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12.17.11 A Poem by Richard Peck I read because one life isn't enough, and in the page of a book I can be anybody; Erratum Announcements • Thank you! The Caedmon faculty and staff would like to thank our families for their generous cash gift. We were pleasantly surprised by the gift at our holiday party on Friday. We truly appreciate this thoughtful gesture. • A note from Kindergarten faculty regarding morning arrival: If students arrive before 8:25 am, they must go down to the lunchroom for early morning arrival. If students are not at school on time for early morning arrival, we ask that families and caretakers say goodbye to the children in the lobby. Thank you. Weekly Newsletter 1. Richard Peck, Renowned Children's Author, to Visit Caedmon Regular Notes • Caedmon Calendar Back to Top On January 26, 2012, from 6-8 pm, Richard Peck will be speaking, answering questions, and signing books for the adult members of the Caedmon community. The event will take place at the school. Child care will be provided. Further details regarding this event soon to follow! Richard Peck has written over twenty novels, and in the process has become one of America's most highly respected writers for young adults. A versatile writer, he is beloved by middle graders as well as young adults for his mysteries and coming-of-age novels. He now lives in New York City. In addition to writing, he spends a great deal of time traveling around the country attending speaking engagements at conferences, schools and libraries... Mr. Peck has won a number of major awards for the body of his work, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award from School Library Journal, the National Council of Teachers of English/ALAN Award, and the 1991 Medallion from the University of Southern Mississippi. Virtually every publication and association in the field of children s literature has recommended his books, including Mystery Writers of America which twice gave him their Edgar Allan Poe Award. Many of his books have received commendations, including A Year Down Under, which won the 2001 Newbery Medal, while its prequel, A Long Way from Chicago, was a National Book Award finalist and a Newbery Honor Book. Curriculum Notes • LANGUAGE ARTS: In handwriting work students learned letters m, l, and h. The class also read many stories about different holiday traditions, and made text-to-self connections. Students learned a poem called “Holidays Around the World,” and recited it at the holiday assembly: Boys and girls around the world/Will celebrate this year/The special holiday customs/Their families hold so dear. Students also wrote what they learned about different holidays and talked about it at the assembly. • MATH: Students continued their work with patterns by looking at simple constructions of patterns and finding patterns within the environment. The class was introduced to the Estimation Station; students looked at a container of similar objects and worked on making a reasonable guess, or estimation, of how many objects it contained. Students then worked with base 10 materials to count the objects, exchanging units for tens, tens for hundreds, and so on. The class also enjoyed playing the dreidel game. • SOCIAL STUDIES: The class worked on projects based on the various holidays taking place this time of year. Students made “Holidays Around the World” suitcases to collect their various projects for Hanukkah, Christmas, St. Lucia, and Kwanzaa. Students in Mrs. Trinkle/Ms. Dudgeon’s class enjoyed a special treat: Max’s parents, Ms. Arvidsson and Mr. Van Bouwel, came in to talk about St. Lucia, a Swedish holiday falling on December 13th every year that begins the Christmas season. They wore traditional clothing, lit candles to symbolize the light that is an important part of the holiday, sang a song of Santa Lucia, and shared traditional treats––ginger snap cookies and Lussekatter (sweet, saffron flavored buns). • ART: Students explored and documented the art studio. • COMPUTER: Students chose between working with KidPix or Read, Write & Type. • MUSIC: The class rehearsed for the holiday show, composed rhythm chants in 4/4 meter, and had a jolly instrument jam to “Sleigh Ride.” • SCIENCE: The class learned about the three different types of rocks that form the crust of our Earth: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Students had the opportunity to examine a cross section Earth model depicting the Earth’s crust, mantle, and outer and inner core. They also drew with graphite in its natural form and matched polished and unpolished rocks. • SPANISH: In honor of the holiday season, the class relearned Los Peces en el Rio, an ancient traditional Spanish villancico (Christmas song). Students love this tune (available on YouTube) delightfully produced by one of Spain’s most popular singers, Shaila Durcal. The class can be heard exclaiming “Shaila, Sr. Everett, Shaila!” everytime their teacher enters the room. • YOGA: The class continued its celebration of the December holidays by creating a sacred holiday peace circle. Students learned that all the holidays can be celebrated with a yoga pose and a symbol gracefully put in the sacred circle. For Christmas, they practiced a tree pose and used the symbol of a pine cone; for Hanukkah, warrior pose and a dreidel; for Kwanza, an elephant pose and a red, green, black, or yellow ball. The sacred circle ends with the lighting of a candle to honor all the holidays during the month of December.
