Dear Families,

What a wonderful trip we had to the Hancock Shaker Village last week. The attached slide show will show you the various baby animals the children were able to get up close and personal with – from lambs and kids to chicks and calves.

Our poetry unit continues and the children are finalizing poetry that will be put into an anthology and each student will bring one home to share with family and friends. Their poems are varied in topic, length, shape, and illustration. They have had to create multiple drafts of the poem before presenting them to each other in their final poem. We
have been beyond impressed with the progress they have made and hope you will delight in their work as well.

Studying birds, the children have learned the how and why of the various beaks, feathers, and feet exhibited by the many bird species. This week they will be learning about nests and the culminating project will be to create their very own species of bird. I hope your child has shared with you the bird cam that we have set up in the classroom.
Three Red Tailed Hawks hatched last week and we have been busy watching them grow.

Special thanks to Sarah for sharing her bird book with the class. We were all mesmerized.

Thank you for your assistance with our newest Social Studies unit on Families and Immigration. We will be sending home a sheet today asking for information about the first member of your family to come to the United States and next week the class will need some help with information for a Family Tree. We will send home a worksheet for that as well.

Today we talked about what a “generation” means and the children shared names that have been handed down through their families. We looked at different designs for Family Trees and talked about how we might lay them out when we start them next week. We have been learning about the meaning of The Statue of Liberty to immigrant families and worked on organizing the words of the poem, “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus that is inscribed on the pedestal. Some photos from that project are also included in the slide show.

Also included in the slideshow are scenes from our April Lunch Bunch hosted by Lyndsey H. and Ken D. It is hard to believe that it was our last one of the year. You will also see pictures from the making of the Mocktoberfest video which will be unveiled at Saturday’s fundraising event here on campus.

We’re looking forward to our trip to OMI International Center in Ghent tomorrow. We will eat lunch there so it would be helpful if you could pack a paper bag lunch. We will be back for afternoon classes here at school.

Wishing a wonderful Mother’s Day to all the Moms!

Best, Katharine and Kay
(please excuse the messy margins- technical difficulties!)