Middle Grades: March 23 - 27

Hello parents,

I hope that you are all well and taking care of yourselves,  I appreciate your participation in our online ventures!  Please feel free to reach out if you need help.

Here is a recap of what we did last week:

  • Started to wrap up Charlotte's Web book reports

  • Began reading a book about animals, fiction or non-fiction

  • Took a second dive into long division

  • Wrote and illustrated a story about an animal

If your child is still working on these assignments, that is fine.  Take things at an easy pace.

Here are the things I will be sending you this week:

  • Daily practice in long division 

  • Main lessons focusing on fractions (which could include a pie, if you are so inclined), but cut it into six pieces instead of eight.

  • A drawing lesson and a clay project

  • An invitation to a zoom tea

  • A new music lesson

Have a great week!

Middle Grades: March 16 - 20

The Middle Grades home lessons got off to a slow start;  my computer, which is a slowly petrifying dinosaur mac, just won't cooperate to create zoom or meet sessions.  My lovely children have ordered me a chromebook as a birthday gift, and it will arrive by Friday at the latest.  As soon as I get it all set up, I will want to have a party - online, of course, and see all of you live.  Watch for a "best time" signup so that we can have 100% participation.

If you have feedback about Classroom, please let me know how it is working for you and what you would like to see more/less of.  It is possible to send individual assignments, and I will be happy to do that... just give me a few days.  Also, feel free to call me if you or your child have questions or issues with any assignment.  I am making myself available from 9 - 12 every morning for communications.

My assignments are coming in slowly, but today I will send the first lesson in the new math block.  My focus will be on long division and fractions.  For the fractions portion, I would love for you to combine fractions with cooking.  Ask your child to help plan and cook a meal, and figure out how many portions of a particular food they will need to make enough for everyone in your family.  Just sayin'..... this works very well with brownies and cookies too.

Please remember to wash the tips of the recorders well and often, even if they don't leave your house.  And please don't allow sharing.  Thanks for taking care of them!

If you crochet and you would like to help out on the mats, the end result should be about 6 feet long....  that's a lot of crocheting for one person.  I had been making a row or two on each one to help them, but now I can't do that.  Anything you can do to help without taking over would be greatly appreciated.

Across the cyber web I sent good wishes.

Good wishes for your health and safety.

Good wishes for your mental health and financial stability. 

And good wishes for sunshine and laughter.

Please let me know if you need help.  I have a good ear - two of them, in fact - and will do what I can to make your burdens seem lighter.

I have had my choirs sing this song many times, and love the words.  This is not my choir.  I don't know who is singing it, but the message is powerful!  Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa3lFQbwiH8

Middle Grades: March 9 - 13

Hello Middle Grades families,

We finished up our first Human and Animal block last week with a study of hands and feet. Human hands are quite the marvel.  They can’t dig like moles, or fly like eagles, but they can build what they need to do those things. 

We finished reading Charlotte’s Web, and began our final drawings as part of the book report. 

We welcomed two new students, Miles and Zoria (nicknamed Cookie) to our class. 

And now we are shifting our attention to the future. On Wednesday, you can pick up supplies and some assignments from the school. In addition to those assignments, I will be posting audio and video files via Google Classroom. You will be receiving an invitation to join our class online sometime tomorrow. This is so new to us, and very different, but I will try to create the rhythm of our day for you so that you can guide your child through the various parts of our day in a smooth way. Sessions will be recorded so that you can access them at any time during the day, and I will be available to clarify assignments and answer questions each day during the week.

We are asking that you be patient with us as we try to continue to provide your child with excellent instruction. 

There will be some garden tasks that you may want to take on so that you can finish up your volunteer hours. I will post those as a Sign-Up Genius sometime after I go to the garden tomorrow. We ask that only one family at a time sign up for these chores. 

If you need any help at all, please feel free to reach out. Sending loving thoughts to you all!

Kathee

Middle Grades: March 2 - 6

We have had a great week!  

Thanks to BJ Benson for repairing our rolling bookcase.  It looks great.

Although there were plans to plant seeds this week, the 6+ inches of rain we had stopped that.  There were other things that were successful, though.  I shared the folk tales about Selkies from Ireland and Scotland, and then we took a long look at seals.  There are some interesting similarities between seals and human beings.  Seals are primarily trunk animals, as are mice.

