My apologies

Hello Crow Wing Families, 

I have been working with kids this week to prepare for our storytelling work following break.  We have listened to stories from the Moth Story Hour and have discussed how the storyteller develops mood, conflict, and empathy.  I have screened stories ahead of time and found stories that relate to childhood.  I have also found edited for radio versions when needed.  However, today I clicked the wrong link and accidentally played a story with profanity in it.  I apologized to students, told them my error, and moved on.  I apologize to you as well - it is never my intention to present inappropriate material in our community.  I will be doubly careful in the future. 

Best, 

Cate

--

https://crowwingriverclass.blogspot.com/

Upper Elementary Winter Break Homework - Due January 3, 2018

Upper Elementary Winter Break Homework - Due January 3, 2018

Name: __________________________________

Please choose at least 10 of the following activities to do over break.  Check off the activities you completed.  Be prepared to tell a story about at least one of your activities.  You do not need to write anything down other than checking off your activities, simply be prepared to tell a great story!

o  Build a blanket fort and read a book in it

o   Go sledding

o   Bake a treat for a neighbor

o   Try a science experiment

o   Read aloud to someone

o   Take a nature walk

o   Visit a museum

o   Volunteer your time

o   Write a letter to a friend or family member and mail it

o   Sweep or vacuum a room of your home

o   Put on a play with friends or siblings

o   Make a snow sculpture

o   Teach someone a new game or craft

o   Do the dishes after a meal

o   Learn to make a new recipe

o   Tell a good story to your family

o   Go ice skating

o   Visit the Como Conservatory

o   Make popcorn and cranberry strings

o   Observe a bird feeder

o   Shovel someone’s walkway

o   Make a meal for your family

o   Learn a new origami pattern

o   Sing with a group of people

o   Knit or crochet a gift for someone

o   Memorize a poem

o   Paint a winter scene

o   Write a story

o   Listen to a story from a grandparent’s childhood

o   Create a math game

o   Graph some data you collected

o  Go on an adventure

o  Take a night hike with an adult

o  Perform a song, play, or dance for an audience

Update 12/19/17

Hello Crow Wing Families, 

We will be off campus tomorrow morning with our students (Wednesday, 12/20) from 9:00-11:30am.  We are taking a walking trip to the Como Woodlands school forest.  We'll work on species identification and observation.  

We are not conducting individual conferences this week with students.  We are focusing on late work check ins and supporting students in getting themselves caught up before break.  If you regularly check your child's conferencing document, you'll notice we aren't updating it this week, but your child should be clear on what they have to complete this week.  We will resume goal-focused conferences after break.

We will have a Read In Friday, December 22nd.  Students that are caught up on work can bring in pillows, blankets, extra books, and read!  Students that have work to complete will get extra support in catching up.

We are in need of Kleenex and paper towels!  We went through our order of paper products much faster than we have in previous years and are hoping to supplement with donations.  Please consider sending in a roll of paper towels or box of tissues to support cold and flu season!

Please help your children label their winter gear.  We're struggling to keep belongings organized and return forgotten items to their owners.  It helps us a great deal if names are written on tags inside clothing. 

Have a lovely winter break with your families!  We are looking forward to starting new projects and doing good work in the new year!

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Andrea and Cate

Update 12/11/17

Hello Crow Wing Families, 

Our Geography Fair is this Wednesday!  Please stop in between 2 and 3pm if you are able to see students' work.  If you have the time to circulate among multiple classrooms, our students would love the opportunity to present their work to as many families as possible.  When you arrive, please come to the south door to be let in.  When you leave, you make take your student with you if you choose, or can have them head home their usual way.  Please do not park in the parent pick up line.  You may park on the south side of Energy Lane or in the Bandana Square parking lot.  

We will have books for sale at the Geography Fair to support the Upper El Montessori Model United Nations trip.  Books are $0.50 each!

If you are wondering how your student is doing, what work they may have late, or what goals they are pursuing, please check in on your student's conferencing document.  Either Andrea or I shared a google doc with you early in the fall - we update that document each time we conference with your child.  If you have questions, please ask!

