Fourth Grade: May 16 - 20

Dear Fourth-Grade Families,

Thank you for another amazing year of learning and fun together!  It’s an incredible honor to travel this educational journey with your children!  Thank you also for my beautiful heart wall hanging! The students kept that totally under wraps and I was completely surprised and delighted!  Thank you so much for all my gifts too!  

Our Field Day couldn’t have had better weather!  We played various games, some old, some new, and the students enjoyed all the water play and antics. The favorite activity of the day was the final one, a slip and slide that the students used again and again as they got wetter and wetter.  We all had fun there! :) A popsicle treat rounded out our field day fun!

We ended the school year with some final work and plenty of Creekcess time.  We reviewed all four math processes, and focused on subtraction using regrouping (borrowing).  This summer, please ensure your child has memorized their math facts for all four processes for 1-12.  We also finished up the table of contents in our Main Lesson books, which came home with your child on the last day of school.  These books hold a lovely sampling of all they learned this past year. Their Local Geography main lesson books stayed at school as we will finish them up as we begin fifth grade with a look at our own state, Georgia, before expanding outward to the United States. 

It is difficult to believe we closed out our fourth grade year together! I wish you all a happy summer filled with fun, family, and some rest too!  See you in the fifth grade for more learning adventures!

Announcements and Reminders:

  • Your child’s end of year report will be delivered to your email around mid-June. Keep a look out for this detailed, personal narrative of your child’s growth and development over the course of the school year.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: May 2 - 6

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Thank you to our amazing community for a delightfully full week of happy and attentive teacher appreciation!  We cannot say enough thank yous for the consideration and treats that were showered upon us all week!

We spent a busy week practicing for our upcoming play, “The Theft of Thor’s Hammer”.  The students have been working both at school and at home to memorize their lines, and to learn their cues for when to speak.  We practiced both off and on stage this past week. As the week came to a close, students began to add actions (movement) and character (attitude) to their lines with the prompt to “have fun” with their parts.  The Class Play takes the students on a journey which serves not only to increase individual confidence and promote inner growth, but also to deepen the social interconnectedness of the class.  Students grow both individually and collectively; some skills on the stage come very naturally while others are earned through practice and stretching beyond comfort zones.  It’s a gift in itself to be a part of this journey with them.

There are more and more “ah-ha’s” as we continue to work with long division first thing most mornings this past week.  We are learning to solve long division equations in steps. “Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Drop-down, Repeat”, the students are understanding more fully what is involved in taking a large number and finding the quotient (answer!). 

Reminders:

  • Please join us for the class play on Friday, May 13th at 6:00 PM.  Students need to be on campus in the Blue Sky room at 5:00 PM. 

  • Please send two water bottles every day (or one Very Large one).  The students are reminded regularly to drink on hot days.

  • A change of clothes and creek shoes (hard-soled water shoes, old sneakers, etc.) are needed at school every day. On hot days, even those children who insist they will not want to get wet, will do so if they are appropriately geared up for the opportunity.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: April 25 - 29

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Parts were given out for our coming performance of “The Theft of Thor’s Hammer”! Our performance will be held in the sanctuary inside the building on Friday, May 13th, at 6:00. All are welcome to attend (family and friends)! The students are asked to be back on campus that day at 5:00. The play will run for around 30 minutes, and we will end the evening with a cast party in the field near the dome. We are all so excited!  More information regarding prop requests and costume needs will be sent via email to each of you.

Additionally, on May 11th, our class will be taking a field trip to the Etowah Indian Mounds. We will leave at 9:00 and return before carpool. This is approximately a 40-minute drive, and we are asking for volunteers from class parents to help drive the students. Please let me know if you are available. Students will need a snack, lunch, and two water bottles, along with sunscreen and sun hats. As this trip will include a lot of walking, proper footwear, such as sneakers, is required.

This week will be in full practice mode as we gear up for our play! Information regarding help with our simple costumes will be forthcoming, as will more details and requests for the cast party needs. As always, thank you for your support as we bring our fourth grade school year to a close. 

Reminders:

  • Class play is at 6:00 on Friday, May 13th. Students need to be back on campus at 5:00 pm.

  • Etowah Indian Mounds field trip is on Wednesday, May 11th. Students must arrive before our 9:00 am departure time. 

  • Field day is Wednesday, May 18th. Please make sure your child has water shoes and a change of clothes.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: April 18 - 22

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

It was a lovely evening on campus for our second school auction!  Thank you to those who were able to join us in person and to all who had fun bidding online!  We are so grateful to our community for supporting our school in so many various ways!  It is exciting to grow on this journey together!

The class had lots of fun continuing to try out various parts for our play, The Theft of Thor’s Hammer.  As we practice reading parts aloud, the students are also trying out various emotions to match their character of the day as well as working on projecting their voices, working on positions once on stage, and talking about costumes and scenery. Both costumes and scenery will be simple, and requests for supplies and sewing support will be forthcoming soon. All students will be Gods or Goddesses (or both!) as well as some being Giants and Giantesses!  It should be a wonderful experience for all of us!

Along with daily play practice, we are continuing to simplify fractions using Greatest Common Factors and basic division skills. We are also learning how to multiply fractions and will be dividing them soon as well.

Reminders:

  • It’s warming up!  Please send extra clothes as we will be visiting and playing in the creek as various opportunities arise during the week along with our Friday creekcess day.  Please send in close-toed, hard-soled water shoes to keep at school.  These are a must for safety in the creek (and more comfortable than rubber boots when it's hot).

  • Send bug spray and sunscreen and-or sun hats.  Baseball caps are permitted as sun hats so long as they are free from marketed characters, logos, and free of writing.  

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: April 11 - April 15

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

It was a fun and busy week in class as we returned from Spring Break. We continued working in our Key to Fractions workbook, focusing on common factors and simplifying fractions. We also began working on our upcoming play, Thor’s Hammer, based on the Norse Myths. This is a funny story and the students seem to enjoy the comical aspects. To begin, characters' parts are being read based on a random drawing of scripts. This gives students a chance to be many characters, regardless of preference (or gender), and for the class to hear the play and begin to picture the scenes. It gives us lots of opportunities to have fun as we prepare.  

In Waldorf plays, the focus is on the student, rather than the sets and costumes. That being said, there will be opportunities for parents to help as we plan our simple sets and costumes. The date is still TBA (I’m sorry!!) as we work with the other grade classes and the church calendar. We should have the date and time by the end of next week so you can tell family and friends too.

Our Chattahoochee Nature Center field trip was both informative and enjoyable! Thank you to our chaperoning parents! We will be heading to the Etowah Indian Mounds on Wednesday, May 11th. Permission slips will be sent as well as a request for chaperones closer to the date.

Reminders:

  • Our Auction is this FRIDAY, April 22! Please plan on attending as participation in our community is paramount! There will be many lovely items to bid on too!  As a reminder: it is an adults only event.

  • Saturday, April 23, is a Community workday.

  • Friday, May 6, is a half-day.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: March 28 - April 1

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Research reports and dioramas were a success!  It was a joy to watch each student stand in front of the class, read their reports, share about their dioramas, and answer questions from their classmates.  Each student did all the above successfully and with little (if any) hesitation.  This past semester, they have been reading their journal entries aloud, often while standing in front of the class.  This practice has helped to make group speaking a more comfortable, common experience for all, and their self-confidence is showing more and more. 

Along with presenting research reports, we dove back into fractions following our Key To Fractions Book 2 lessons.  When we return from our spring break, we will continue working in these books while we focus on preparing for our class play.  

Grand Friends Tea was a successful morning as well and students enjoyed sharing their school setting with their guests.  The class played our school song on their ukuleles; thank you to Ki Lesley for teaching and leading our class!  

Reminders:

  • No school next week for Spring Break

  • Permission slips for our class field trip to the CNC (4/13) are on Transparent Classroom

Please send:

  • deet-free bug spray to school for your child 

  • two water bottles every day, and extra clothes (socks too!)

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: March 21 - 25

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

We spent the week working on our research reports, moving from collecting information and writing that information in complete sentences (the body of the essay) to writing our opening and closing paragraphs. We finished putting these paragraphs together on Friday, creating our rough drafts. The rough drafts were sent home to be written into a final copy. It has been a great experience for the class! Each student also created a diorama at home. The students enjoyed bringing them in to show their classmates.

For the past few weeks, we have been playing Theater Games during our Movement class period. The students have practiced a variety of theater skills that help them focus on their bodies (slow-motion tag), act out scenes without props (games of tennis and tea parties), and spend time being the audience for their peers (being attentive and respectful). We (finally!) learned that our play will be “Thor’s Hammer”. Over the next few weeks, we will continue with more theater games, and the students will take turns trying on different roles. Roles will be handed out in April, and students will practice lines in school and at home. The play will take place in late April or early May at school. Please stay tuned for more information, including opportunities to help provide basic costumes and/or props.

Finally (finally! :), we will be taking a field trip to the Chattahoochee Nature Center on April 13th.  Details for the trip, permissions slips, and a request for two parent drivers/chaperones will be coming later this week. 

Reminders:

  • April 1 is Grandfriend’s Tea and a HALF-DAY

  • April 4-8 is SPring Break

  • April 13 is our FIELD TRIP to the Chattahoochee Nature Center

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: March 14 - 18

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Research paper writing began this past week.  Students brought in books they obtained from their local libraries or book vendors with the addition of information found on the internet about their animal of choice.  Using these materials, the class looked up and listed information about habitats on Monday and diet on Wednesday.  We used Monday’s information to write the body of one paragraph, and Wednesday’s list to write the body of another paragraph. Working in incremental steps together allows the students to work systematically, and in the end, we will put together the sentences they have written into a cohesive paper.  

In Math, we are continuing to work on facts using all four processes, along with tricks and tips for mental addition and subtraction with two-digit numbers.  We dusted off our multi-digit multiplication skills as well. In EE class, the students and Ki Rachel have experienced a variety of natural observations and are writing poems.  They created lovely naturally framed paintings with poems written on them which the students brought home last week.  

Finally, we enjoyed a visit on Friday from Raya, our classmate who moved north over the summer. 

This week, we will continue with our research paper writing in class.  Please remember your child’s at-home component of this project, the dioramas, are due March 28th.  All needed information is posted in our Google classroom.  

Reminders:

  • Friday, April 1 is Grandfriends Tea from 9:30-10:30 and is a half-day.  

  • April 4-8th is Spring Break.

  • Friday, April 22nd is a half-day and our Annual Fundraiser.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: March 7 - 11

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

We continued in our Human and Animal block taking a closer look at animals such as the eagle and the elephant. Through stories rich with imagery, we look at the physical characteristics of each animal and learn more about their habits and temperament. We also began working on our research reports by asking ourselves what we already knew and what we wanted to learn about the animal chosen. We learned about using a “hook” as the opening sentence in our first paragraph to capture the reader’s interest. This week, we will begin to write our reports. This process includes the mechanics of a five-paragraph essay, sentence structure, and also appealing to the reader. It will be a positive experience for the students, many of whom have begun to enjoy writing and are ready to add more form to this experience. 

The students have been playing theater games throughout the week as we get ready to work on our class play. Twice a week, during our previous movement periods, the children work independently or in groups to act out various scenes while their classmates act as the audience. As the “actor”, the goals are to understand and experience themselves performing, feel the space around them, work together in their group for the success of the skit, take in constructive criticism, and practice performing for an audience. When acting as the audience for their classmates, the students can glean ideas of what works and why and apply that to their own time “on stage”.  They also clearly see the need for groups to work together, practice being a respectful audience, and learn how to give helpful and thoughtful critiques. It’s been fun and quite entertaining, as you can imagine! Play details will follow soon!

Reminders:

  • Saturday, March 19th, is a Community Workday

  • Friday, April 1, is Grandfriend’s Day. 

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: February 28 - March 4

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

It was a lovely spring week to be back together on campus!  We finished our second fractions block with a brief review of our Key to Fractions 1 book and completed both the pre and post-tests.  The students did very well overall with their understanding of the material.  They brought their booklets home this past Friday.  Any unfinished pages may be completed at home. We will begin the Key to Fractions 2 book next week and complete it slowly over the rest of the semester.  

This week began our second Human and Animal block as well.  The students love learning about new animals!  We will begin learning the structure of a five-paragraph essay and apply our knowledge when writing our second animal research report in class.  The research report includes making a diorama at home as well.  Details regarding this research report were sent home Friday with your child, emailed to your inboxes, and are posted in our Google classroom.  Please reach out with questions as needed.

Reminders:

  • Friday, March 11 is a teacher workday and there is NO SCHOOL.

  • Please send your child with two full water bottles each day.  We drink a lot more water on the warmer days.

  • Please remember to always send a full set of extra clothing and rain gear, especially boots, daily.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: February 14 - 18

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

It is always so enjoyable and insightful to talk together during conferences about how your children are doing in school and how their growth is reflected in the home. This semester, meeting in person with everyone again was an added pleasure. Thank you also for my Valentine’s bouquet!  As with our class, each student brings their own uniqueness and creates a beautiful group.  Thank you also for my birthday cards from the students, my gifts (love them!!), and helping to make my day that much more special. <3 

Our class completed their second fractions block this past week.  We continued to explore and learn about proper fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers through main lesson work and work in our Key to Fractions 1 book. We will finish our booklets when we return and continue to study fractions during the remaining school year. 

Upon our return from break, we will begin our second Human and Animal block, which will include a research report to be worked on both at school and at home. Details will be given to students and entered into our Google classroom when we return to school.

Reminders:

  • Friday, March 11 is a teacher in-service day; there is no school

  • Parents, please take time to listen to this podcast over break : How to Compete with the Stimulation of Screens | Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D. | The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast - S3 E3 https://pod.fo/e/10625a

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: February 7 - 11

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

The class continued working with fractions last week.  We learned more about proper fractions and how to identify them using pictures and number lines.  Using these tools, we then learned about improper fractions, mixed numbers, and equivalent fractions.  The students began to understand how to simplify or reduce fractions, and added and subtracted fractions with common denominators.  We are working steadily in our Key To Fractions workbooks to complement the lessons and will continue to work in these books for the remainder of the school year. This week, we will continue with more fraction fun including finding common denominators and simplifying fractions.

This past week, the students spent a period in the garden turning the soil for planting in the coming weeks.  The current third grade class is a smaller group, so our class will be stepping in to support their endeavors throughout the coming months. It was a lot of fun and they worked together successfully completing the task. We ended the week by planting daffodil bulbs around the perimeter of the garden and around Liza’s Loom.  Please make sure your child has proper footwear each day for working in the farm and playing in the forest.

Reminders:

  • It’s Parent/Teacher Conference week!  Wednesday–Friday are half-days.  Pick up is at 12:30.  Please plan to drive through our carpool line to expedite pick-up.  Thank you.

  • Next week is Mid-Winter break.  No school February 21-25th.

  • Please send in a sunhat as needed.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: January 31 - February 4

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

The class immersed themselves in the world of fractions this week. Using paper strips and circles, we created fractions. The students noticed the larger the denominator, the smaller the piece, while a larger numerator meant more pieces! We began our first Key To workbook, Fractions 1. The students enjoyed the novelty of a workbook and had fun completing several pages a day. Our spelling list this week also focuses on mathematical words about fractions. This week, we will spend more time exploring equivalent fractions, learn to add and subtract fractions with like denominators, and begin to simplify fractions as well. 

This month, in recognition of Black History month, we are hearing a story a day about a well-known Black person beginning in ancient times. We heard about Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tutankhamun (King Tut), and Mansa Musa. We looked at a map of the world, and a closer look at the continent of Africa and its many countries. Each student chose a biography book for children to read this week. Books can be read by the student, with a family member, or to the student. These books are for informative fun, and no additional work is required at school. Please make sure the book returns to school each Monday as the students will choose another book to read this week and each week for the month of February. 

Thank you to all who joined us this past Saturday for our All School Meeting! The soups were delicious. It was a wonderful opportunity to see how much the school has developed over the past school year and to look forward to growing together.

Reminders:

  • As a reminder, candy, highly processed snacks, and other sugary snacks and foods should not be brought to school. If you need any clarification, please refer to our Parent Handbook.  

  • Conferences are next week, on Wednesday 2/16 through Friday 2/18. All three of these days will be early dismissal for all students, from 12:15-12:30 pm. You can sign up here. Meeting in person allows parents to see their child’s work more readily. However, any time slot can become a Zoom conference, if preferred. Please let me know if you need a virtual conference.

  • Mid-winter break is 2/21-2/25. There will be no school during this week.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: January 24 - 28

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

The fourth-grade class finished up their Norse Myth block this past week.  We heard more tales, including learning about the Valkyries and Valhalla, as we wrote summaries and drew pictures in our main lesson books while we practiced writing paragraphs.  We also took a closer look at the runic alphabet as we recorded the symbols' correlation to letters and their secondary, more mystical meanings. Though we are leaving this block, there are still more stories to be heard, and we will continue to hear the stories of the Norse in the next blocks until the culmination of the epic.

This past week, we began learning about and using dictionaries during our spelling practice. The students worked in teams to find and record definitions on their spelling worksheets. We will continue to refine our dictionary skills during our spelling practice each week. We also explored how the dictionaries are laid out and reviewed the phonological pronunciation guide. The class had a lot of fun working together in this manner.

This week we said a heartfelt goodbye to our Movement teacher, Ki Shannon. The students wrote her a friendly letter sharing what they enjoyed about her class and wishing her well, as she leaves to support students in a unique special education class at her new school.  We will miss her greatly but understand she will be helping in a place there is a great need for her skills and love. 

This week, we are moving into our second fraction block.

Reminders:

  • Please join us for our All School Meeting this Saturday, February 5th.  We will meet in the forest and enjoy homemade soup 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.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: January 18 - 21

Dear Fourth Grade Parents,

We had a busy week at school. Our class heard stories from the Norse Myths of Freya, Frey, and Heimdall this past week. We practiced adding more details to sentences and using transition words as we wrote a funny summary about chickens. In Math, our focus continues with basic division tables, and we are now also practicing all four processes during morning math, including division equations with a remainder. In Handwork, the students are embroidering a handwork bag, and in Environmental Education, they focused on our natural senses evoking feelings and memories. 

This coming week, we will finish up our Norse Myth blocks, however, we will hear more of these myths throughout the year. We will focus on summary work, crafting a proper paragraph, and continue with spelling lessons. Please remember to help your child study over the weekend. Those who study at home show greater success and confidence on quiz day.  Developing good study habits now is the intent!  

Reminders:

  • Saturday, January 29th, is our open house for interested families.

  • Saturday, February 5th, is a community workday and our All School Meeting. Please join us!

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: January 10 - 14

Dear Fourth Grade Families, 

We enjoyed having all our class back together this week after last week’s slower start! Our new schedule is keeping us busy and learning! This past week, we moved back into a language block focusing on the Norse Myths. We reviewed the parts of a paragraph and practiced writing paragraphs with a topic sentence, three or more details, and a closing sentence (conclusion). Our spelling words focus on contractions. The class is studying not only words on the list (this list is posted in our Google classroom), we are practicing many other contractions as well.  

This week, we will continue hearing more Norse Myths, which the class as a whole enjoys thoroughly! We will work on writing independent summaries of the stories, continuing to focus on writing a cohesive paragraph with appropriate detail, spelling, and handwriting. We will also focus on drawing illustrations to support our writing.  

As a class, we had an interesting (and hopefully insightful!) conversation last week about the influence of movies and videos on how we think about the gods and goddesses (and many other things) compared to the ability to use our imaginations based on the text descriptions, and the value in the latter. Media, including the illustrations in books, tells us how things look according to another’s view when it comes to non-factual imagery. Much of the class was surprised that no one knows for certain what Loki and Thor actually looked like, and, for some students, that Loki likely was not green, as depicted in a modern show.  

As a reminder, our Waldorf-inspired school greatly values and encourages low-media households as it benefits students in multiple ways. Many influential technology leaders send their children to Waldorf schools and minimize the use of technology in their homes! They create and manage technology for the world and simultaneously understand the benefits of limiting its use for children to their benefit. Please do your fullest at home to help follow this practice and you will enjoy similar benefits for your children!

With gratitude, 

Ki Melissa

Fourth Grade: January 5 - 7

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope everyone enjoyed their time together over winter break!

While it was wonderful to be back together on campus this past week, we will be even more excited today to have everyone back together.  We entered into the new semester more slowly than planned as several students were out of school.  For any extended absences, there will be lessons and practice work posted on our Google Classroom. I shared our new spring semester schedule via our classroom this past week. If you need help to access it, please let me know. 

This past week, we shared and wrote about our holiday break, worked at the farm to help Ki Rachel and the third graders following our long break, reviewed the relationship between multiplication and division, and began to memorize the basic division tables. The students quickly grasped the relationship and practice went well. We ended the week with a fun game of multiplication bingo.

This week, we dive back into a language block based around the Norse Myth stories.  We will look back at the gods and goddesses we have met thus far and their various characteristics and meet more and hear stories about many of them. Woven in these blocks is writing a proper paragraph, parts of speech, and learning to use transition words effectively. Our morning math will continue to focus on basic division tables as well as working with all four processes during our practice. We will begin a new handwork project with Ki Ieva, and continue learning in all our specialty classes!  We are happy and excited to be back at school together!

