Important Dates
Wednesday. December 17th. Evening Advent Spiral-community event (students will observe this reverent festival with their class during school hours but are still welcome to come again in the evening)
Friday. December 19th. Last day before break
Monday. January 5th. School resumes
Dear Parents,
It is hard to believe the end of December draws near! Welcome to so many new members in our class; it has been a joy teaching this delightful group of children and I look forward to seeing them, refreshed, after winter break.
This Thursday and Friday Miss Hermes will substitute for grades 5 and 6. The class will go caroling Friday morning, so make sure to check the weather for appropriate dress! Some neighbors will join us for the event.
Cheers,
Miss Kiefer
In Class
Regarding Greece the children have heard stories of the Persian Wars, the greatly contrasting Alcibiades and Socrates, Aristotle, and Alexander these past two weeks.
Tomorrow, before we walk the Advent Spiral, the children will hear more about Alexander and some of the rash things he did as he became king of an ever increasing landmass. Socrates upholds the theme of finding and cultivating one’s inner light no matter the cost, and Alexander will show us how easily our light can go out.
We have been working on editing skills including: consistent verb tense, accurate information, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc, etc. We have focused heavily on being able to explain WHY something must change and exploring the (often endless) possible ways to do it.
Morning Lesson Book Feedback
I have handed back Mineralogy books with a checklist and rubric to the children. We talked about the rubric and feedback. I am not forcing the children to make edits but have announced that if they do what I suggested, make edits, etc, then I will change the markings on the sheet.
In the spirit of Greek eloquence and the agora, I have also invited them to debate with me if they do not agree with my assessment/opinion of a page in their book.
My goal is to encourage the student’s desire to engage in the feedback loop and heighten their (and hone accuracy in!) self-reflection.
Math
We continue to work on our math rules book. All students have learned to check multiplication products by casting out 9s-a pretty interesting calculation trick that they all were quite interested in. Please ask your child to show you this trick! They can use the page in their math rules book to help explain it.
Block Reports
Grade 6 families can expect block reports to kick in soon after the winter break. I will go over them with the students before they bring them home to you so they can explain them.
Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays and many blessed memories with your growing children over the break.