Dear Third-Grade Parents,

After carding wool, the class has begun to spin the wool into yarn. Last week, Ki Ieva showed the students how to spin yarn with drop spindles. The fiber is connected to the spindle with a starter string and then carefully twisted. Once the students have made about a foot of yarn, they wind the yarn around the spindle shaft, and the spinning process continues with more fiber. This week, the class will practice more spinning and then build looms for weaving.

In their main lesson books, the students wrote a summary about the story of The Spider Weaver: A Legend of Kente Cloth by Margaret Musgrove. The Spider Weaver is a legend from Ghana, in which a spider inspires two Ashanti Weavers to weave colorful and intricate patterns. The resulting cloth is called Kente cloth which comes with many different meanings. The students painted watercolor illustrations of traditional Kente patterns. On Thursday, they also designed new Kente patterns with watercolor. The individual patterns were connected with string into a continuous strip of Kente cloth, representing the third-grade class. The students also studied cotton. Next, they will learn about linen and silk.

On Thursday, our students had their last lesson with our Movement teacher, Ki Shannon. Ki Shannon is leaving the school to work in a special education classroom at a different school. The whole class has become very fond of Ki Shannon, and the students each made her a card to say goodbye and wish her well.

Reminders:

Please join us for our All School Meeting this Saturday, February 5th, at noon. We will enjoy homemade soup in the forest as our administration and Board of Trustees share our growth this past year and look ahead to our coming changes and adventures as a school.
Spring Parent/Teacher Conferences are coming! You can sign-up here.

Warm regards,

Gaby Farrokhi