Reminders: 

  • Please make sure your child has boots at school every day

  • Saturday, January 15th, is a Community Work Day

  • Monday, January 17th, there is NO SCHOOL in observance of Martin Luther King Day.  Please see the main message for information for our school service project and resources for community service projects in our area.

  • A link to our school calendar can be found on our website: (thegardenmarietta.org) located under “News and Events”

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: December 13 - 16

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

The winter semester ended with fractions and fun!  We learned about multiples and factors as we finished our Introduction to Fractions block. The students learned about the Least Common Multiples (LCM) and the Greatest Common Factors (GCF) and practiced finding both using various numbers. Again, they found the usefulness of all the skip-counting practice we have done over the years, as well as the value in having multiplication tables memorized. Keep practicing at home playing games together until you have them memorized!  We will learn to simplify, add, and subtract fractions in the spring semester.  

Thursday, we wrapped up our fall semester with a pajama party as we enjoyed hot cocoa, cookies, and stories about Hanukkah and Christmas.  The silly sock exchange was a great success! Thank you all so very much for supporting our fun!

Thank you all for your kind and generous gifts!  It is a gift in itself to make this journey with your children and each of you. I cannot say thank you enough!  I look forward to seeing you all again on campus for an exciting spring semester filled with learning and adventure!

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: December 6 - 10

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

We began our Fractions blocks by sharing one whole pan of brownies and cutting it into fractions to enjoy as a class. It was a fun way to start off learning fractions. The week ended with reviewing the week’s lessons as each student worked with fractions based on the segments in an orange that we then ate for snack.

The students also learned the format for writing friendly letters. They wrote letters to a friend, to Santa Claus, and also to a parent and brought them home Friday to be mailed or shared directly. 

In Environmental Education, Ki Rachel and the class dissected owl pellets discovering undigested fur and bones and identifying what the owls had eaten. It was a “hoot” watching them work through this process! ;)

Next week, we will continue learning more about fractions and make a holiday craft or two. On Thursday, our last day of school before break and a half-day, we will have a pajama party complete with hot cocoa and cookies. Your child is invited to bring a favorite holiday picture book to share with the class. We will read some aloud as time allows.

Reminders:

  • It’s the final week of our TOY DRIVE for Must ministries. Please donate a new, unwrapped toy during carpool or you can make a monetary donation here, if desired.

  • Students will bring home all personal items stored at school over the holidays for washing, to check sizing, etc.

Thank you all for a wonderful semester together! It ended with the lovely surprise of recovering the chimney for our wood stove in an unexpected location. Ki Derek was across the street ordering a granite countertop for another project, and there was our chimney in the corner of the shop! The owner had found it in his parking lot and, not knowing why it was there or how it got there, put it in his workroom, where it has been since leaving the dome! We are thankful for its return and a much warmer dome! 

I wish you all a happy, joy-filled holiday break!

With gratitude,

Melissa

Fourth Grade: November 29 - December 3

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

We had a lovely time at our Winter Spiral.  Many of the students have participated in this activity since kindergarten or first grade. It is beautiful and inspiring to think of them then and see them now as they make this journey together. Our new friends joined right along and shared in the reverence of the occasion. 

We were happy to be back in class together this past week as we continued in our Human and Animal block.  The students brought in their completed animal reports, and each student took a turn standing in front of the class and shared the information by either reading their report directly or talking about the animal they observed.  They did a wonderful job with it all!  We learned more about mammals and reptiles as the week came to a close.

Next week, we will begin a new math block, starting with a introduction to fractions.  We will also focus on writing friendly letters and have some holiday fun as well.

Reminders: 

  • It will likely be a rainy and chillier week.  Wear layers! Warm drinks in a thermal cup are a nice idea too.

  • Thursday, December 16th, is the last day of the Fall Semester! It is a half-day.

  • Please consider donating to our Must Ministries Toy Drive.The Amazon wish list of the most needed toys is here and you can also make a financial donation here.  

  • If you are interested in being a substitute teacher for the early childhood and/or grades programs, please contact Ki Lesley at admissions@thegardenmarietta.org.

With gratitude, 

Melissa