Our Busy Week, Briefly

                       This information, without links or pictures, can also be found in Walter's weekly email.

We had a couple of special events this week - one nearer the beginning of the week, and one at the very end. On Tuesday afternoon, we met naturalist Kelsey at County Farm Park for a guided tour of our beautiful neighborhood area. Since CFP is such a huge part of our school identity, we found it only fitting to tie in deep appreciation and wonder of all its Fall splendor! Kelsey also gave us some tips on how to identify certain trees by looking for patterns on bark, fossil identification on the stony paths, and how to use our science/nature eyes when out on walks.

You can tell this is a Black Walnut tree by spotting the diamond shapes in its bark.

On Friday, we enjoyed a lovely morning at another important place very much part of Summers-Knoll - Wild Swan Theater. We go there several times a year, to see various performances by Sandy Ryder and the gang. This time, we saw their version of Strega Nona.

Before we left, I read a picture book memoir by Tomie DePaola called The Art Lesson. (He is the author/illustrator of the Strega Nona series, plus a whole lot more.)

In my math group, we've had fun learning Place Value Yahtzee. This week, we've done well with 3-digit Yahtzee - so well, in fact, we may try the 4 digit version next! You can click HERE if you want to print out cards to play at home! We continue to review the difficult operational concepts of addition and subtraction of larger numbers with regrouping. Using manipulatives to act out what is happening (like place value discs) is essential at first, as is using our growing number sense.

During writing times, we worked on our The Best Part of Me pieces - I'm quite excited for the final product. We also wrote a page for our Memory Books. This week's prompt was a photo of each child on our wonderful and unique playground. Children wrote about their favorite things to do at recess. Here is just one example: 

We also practiced spelling words (a new routine), had quiet reading times, illustrated our 8th poem of the year, and had library time with Bec. 

Finally, I made my very first batch of "Carpenter's Famous Popcorn" (trademark pending) of the 2019-2020 school year. Students want to make this an every Friday thing. Well, okay then.