Dear Parents of Poets,
Such a wonderful collection of poets in this class! What an ear they have for rhythmic patterns, rhyme and all manner of poetic elements. They have just finished their poems inspired by The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams and have jumped onto poems following the structure and rhyming pattern of The Tiger by William Blake. For example:
Phoenix, Phoenix, standing strong
filled with fury, loyal song
truth of fire, vibrant red
eyes of magic wisdom shed.
Their enthusiasm for writing poetry was almost matched by this week’s Math Mindset lesson – consecutive numbers. Can all numbers be written as sums of consecutive numbers? Using a 100’s chart as a jumping off point they quickly found many numbers that worked along with some that couldn’t be matched with any. The slide show below shows many of the equations that they had a great time discovering.
We are finishing up World Geography before we settle into our study of US Geography next trimester. The students are almost finished filling in their world maps. Bonus words on this morning’s spelling test were- Himalayas and Scandinavia and while a vowel or two might have been misplaced by some, many got them both correct. Of course, the real fun of the morning was a visit by Mr. Lindenmaier who added his name to the bonus words!
Thank you to George, Kim and Kate for a great first lunch bunch. The menu was a big hit.
Finally, I continue to emphasize class routines and behaviors with the class. For the next weeks we will focus on coming to class promptly and entering the classroom quietly and respectfully.
In Advisory class next week, I will ask the students to complete a self-evaluation on some of the most important values they need to incorporate into their daily routines. I look forward to sharing those with you when we meet in early November for conferences.
Until then, enjoy these late October days,
Best, Katharine