This Week in Review - April 1 - 5

                       This information is also found in Walter's weekly update:

This week started off in a very fun and foolish way – after all it was April Fool’s Day on Monday. The children were surprised and delighted to see a extremely silly schedule on the board, and couldn’t believe all they were expected to do! The funniest thing was one item near the bottom of the list – “sharpen pencils with your nose” – this one they thought was particularly ridiculous. However, at project time, they received a little gift so they could actually perform the task – nose pencil sharpeners! They also delighted in making “pranks” for their families – brown “E”s and greeting cards with a surprise. Thank you all for being such good sports.

Children reviewed the book Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s Magic (our highest reviewed book ever!), and are really enjoying other works in the series. We also enjoyed the wonderful book Evan brought into share when it was his turn as Special Reader, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole. Spelling words, work on our myth project, memory pages, poetry reading and illustrations, and quiet reading times rounded out our weekly literacy activities.

In math this week, we are working on basic operations. There is a wonderful game called Name That Number that is fun for all levels of mathematicians. This game can be practiced at home! We spent some time gathered with Grace’s math group on Friday voting on how to spend the proceeds from the Flea Market.

Another type of voting will happen soon as we will help judge the winner of the Irma Black Award for outstanding children’s book. This is an annual award given by the Bank Street College of Education. Beck, our librarian, read two of the semi finalists to us on Tuesday – We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, and Sun! One in a Billion.

The children did themselves very proud on Tuesday afternoon as they performed as gods and goddesses in the presentation after school. It was a wonderful treat to see each child tell the audience about their character, in beautiful Latin. Well done, Imogen and students.

We started our seed studies in earnest on Thursday as we began a simple bean sprouting experiment. Each child made a window greenhouse and is germinating three different types of bean seeds. These seeds come from Nature and Nurture Seeds, a local organic seed farm. Michael, one of the founders, will visit next week to inspire and start us on our own seed saving journey. More soon on our next very exciting big project.