• LANGUAGE ARTS: The class practiced working with Venn Diagrams, answered written comprehension questions, and learned about nouns and verbs. In honor of the season, students talked about their family holiday celebrations, and enjoyed some holiday read-alouds. • MATH: Students worked on a variety of skills and activities. They practiced taking measurements, doubling numbers, working with the hundreds board, and solving subtraction story problems. The class improved its math vocabulary, practiced adding number strings, working with coin combinations and coin story problems, memorizing math facts, and finding missing addends. • ART: “Art needs science and science needs art.” Students enjoyed the first ever “sci-art” class by observing and discussing the science lab aquarium, and then using mixed media to draw and paint the aquarium. • LIBRARY: Students worked on finishing their computer projects. • MUSIC: The class rehearsed for the holiday show. • PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The class played games and listened to holiday music. • RELIGION: (This refers to the elective religious education that is provided upon request to Catholic families.) Second graders worked on the Hail Mary prayer and heard the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparitions to Juan Diego. • YOGA: Everyone was so impressed by the class’s presentation of a beautiful holiday sacred circle to the Early Program and Kindergarten, students were asked to do it again at the Monday elementary assembly. Students demonstrated a variety of postures including: tree, symbolizing Christmas, elephant for Kwanzza, and warrior one for Hanukkah. • The class had a busy final week of the semester. Students participated in a variety of activities including: music rehearsals, a trip to Wallace Hall for their final dress rehearsal, and the amazing feeling of giving to their Potlatches on Thursday. The class was introduced to the wonderful story of Dr. Doolittle during a read aloud by Mrs. Vera, Claudia’s mom, and learned all about St. Lucia Day, the Swedish winter holiday, from Sophia and Mrs. Alden. Students enjoyed a fabulous holiday breakfast brought in by class parents, and finally wrapped up the week and year with their holiday music performance. • ART: Students completed their series of paintings in the style of Jacob Lawrence. • LIBRARY: The class was introduced to a new page with online research links: https://sites.google.com/a/caedmonschool.org/caedlib/home/research-links • MUSIC: The class rehearsed for the holiday show. • PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The class learned the game Capture the Farm Animal, where four teams compete to acquire additional farm animals from neighboring families while securing their own animals. Students demonstrated excellent teamwork, sportsmanship, speed, and strategy as they gave a great effort throughout the activity.
• LANGUAGE ARTS: Students continued to enjoy their reading group books (Dear Mr. Henshaw, Because of Winn-Dixie, and Bud, Not Buddy) and class read-aloud (Bridge to Terabithia). Students took a spelling quiz, and in their poetry unit, they listened to an antique vinyl edition of Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales on Mr. Jennings’ record player. • MATH: Students practiced using multiplication equations as a crucial strategy for solving division problems with large numbers. They also encountered their first open-ended math problem: a problem in which many correct answers are possible. The class took to this problem with gusto, finding all possible solutions and discussing them as a group. • SOCIAL STUDIES: Students continued writing stories imagining possible reasons for the disappearance of the Anasazi people. The Anasazi are a proto-Native American group who lived in cliff dwellings in the Southwestern United States. • ART: Students completed their series of paintings in the style of Jacob Lawrence. • LATIN: Students worked on lesson five of their workbook, continued learning about the Roman emperors from Augustus to Domitian, and were introduced to the Greek alphabet. One section of the class began an ongoing unit on the Indo-European language family––a massive group of languages including Latin, Greek and English, that are all descended from a common ancestor, the reconstructed language Proto-Indo-European. • LIBRARY: The class was introduced to a new page with online research links: https://sites.google.com/a/caedmonschool.org/caedlib/home/research-links • MUSIC: The class rehearsed for the holiday show. • PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The class learned the game Capture the Farm Animal, where four teams compete to acquire additional farm animals from neighboring families while securing their own animals. Students demonstrated excellent teamwork, sportsmanship, speed, and strategy as they gave a great effort throughout the activity. • RELIGION: (This refers to the elective religious education that is provided upon request to Catholic families.) The class met on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and students heard the story of her apparitions to Juan Diego.
• LANGUAGE ARTS: Students finished the semester by completing holiday-inspired grammar projects. They also discussed irony, first by looking at images that are ironic and then by going over the formal definition. Finally, the class read O.Henry’s “Gift of the Magi,” discussing the ways irony functions in the story. • MATH: Students took a quiz on decimals and played Decimal Bingo, a game that stresses addition, subtraction, and comparison of decimals. • SOCIAL STUDIES: Students continued their Mesopotamia presentations on topics including Mesopotamian food, art, games, mathematics, animals, buildings, cities, scribes, astronomers, weapons, and writing. • ART: Students completed their series of paintings in the style of Jacob Lawrence. • LATIN: Students continued work on lesson seven of their workbook. They also moved forward with the unit on Roman writers, reviewing their notes on Livius Andronicus and Lucretius, and commencing a study of Cicero’s and Julius Caesar’s literary output. • LIBRARY: The class was introduced to a new page with online research links: https://sites.google.com/a/caedmonschool.org/caedlib/home/research-links • MUSIC: The class rehearsed for the holiday show. A Poem by Richard Peck I read because one life isn't enough, and in the page of a book I can be anybody; |
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