The spelling test next week will be on Friday.  Students will get their words on Monday.  I will post them on the FB page.

It is SO great to see the sun.  Cross your fingers that we'll have a whole week of sunshine next week.  We all need it.

Have a great week!!

Middle Grades: February 24 - 28

We began our block on Human and Animal this week with a piece of clay.  I invite you to try this exercise with a piece of clay…

Imagine the shape of your head.  Now round the piece of clay to look like a head - not totally round, slightly oblong.  Now do the same exercise, but think of the torso, or trunk.  The shape of the torso is a lot like a crescent moon: rounded in front and straighter in the back.  And lastly, what about the limbs?  Arms and legs are shaped differently, and have different things at the ends.  Each part of the body has a primary function, and, when in alignment, each part functions well with the other parts.  It is our hands from which we give and receive. It is from this feeling level that we approach our study of the relationship of hand, trunk, and limbs, and discover animals that function primarily in one phase. 

In this week's study, we discussed animals that are mostly head.  All of these creatures live in the sea.  Octopus, cuttlefish, oysters, and clams fit into this category.  Each of them have some very interesting habits and special talents.  Ask your child to recap them for you this week.  We'll be moving on to trunk animals next week.

I had mentioned that there would be an animal report coming up, but I have decided to wait until our second block to assign this report.  I want to finish the initial introduction to each of the groups of animals before asking the children which animal they want to spend enough time with to do a report.

There is a spelling test Monday, March 2.  Please help your child study.  The words are posted on the Middle Grades FB page.

We have a rolling book case that holds various books and supplies and is transported up and down the elevator on Mondays/Fridays.  The back is coming off, and each week something new comes tumbling out.  If you have the tools and skills to repair it, I would certainly appreciate your help.  Just text me and let me know if/when you can fix it and I'll make sure it's empty before you come.  Thank you in advance.

We are almost finished with Charlotte's Web and we'll be putting together our book reports in class, probably next week.  After they are completed, I will be assigning a new book to each student, and ask for the next book report to be the same format as the one we are doing for Charlotte's Web.  More on that next week.

Have a great week!!

Spring is almost here!

Middle Grades: Feb 10 - 14

This was a good time to have a break. The students wrote two letters this week. One was a business letter. The other was a personal letter to some students in Arkansas who want to build an outdoor classroom and had some questions about our spaces. 

I loved seeing their final product. Their cursive is beautiful, and each child had a personal twist that they added to the letters. 

Looking ahead, our next block is Human and Animal. Then we will have our first block on the Norse Myths, and then the Spring Play. Each student will have a report coming up in three weeks about an animal of their choice. Details of the project and the accompanying rubric will be in the next Monday Messenger. 

We have a workday Saturday in the garden. Please come if you can. There are a lot of things to be done to improve the garden, and I hope you can come and help!

Have a great week. 

Kathee

Middle Grades: Feb 3 - 7

I look forward to seeing you this coming week for conferences. Please sign up if you haven’t already done so. 

This week we will be writing letters and poetry as we finish up our Language Arts block, and we’ll be trying to finish up Charlotte’s Web. That means we’ll be very busy, since we are having half days. Please remember that drop off is 8:20-8:40, and we need to start our morning circle and main lesson at 8:40. 

Have a great week!!!

Middle Grades: January 27-31

The reading of Charlotte’s Web is going well. It is giving me an opportunity to identify some things for each child to work on to improve their fluency and comprehension. 

The Language Arts block will end after next week. Now that they have new tools to work with, they will begin to create writing projects. Business letters, letters to friends, poetry, stories, instructions, and more are on the list. 

Don’t forget to sign up for a Parent Conference!

Have a great week.

Middle Grades: January 21 - 24

It has been a good week in the Blur Sky room. Thanks to all the parents who have sent in plastic bags. The students have been busy making “plarn” and I have begun to crochet our sampler mat. If you would like to drop in and crochet some of it, please do come by. We plan to make each mat 6 feet long, so that’s a lot of single crochets!!

This was the week of the preposition. Next week we will finish defining and exploring the other parts of speech, and begin talking about the elements of good sentences, then we’ll use our knowledge when we write a few letters and describe some everyday things that we do to the recipients of our letters. 

Almost everyone in the class answered all of the practice math correctly, and the most anyone got wrong was 3 out of 30.  The students really seem to enjoy math, and I  proud of their determination to make sure they do it right. 

Have a great week!!!

Middle Grades: January 13 - 17

The Middle Grades had a great first week back!  We dive/dove/dived deep into the parts of speech, simple sentence structure, and how nouns and verbs change in relation to singular/plural and past/present tense. 

There were some fun moments.  The students made a card game a la Go Fish! but used vowel sounds instead of numbers.  And music laughter erupted when we played this game.....  you might want to play too!

Designate a queen, a king, a prince, and a prince.  

All say: Who? What?

The Queen calls out a noun.

All say: what kind of (noun)

The Princess calls out an adjective.

All say:  What does the (adjective)(noun) do?

The King calls out a verb.

How does the  (adjective)(noun) (verb)?

The Prince calls out an adverb.

All say the whole sentence.

We have music on Monday and Tuesday this semester.  Please help your child remember to bring their instruments on those days.  We will be practicing the recorders every morning, so they should be staying at school during the week.  Students who have a ukulele or a violin should bring them on Monday and Tuesday.  Once we have gotten settled into the new semester there will be things they need to practice.

On Tuesday we will begin reading Charlotte's Web as a class.  I will be giving assignments for them to read silently as well as out loud and will be evaluating for fluency and comprehension.  When we have finished the book, we will write a book report together, since by that time we will have talked about writing good paragraphs.  After we write this one together, additional book reports will follow the same format, and they will be assigned approximately every three weeks.

When we begin the Human and Animal block, each student will be assigned the task of writing a report on an animal. More details will be coming.

Have a great week!

Spring Semester: Middle Grades

Welcome back!!!  You will see in the general announcements that we are starting a service project this semester. Please bring in your plastic bags and keep them coming. 

This semester we will begin to transition to homework, since next year we will have it regularly.   If you have a particular day that your child would be more at ease with homework, please contact me via text or email. With the introduction of homework,  students will need to have an organizer, which we will make in class. I will also post what the homework is in the MG FB page. 

There will also be a new list for ways to present book reports. I will post that sometime next week. 

Welcome to 2020!!!!

Middle Grades: December 16 - 19

Seasons Greetings, dear parents!

Thank you so much for the lovely gifts I received.  I have a tradition of not opening my presents until Christmas (roots go deep in family superstitions), so I have them all under my tree and eagerly await their being opened.

On Thursday after opening circle, I asked my students to tell me what they know now that they didn't know when school started.  I was prepared to remind them of the blocks, but I never had to open my mouth!  They listed form drawing, cursive, fractions, division, long division, adding columns of numbers, The Song of the Chattahoochee, many things that they learned on the field trip to Cumberland Island, and, of course, the stories of The Monkey King.  I am excited to know that they remember what they've done.

Coming up in January is an intense block of Language Arts.  The goals for this block are to increase each student's fluency and reading comprehension, to better understand how sentences are structured - yes, we are going to diagram sentences - and then write business letters, personal letters and notes, non-fiction, and creative writing.

During the Human and Animal Block, we are planning a field trip to a zoo in Dahlonega that rescues animals rather than going to the Atlanta Zoo.  If you have any concerns about your child going to a zoo, please let me know. During that block we will be doing a lot of sketching animals, and I want them to be one on one (but from a short distance) with as many different animals as possible.

Safe travels if you are traveling during the holidays, and have a wonderful time with family and friends.

Best,

Ki Kathee

Middle Grades: December 9 - 13

We have all been enjoying the stories of the Monkey King.  There  is a lot of adventure, a little bit of humor, and a great deal about learning life lessons from an Eastern Asian perspective.

We have also been celebrating the four weeks of advent as Rudolf Steiner developed them.  Steiner believed that as we begin to experience the increasing darkness of winter, it is a good time to celebrate the mineral world, the plant world, the animal world, and the world of human beings.

The first light of Advent is the light of stones,

The light that shines in crystals, in seashells and in bones.

The second light of Advent is the light of plants,

Plants that grow to the sky and in the breezes dance.

The third light of Advent is the light of beasts,

The light of faith that we may see in greatest and in least.

The fourth light of Advent is the light of humankind,

The light of hope of thoughts and deeds,

The light of hand, heart, and mind.