Our next Critter Cash Sale is this Friday!  We will be in the adolescent building selling baked goods and crafts from 3:15-4pm.  Please consider donating brownies, bars, cookies, or some other treat.  Families are welcome to stop in and purchase food or craft items!

We will have a Read In Friday, December 22.  We invite students that are caught up on work to bring in pillows, blankets, extra books, comfy clothes or pajamas, and read all morning.  We use the time as guides to support students that have late assignments in getting caught up.  

Please let us know if your child won't be in school next week - we've heard from a few children that they will be traveling towards the end of the week.  It helps us plan our time better if we know how many students we'll be missing.  If you plan to take your child out of school for a week or more, please support them in taking pictures of your adventures and preparing a speech to give when they return.  

Homework this week will focus on helping students get caught up on missing assignments.  Each child will receive a homework reminder listing any essays they are missing.  Essay assignments may be found on our classroom blog.  

Things we're working on this week:

- Final preparations for the Geography Fair

- Square Numbers, PEMDAS, Percents, Fractions, or Area of a Circle

- 4th graders are designing their own tricksters and prewriting their trickster tales, studying density, and learning about synonyms and antonyms

- 5th graders are retelling creation stories from around the world, studying types of soil, and learning about verbal nouns and adjectives

- 6th graders are wrapping up their study of indigenous science, examining glacial erosion and soil formation, and furthering their study of native languages around the world

Thank you for your ongoing support (and for food scraps for the bunny)!

Upper Elementary Homework Due 12/19/17 - Catch Up Week

Many students have missing homework essays.  Please use this week to catch up on things you’ve neglected to turn in this fall.  If you have no late homework, please enjoy this week homework free and consider using your extra time to write a story, send a letter, or do something kind for another person.

Student Name:

Here is a reminder of the essays you have yet to turn in:

(Please see the hard copy your child received from their guide for this information or email for more details)

You can find essays on our classroom blog:

https://crowwingriverclass.blogspot.com/

Please check with a guide if you have questions.  

Critter Cash Sale 12/15

Dear UE Families,

The last Critter Cash Committee bake sale was a great success, and we are hoping to keep our pets healthy and well-fed over the winter with another sale. Also, we have added some new pets to our UE critter family: two guinea pigs in Little Elk!

This sale will be held Friday, December 15th, from 3:15-4:00pm in the Adolescent building (exact location TBA). If you would like to attend, we ask that you please pick your child up as usual and walk them over to the other building.

Students are invited to make crafts and/or bake treats at home to donate to our sale; we ask that they include ingredients of the treat. Participation is optional and proceeds from the sale will be shared among the UE classrooms.

Our students and pets thank you for generosity and support!

Best,

Critter Cash Committee

Upper Elementary Homework Due 12/12/17 - Practical Life

Maria Montessori believed that practical life skills were an important part of school.  We try to include practical life work in our classroom by having students clean and care for our environment, having animals for students to care for, providing materials for students to crochet, knit, make kumihimo, and scheduling in healthy cooking.

For homework this week, please learn a new practical life skill.

Some ideas include:

- Cooking something new (use a new technique like grilling, julienne, or folding dumplings)

- Learning to crochet or knit (or a new skill within these like knitting in a round, double crochet, or amigurumi)

- Learning a new type of stitch in sewing or how to use a new type of pattern

- Cleaning out the vacuum (figure out how to take it apart, clean it, put it back together)

- Polish your family’s silverware

- Do your family’s laundry, folding and putting it away

- Make something from scratch that you usually buy, like noodles, brownies, applesauce bread, or ice cream

- Help a younger person with their homework, chores, or work

- Sweep and mop or polish floors in your house

- Learn to braid hair

- Learn to clean and oil a sewing machine, then use it to sew

- Clean and polish a pair of nice shoes

Write about your experience.  Things to include might be what you liked or disliked about the task you learned, why you think it is important to know such things, what was challenging about your learning experience, or photos of what you made.  You must write about why you think Montessori thought practical life skills were so important for students to learn and work on throughout their time in school.  What might she have seen as valuable, useful, or important about practical life skills?  Hint: it’s not just about learning how to clean things for when you’re an adult!

4th graders should write at least TWO paragraphs.

5th graders should write at least THREE paragraphs.

6th graders should write at least FOUR paragraphs.