Winter celebrations and Goodbyes!

 This week we continued our study of rocks by learning more about fossils.  After the break we will be making our own casts and molds.

In Math this week we worked a lot on Origami!  We began by making origami boxes, discussing the lines of symmetry and fractions involved in making origami creations.  For this box we began by folding the paper into sixteenths: 

Takuto taught the class how to make jumping frogs:

Savannah, Tristan and Liam taught the class how to make origami ninja stars:

Snowy fun:

Thank you to Laura (Sam's mom) and Anna (Conrad's mom) for the fantastic Winter Party they planned for the class!  Thank you to the parents who sent in snacks and also to those who were able to join us at the party.  The children had a wonderful time making their own snowmen creations.   

Dress up day!

This week we have been exploring snowflakes.  We watched "Snowflake Bentley", the true story of Wilson Bentley, who photographed snowflakes so that he could share their beauty with the world.

We also read "The Science of Snow" which taught us how snowflakes grow:

On Friday we bid a fond farewell to our sweet Takuto, as he and his family move back to Japan at the end of this month.  Takuto made beautiful cards and origami pendants for the children.  

We will miss him so very much and plan to keep in touch as a class!

Goodbye Takuto!!! We miss you already!

December 9 - 13th

A warm welcome to our new student, Mayar! 

 Mayar and her family just moved to Ann Arbor from Saudi Arabia.  

We are very happy to have her!

On Monday, the children introduced themselves to Mayar 

and helped her get acquainted with the classroom.

This week in math the children worked on measuring items and furniture around the room.  We measured our math journals, the width of doors and the height of chairs and desks.  The children also practiced tiling surfaces with pattern blocks.

 We also have been practicing estimation in math, and had an interesting conversation about where the term "ballpark estimate" came from. Liam drew us a ballpark to illustrate the game of baseball

 for those who aren't familiar!

This week we read a funny story called "Fortunately" by Remy Charlip:

The story follows Ned and his series of fortunate and unfortunate events, leading him to his own surprise party.  The first few lines begin like this:

Fortunately, Ned was invited to a surprise party.
Unfortunately, the party was a thousand miles away. 

 The story continues to follow this pattern.  We also had our own true series of fortunate and unfortunate events with this story book (including some missing pages!) which you should ask your child about!

The children are now writing their own "Fortunately" stories.  They began with story boards, where they are planning out what will be on each page of their books.  Below are some of their works in progress.  So many creative ideas and the children are having a wonderful time with it!

Arush shared a family story during Author's Chair:

Read Aloud by Owen: