Important Dates
- Tuesday, December 15. Santa Lucia observance lead by grade 2. Very small in-school observance
- Wednesday, December 16. Advent Spiral-in school, dress up
- Wednesday, December 16. 5:30pm. Community Advent Spiral-optional community event, you may invite close friends or relatives who might be interested
Topics for this week’s update:
- Main Lesson
- Grade 6 Math
- Puppet Plays performed for other classes Friday in school, please let me know if you are attending in advance
- Holiday Sharing
Main Lesson
I hope your children have shared some of the experiments and demonstrations they’ve been observing and participating in during class. Today we moved on to acids and bases, beginning with a massive taste test and ordering of items based on their tangy or tingly-ness descending to neutrality and then to the other end of the spectrum with some items having a ‘smoother’ or even ‘slippery’ feel. After taste testing these items the children rubbed a very dilute base and very dilute acid on their right and left fingertips simultaneously and we put litmus paper and purple cabbage juice into them to see how a ph indicator works. We then put purple cabbage juice into an array of items which were lined up by order of ph to see what the cabbage juice ph indicator rainbow is. Tomorrow we will use the term ph indicator and use cabbage juice to help us put into order by ph the items we tasted today.
We will also be building a lime kiln, studying the lime cycle, and closing up the block this week. Our study of gases will have to take place later this year or next.
Grade 6 Math
In grade 6 math we continue to look for tricks, expand upon them, and practice. Today the students were very briefly introduced to ratios, which we will continue to study. Coming up will be how to convert a repeating decimal back to a fraction.
Puppet Plays
We will be performing puppet plays for the other classes this Friday. You are welcome to attend if you missed them during Yuletide Festival (or if you just plain old want to see them!) but I ask that you please email me to let me know you are coming so I can plan for adult seating.
12:50-1:05 The Two Wazirs-Grade 1 has been invited
1:15-1:30 The Wonderful Bag-Grade 2 has been invited
1:40-2:05 The Everlasting Shoes-Grades 3&4 have been invited
2:20-2:50 The Land Abdallah and the Sea Abdallah-Grade 5 has been invited
Holiday Sharing
Please remember your child must bring an edible holiday offering for their classmates or cards. The cards can be small and simple like valentines but should be handmade and include writing. They can make edibles OR legibles, OR both.
TREATS MUST BE GLUTEN, PEANUT, AND NUT FREE…that means any ingredients used must be labeled as processed in a tree nut and peanut free facility.
Treats should be individually wrapped(wax paper satchels tied with ribbon or yarn would be a nice biodegradable alternative to plastic wrap) in small portions with enough for one for each friend. Each student will take whatever collection of goodies amasses home to share with their family as a gift from all of their friends.
Cheers until next time,
Miss Kiefer