Week of April 24 - 28

Miss Angela with Grades 4,3,2,1...

GARDENing Monday and Wednesday 9:10-10:00.

Creek/Nature Study 10:30-11:00

Japanese 11:15-12:00

Watercolors Tuesday 2:00-2:45

Character-building Read-Aloud

Handwork, Monday and Thursday 2:00-2:45

Please continue motivating your 3rd/4th grade child to practice on weekdays, especially through the summer..... 30 minutes of reading with a written one sentence response to the reading selection. Break in between..... Also, 30 minutes of mental math practice and on paper one problem and solution of 2 digit +,-,x,/. Refer to distribution method examples below. 🍯Angela

Week of April 17 - 21

Dear Garden Families,

Here is my note of appreciation for a wonderful 2016 summer camp and school year. As of May 1, the Grades students will combine into one class led by Ms. Melissa. Instead of The Garden School of Marietta, I will join DeKalb County Parks implementing the wealth of instructional approaches I have gained while teaching at The Garden School...Waldorf and Forest School. Thanks for sharing your family with me and entrusting your children to me.

With appreciation,
Angela Sauvé

 

Here are some grades 4,3,(2,1) highlights with Ms. Angela.

Picnic Lunch everyday!

Picnic Lunch everyday!

Math practice while learning about the snapping turtle.

Math practice while learning about the snapping turtle.

Picnic Lunch Everyday!

Picnic Lunch Everyday!

Preparing new garden beds.

Preparing new garden beds.

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Week of March 20 - 24

Namaste,
We leave the Hindi language and on to American Sign Language. At other times of day, every purposed and spontaneous opportunity leads us into appreciation of and practice with reading, writing, calculations, fractions, time, wildlife and relationships.

Watercolor

More Watercolor

Yellow Banded Watersnake

Mr. Lee's games are a favorite!

Aquatic Dragonfly Larva

Aquatic Fly Larva

Reading & Writing

Self Portrait using Times Tables

Week of March 13 - 17

Hello families,

Cold weather encourages us to hold school indoors with a few excursions out into the cold. As we read about weather, we talk science and math as well as artistically create an indoor weather station collage. It should be ready for weather forecasting by 3/31...

Week of March 6 - 10

Experiential learning permeates the walls and forest of The Garden School. Transplant the pea seedlings 6 inches apart and 4 inches deep. Look at the clock hands to tell what time we begin the water sample incubation. The thermometer reads how many degrees Celsius for air and then water? What is the difference? For me, this type of learning is fun!

Games with Mr. Lee result in the children emptying their water bottles. Hydration matches invigorating exercise!

Can you speak and write Hindi? Garden School graduates can.

Academic rigor meets the developing scholar.

Academic rigor meets the developing scholar.

Week of Feb 27 - Mar 3

March arrives! Increasing outdoor & unpredictable weather, so please attend each day or store inclassroom: raincoat, rain pants, rain boots, water and dry shoes/socks, dry-wick top & bottom layers, hand toweland extra "change of clothes" for prn/ end of day. Academically, we explore fractions in relationship to measurement and division. Fluency motivates all other activity. Writing responses, in Vimalla, as we expressively read. Strategically think with our math facts and calculate the 4 operations while repetitively relying on basic facts using a distribution method.

The Garden School Adopt-a-Stream service poster will be displayed at Cobb County Watershed offices.

Week of 2/14/2017

Often during the week of 2/14/2017 all grades students were shared by Ms. Melissa and Ms. Angela. Together we learned through math fluency games, calculations on the chaulkboard or paper, and reading aloud The Wizard of Oz.

"Look out, look out Jack Frost is about..  such wonderful pictures he'll make... " Friday's a.m. frost led us to recite a class poem as well as explore physical change, temperature, and the water cycle.

The Many Treasures of Mixed-Age Learning

With several students and teachers out last week with symptoms of the flu, our elementary students all crowded together for main lesson. While combining ages poses some pedagogical challenges, there is so much richness and connection that comes from having a chance to see how those older and younger than you learn. It was wonderful!

The practice of grouping students into grades based on their age during the school year is quite new in education. It developed after the Industrial Revolution as a way to ease the administrative burdens of educating large groups of students in rapidly expanding cities. 

Although there are pedagogically sound reasons for such a division, they don't tell the whole story of education, and much is lost when we make assumptions that all children are developmentally ready for the same materials and experiences at the same time.

At The Garden School, small classes and caring, highly-trained teachers allow us to understand and meet the needs of all our students regardless of their age, and to feel confident that each of them is developing according to their best potential.