This Week in Review - May 27 - 31

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

As we head into the very final days of school, the children have a lot of special events going on in their busy lives. This week, for example, our classroom was abuzz with getting ready for the French play on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning’s all-school meeting – as well as looking ahead to next week’s music performances. They all seem to be taking it all pretty much in stride, but extra rest and down-time at home is probably not a bad idea!

We’ve been having so much fun in math designing math carnival games! We hope to perfect our games and actually demonstrate them next week. These all have something to do with our ongoing theme of probability – so of course there are spinning wheels, dice, and other ways our contestants have to beat the odds.

Petit Chaperon Rouge was very sweet! Madame and the children did a lovely job, as usual. It is always such a treat to see all of their hard work come together after seeing little bits and pieces over the weeks.

Buddy teacher Grace is off getting married, so guest teacher Elaine and I have been busy with both groups of children planning the second ceremony when she gets back on Wednesday of next week. Our group will be the guests of the wedding, but we are helping with a few of the details. I would love to go into more details, but that will have to wait until the surprise is over next week.

Shan and the children presented their science findings at Friday’s morning meeting! Both 1st and 2nd grade classes have been learning about the water cycle and ways to conserve water. They showed off the posters they researched and designed.

Friday was our third EB of this final session. Children in my EB played a math game with dice, rulers, and electrical tape. Pairs of children rolled three dice, added the digits shown, then measured out that length of their color tape. Each pair (and, me, working alone) continued doing this, crossing and crisscrossing each other’s routes, until a big and beautiful maze was created. It looked a bit like the subway maps I used to study when I lived in Boston. The children thought it looked like a cow or a horse, thanks to a suggestion from teacher Sam who stopped to admire.