Hi everybody!
I've attached photos below from our wonderful week.
This Tuesday there is a Simplicity Parenting discussion in the parent lounge at 2:00pm if any of you would like to attend. I hope to be there too. On Tuesday the HomeSchool group will be singing our two lantern songs, Glimmer, Lantern, Glimmer and L'Bimba, L'Bamba, L'Boom, as well as All Through The Day, Let Us Sing Together, and Iko, Iko. We will celebrate Brolin's 10th birthday with special cupcakes at the Pond Overlook. We will be painting watercolor landscapes with blue, green, and red.
On Tuesday at 3:30pm, the Garden Girls Girl Scouts will do a Creek Cleanup on Little Noonday Creek so all Girl Scouts should wear old tennis shoes or rubber boots and old clothes that can get dirty and wet. Bring gloves if you have them.
Be sure to bring in your wide-mouth glass jars by Thursday so we can make our lanterns the following week. On Thursday, I will be asking each student to talk about how what they did to fill the Let's Go Outside prescription that I gave you during our parent/teacher conferences.
Join us if you can for the Kingdom of Halloween Festival this Saturday, 4:30-8:30pm. You are encouraged to wear a costume, as long as it is not scary, does not include a mask, and is not based on any media like movies, video games, or TV shows. I will be there as the official greeter and you may recognize other teachers and parents as you make your way through the kingdom.
Please continue to work on your Amphibian take-home projects and be ready to give presentations on them Tuesday, November 6th. Each student received 4 sheets of masterbook paper. These may not be folded. If you find that yours are folded please take home new sheets this Tuesday. The sheets should be used horizontally and front-only.
Your presentation should include:
Sheet 1: A drawing of your amphibian (may be in crayon, colored pencil, or charcoal, may show parts of the body, stages of metamorphosis, color phases, top view, side view, whatever you want to share)
Sheet 2: A painting of your amphibian (may be watercolor or acrylic)
Sheet 3: Answers to these questions about your amphibian:
What is the common name and nickname (if any) of your amphibian?
How big is your amphibian?
How would you describe it?
What is one cool adaptation that it has?
Where does it live?
What does it eat?
What are the stages of its life cycle?
What does it do in winter?
Is it common or rare?
How is is affected by humans?
Your answers and descriptions may continue on the 4th sheet of paper or you may use the 4th sheet as a do-ever sheet.
Here are the amphibians that we chose:
Ari: olm
Bear: goliath frog
Brolin: eft
Christopher: caecilian
Elsu: fire-bellied toad
Helene: southern leopard frog
Logan: African tree frog
Lucan: zig-zag salamander
Ollie: red-eyed tree frog
Ki Sonya: hellbender
As you practice, be sure to emphasize these public speaking skills: standing, facing your audience, making eye contact, projecting your voice, holding your paper so that everyone in the audience can see it, and, my favorite, exuding enthusiasm for your subject.
Quote from a child, written on the chalk board in the Marigold Room: "I don't fill good today. My trout hurts."
Quote from Rick Bragg, in My Southern Journey: "People ask all the time, what's wrong with kids today? I have long held that they have been brain-mushed by too much screen time, but as summer races past me now I think it is something else. I think they do not know how sweet it is to feel the mud mush between their toes."
May you find a mud puddle of your own very soon,
Ki Sonya