FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 16

All Together
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Greetings Community!  We invite you to join us at our Enrollment Information Night this Wednesday.  Please invite your friends!  Thank you for your support.  We are so lucky to have you and look forward to seeing you again soon!

****5 to 7 Year Class Highlights***

Field Day
Our first visit to Featured Park was filled with many experiences: play structures, swings, sand, caterpillars, bees, picking up litter, using a shared space, helping each other clean up, and as always, pushing our growth edges.

Meeting Discussions
Word of the week was WELCOME and we talked about what it feels like to visit a new place or meet new people, and how we can help welcome people. Wednesday we welcomed a new student, Thursday we were intrigued by the Glendale fire, and Friday the beach was on our collective mind.

Math
Tuesday was pajama day and we spent the day working on our sleepover math books and acting out the book that inspired our bunk bed stories. Sprouts came over to Yvette’s house for a sleepover and I was Aunt Michelle Kate. With Yvette and 9 students our number was 10, and they tricked me many ways and discovered that 10=5+5=2+8=4+6. Who knew math was so much fun?!

Language topics
While a handful of students were reading The Sleepover, they used many strategies: sight words, phonetic reading, and skipping the word and using the context. In this process I realized that no one in the group knew the word down, so our next word of the week is DOWN!

Books and conversations
With the fire on our mind, I went with the group energy and we skipped Charlotte’s Web to focus on the fire and to process more about what is happening in the world. Next week we will continue fire conversations, learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and explore the world of Fern, Wilbur, and Charlotte once again.

Emerging Interests/Ongoing projects
We are thinking about how to get the balls, that have been kicked or launched up to the roof, down. The current idea is making stairs.

Rainbow loom! Bring your bands and looms this Tuesday and Wednesday for some math connections and deep learning projects.

Social Emotional
We continue to reconnect after the winter break and are working on using our words, I messaging, perception taking, and slowing down before jumping to conclusions.

***7 to 9 Year Class Highlights***

This week we explored the meaty subject of civil rights as we reflected on our school holiday on Monday honoring the important work done by Martin Luther King, Jr.  We went on a journey with Ruby Bridges, a first grader who integrated an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960. The reading of her experience mesmerized all of us and made us wonder so many things about skin color, the origins of our different families, the history of our country in regards to Abraham Lincoln, slavery, and segregation.   We then each took a different viewpoint and captured that by working with watercolor to create an image of one of the people involved in the history of the time. At home, continue the dialogue about segregation and integration by exploring the website: Rubybridges.com.

Math
This week, Hayden, Bennett and Teddy discovered a new game that lent itself beautifully to thinking about algebra. We took turns tossing a velcro ball into Velcro discs that each had a numbered bullseye on it. We kept track of our scores with chalk, connecting to our recent learning about money to help us add multiples of 25.  Then, we compared our scores using the <, > symbols in order to determine the champion. I look forward to playing again! At home, practice counting by 25’s using the knowledge of quarters as a resource.

In addition, on Thursday, when we took our learning on the road and headed to the beach, we used the sand as our canvas to create clocks. We started by learning about how sundials were used in ancient times to tell time and we created our own. Then, each student drew their own clock and showed different times on it. At home, if your child is still learning to tell time, start with time to the hour and half hour. Once that is mastered, time in 5 minute increments can be explored.

Artful learning
This week, Madison and Isabella jumped into the creation of their artists’ journals. These are journals we will use to reflect upon our experiences at school, capturing our learning and growth. We will first apply gesso to the page to reinforce it so we can paint, collage and even sew it.  At home, check-out the websiteartistsjournals.com to learn more about this creative way to archive and process.

Science
While at the beach, we were fortunate to have a private experience with Mark, a Redondo beach lifeguard, who introduced us to the impact of off shore breezes on an object thrown into the tide, what rip tides are and how to spot rivers of water within the surf and how to most effectively deal with jelly fish and stingray venom. So much relevant science in our lives!

Have a wonderful week!

CONNECTION LINKS
Lena Garcia, School Builder/7 to 9 Classroom
Michelle Goldbach-Johnson, Founding Teacher/5 to 7 Classroom
Yvette Fenton/Co-Teacher, 5 to 7 Classroom
Jaclyn Epstein-Calvert/Co-Teacher, 7 to 9 Classroom
Saundi Williams, 5 to 7 Room Parent
Erin Levin, 7 to 9 Room Parent
Shutterfly Info Site: photos, contact information, announcements
TKG Info

Tending the Garden

***Enrichment Classes
You can still enroll! Class schedule is (all begin right after school):
Tuesday – Theatre
Wednesday – Yoga
Thursday – Japanese
Friday – Drumming; begins Jan 31st

***Parent Enrollment Info Night – Wednesday Jan 22
Invite your friends to come visit us this Wednesday at 7:00pm!  Registration available here.

***P.E.T. Workshop, Tuesday Jan 28th, 7:00pm @ TKG
Please join us for this valuable communication workshop. Jennifer Lehr has called it, the philosophy that best supports parent/child communication as partners. Register HERE!

TKG Principals
  • CONSTRUCTIVISM, as teachers and parents, we provide the trellis on which students will build on their existing knowledge
  • WHOLE CHILD, cognitive, physical and social/emotional are inseparable
  • BRAIN SCIENCE, students are sensory learners, we honor each student’s unique developmental map
  • CAPACITY BUILDING, nurturing creative thinkers who are encouraged to solve problems that serve our community
  • COOPERATIVE LEARNING, small groups, low ratios, mixed ages and generations

The Seeds

We are offering the opportunity to engage:

UPSTAIRS
Mathematics: Operations & Algebraic Thinking
Understand addition, and understand subtraction (K)

CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.1 Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings1, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.
CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.2 Solve addition and subtraction word problems, and add and subtract within 10, e.g., by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.
CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.3 Decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each decomposition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 5 = 2 + 3 and 5 = 4 + 1).

English Language Arts: Reading – Foundational Skills (K)
Print Concepts

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1 Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
Phonological Awareness
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2 Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
Phonics and Word Recognition
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3a Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

DOWNSTAIRS
Mathematics
Geometry (2)
Reason with shapes and their attributes.

CCSS.Math.Content.2.G.A.1 Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.1 Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

English Language Arts:
Writing (2)
Text Types and Purposes

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Production and Distribution of Writing
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

FEATURED WORKSHOP: P.E.T. Workshop at TKG
Jan 28th at 7:00pm
Please Register!

Learn about P.E.T., highly recommended by Jennifer Lehr of “Good Job and Other Things.”  TKG is happy to announce that Meike Lemmens will facilitate this Intro Workshop and we hope to begin a workshop series for Teachers and Parents, soon after.  To learn more about P.E.T. and T.E.T, click here.

From the TKG Office

  • Have you paid January tuition? Thank you!
  • TKG Office Hours are this Tuesday from 9am. Monica and Trish are available (weekly) for business and conversation.
  • Board Meeting is this Thursday.  7pm.  Guests are welcome to drop in to general forum at the beginning of meeting.
Thank you Families!  Contact Trish or Monica with any questions.
The Four Agreements
1. Be Impeccable with your Word
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best

In Education News

Reframing Failure as Iteration Allows Students to Thrive

At New York City’s game-based learning school Quest to Learn, sixth graders take risks in the process of designing a Rube Goldberg machine, which enables more creativity, innovation, and engagement.

WATCH THIS…

Are the Humanities dead?
If you would like to unsubscribe please click here.

 

Comments are closed.