretty difficult at first.  Once we found a strategy to get across we all made it. After that there is a rope that you have to walk across to get to the other side. All you have to hold on to is a loose rope and hope you get across. It is actually really fun, and the challenge it great! One thing that made it a little harder is that we met the other team in the middle and had to find a way to cross them. Not falling was tough but once you made it across, it was amazing.” - Student

“The staff helped kids get over their fear of heights. They don't want to push you, but they want you to have fun and that’s what a ropes course should look like and feel like.” - Calob

“High ropes! Ahhhhhh! I was so exited, scared, and nervous, but it was all a brilliant feeling. Every click from a latch of the harness made me more brave. Every time I took a step towards the ladder, it made me more brave. Every step I took on that ladder, I became more brave. The smell of the pine tree built up my spirit. The creaking sound of the log made me concentrate. More and more sweat was dripping off my head. A confusing anger stirred up inside me. Suddenly I heard Debra shout at me " TRUST ME AND JUMP!!!!" Finally, I closed my eyes and fell back.” – Dakota

  

“One of the other ones [high ropes] is called the friendship ladder. It is a big ladder that you have to climb, and the pieces of wood get farther and farther apart.  I was the only one to stand on the very top, which was AWESOME!” - Gianni

“So as we talked about the things we did and the things we saw we realized how brave some of us were and how scary some of the courses were.” - Gaven

The students wrote thank you notes with illustrations to the staff at Synergia. Feel free to learn more about them here: http://synergia.us/programs/challenge-ropes-course/