Happy Christmastime!
We enjoyed the past week but missed our students who could not be there. We hiked on the new trails. We sang the Boondocks song about fishing in the crawfish hole and a seasonal Hanukkah song about the menorah. We did stretching exercises on the exercise balls. We learned more about reptiles and created some of our own out of modeling clay. We practiced walking with a lite candle in a base made from an apple. We helped Ki Jasmine set up the sanctuary for the Advent Spiral and then participated in this beautiful ceremony with the other grades students. I was so impressed with the students in how quiet and respectful they all were.
We cared for our new school turtle, a male yellow-bellied slider, in the Blue Sky Room this week. If you would like to take the turtle home for a weekend this winter, let me know. I've attached below a list of tips of how to pack him up and set him up at your house.
We will celebrate Lucan's 7th birthday on January 15th, our first day back at school. Caitlyn: Please email or facebook the other HomeSchool parents to let them know what birthday treat you will be bringing that day!
We will also give our reptile presentations on January 15th. We will get 4 sheets of master book paper to you by next Sunday the 23rd so you can work on this take-home project. Please use this paper horizontally and front-side only. Each student may choose a reptile to research. On the first sheet, write the name of the reptile, as well as a physical description of the animal (size, length, color, eyes, teeth, tail, feet, etc.) On the second sheet, draw or paint the reptile using crayons, colored pencils, watercolor, or acrylics. On the third sheet, draw or paint a dinosaur or other prehistoric animal that your reptile may have come from/descended from. Use crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, or acrylics. The fourth sheet is for mess-ups or to add additional info. (Some students are going to draw bones or muscles of their reptile on their fourth sheet.) Put your name on the back of each sheet. Don't forget to bring your competed master book sheets back with you on the 15th!
The next Garden Girls Girl Scouts meeting will be Tuesday, January 15th, 3:30-5:00pm. We will be in the Blue Sky Room, baking cookies to take to fire and police stations and making pinecone bird feeders to hang around the school campus.
We are excited to have Christopher's Dad bring in the train layouts on Thursday, January 17th. The HomeSchool students will mentor and shepard the two kindergarten classes as they come through the Blue Sky Room to see the trains that morning.
In the next season, we will be studying fish and other marine creatures. We will do the long-awaited activity with the white t-shirts that you brought to school. We will do gyotaku, the traditional Japanese method of fish printing, on Tuesday, January 22nd. Kate: Please bring a plain white t-shirt in Mike's size when you come back on the 15th. You can find inexpensive white shirts on the back wall of Hobby Lobby.
Quote from a child: "Never walk on ice with your hands in your pockets."
Quote from Unknown: "Every so often, invite the person in line behind you to go ahead of you."
See you next year!
Ki Sonya
