Dear Fourth and Fifth Grade Families,
Last week, the class continued hearing stories of Ancient India. The students listened to a recitation of the Song of Creation from the Rig Veda, an ancient Sanskrit text. The students listened to it in Sanskrit and then recited it in English. The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts and stem from a long oral tradition. In the Song of Creation, the world begins with a void, shrouded in darkness and chaos, which then takes form. What happened before and how the creation took place is an open question for the listener of the Song of Creation. The students then listened to a longer creation story of Ancient India. The flood in this story resembles the flood in the story of Noah’s Ark from the ancient Hebrew and Mesopotamian creation tales as well. This week, the students draw a map of Ancient India and study the Indian caste system. The class continues to practice reading aloud daily in our class reader, The Golden Goblet.
In math, the class is continuing to work on fractions. At the same time, the students strengthen their skills in all four processes. Beginning this Thursday, the students will take home their weekly math homework. The homework will go home every Thursday and must be returned the following Tuesday. Please have your child complete their homework over the break and return it on Tuesday, February 26.
On Tuesday, the children made gluten-free oatmeal pancakes with blueberries and strawberries. They had fun making the batter and flipping pancakes on the griddle. Thank you to everybody who brought in the ingredients. We are looking forward to doing more cooking in the coming weeks.
Our auction project is now taking form. Cora Stan and Leah Sims will be our auction project representatives. The students and parents will create a mosaic table to auction this spring. We already have a table and a box of mosaic pieces, and the students had fun sorting the mosaic tiles by color. Stay tuned for more information on how you can contribute.
Announcements and Reminders
As has been our tradition at The Garden School, instead of bringing cards from home on Valentine's Day, please save all card and gift exchanges for off-campus playdates.
Upcoming Events:
2/19-2/23 Mid Winter Break (No School)
2/26 Teacher In-Service (No School)
3/9 Community Work Day 9 am - 12 pm
3/15 Teacher In-Service (No School)
Warm regards,
Gaby