I have written a tune for the poem so that we are singing it each morning as we light a candle and place items on the table.  It is quite beautiful.  SInce we will not be at school next week, we will do two days of the light of beast and two days of the light of humankind.  Please send a picture of a family pet on Tuesday, and of your family on Wednesday.

This week as we finish up the Fall semester we are going to take some time to relax a little.  Monday we are doing nature crafts and snowflakes.  Tuesday is pajama day - students can bring a  pillow and blankie - we will take some time to hear some stories.  Wednesday we were going to bake and then take bags of goodies to an assisted living home and pass them out and sing; however, the oven was damaged over the weekend last weekend, and we can't use it until a new door facing arrives and is installed, so we may have to rethink Wednesday.  I will post updates on the Facebook page.  Thursday is backwards day.  Our schedule will be reversed, students wear their clothes backwards, we'll try writing backwards, etc.  If you can get into the groove on Thursday, it might be fun to have dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.

If you have questions about this week, please feel free to text me or email me.  

Have a great week!!

Middle Grades: December 2- 6

We are well underway into learning all about the Monkey King, which is a long saga from the Chinese tradition. There are so many wonderful adventures in this folk tradition, and his search for immortality gets him into all kinds of trouble as he travels. The students have been writing their own recapitulations of the stories, and doing a wonderful job. They are learning how to draw monkeys and dragons and celestial beings.

We continue to read aloud The Chronicles of Narnia, and have daily practice in adding and subtracting fractions, adding columns of numbers, and multiplying and dividing problems.

I was so proud of my students today at the First Friday Assembly; the students all have musical gifts, and I love teaching them music.

There will be no more book reports this semester, and the formats will change in January.

We did not have a chance today to take the spelling test, so it will be given on Monday. Please help your child practice the words.

Remember to take time to breathe in December. It is so easy to get too busy.

Stay loose.

Middle Grades: November 18 - 22

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful week. I am so grateful for you letting me share in the life of your children.

Best,

Ki Kathee

P.S. The next book reports are due December 1.

Middle Grades: November 11 - 15

We finished up the math block this week with a review of measurement and the multiplication tables most often used with each system. Although we will not have another math block until Spring, students will continue to have a math practice sheet every morning.

I am very excited to begin a new block on Monday. We will explore the wonderful folk literature of China. There is a predominant theme of the pursuit of immortality in many of the myths and legends, especially in the tales of the Monkey King. During this block we will take a look at the folk music, dance, art, and food from the various regions of China. If you have anything you would like to share with our class - a recipe, a costume, a piece of art - please let me know so that I can schedule some time for it.

Next week on Friday we will have our Thanksgiving Lunch, and there is an early release. If you have not already signed up to either help or contribute a beverage or a dessert, please go to the Sign-Up Genius and RSVP and sign up to bring something. We will sit together as a class as we eat our family lunch. Be sure to bring your own plates, cups, and silverware: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A054AA9A72FA1FD0-thanksgiving

There have been some students absent this week throughout the school who have had various upper respiratory infections and flu-like symptoms. Please remind your child of the importance of washing hands thoroughly and often and coughing into the fold of the arm so as not to spread germs unnecessarily. We'll try to stay well!!!

Have a great week. I hope to see you at the lunch on Friday.

Middle Grades: November 4-8

This past week we worked diligently on learning how to solve vertical math problems adding, subtracting, and multiplying, and adding and subtracting fractions with common denominators. I am so pleased to see the huge progress being made. Other math facts we’re exploring include factors, prime numbers, and using coins to solve math problems.

As we end this block, I will be giving an assessment to see where everyone is when working independently.

The weather is changing fast! Having your children dress in layers is the best way to ensure they are ready for going in and out without getting too hot or too cold.

Most of the students have picked out a new book to read. Book reports will be due Friday, November 15.

Have a great week!!

Middle Grades: October 30 - November 4

The Middle Graders had a good week with Ki Kate subbing for them, and I am so excited to be back with my Middle Graders this week!

Middle Grades: October 21- 25

Hello parents of Middle Grades.

It was great to see you at the festival. I hope all of you had a wonderful time!

This week is all about fractions. Any practical reinforcement would be greatly appreciated. We are not yet computing problems on paper. We are exploring together how people use fractions. Here are some ways that we will be working with fractions:

Time: hours, minutes, seconds (1:60:360; what is a 1/4 of an hour; half an hour?) a year, months, weeks, days (1: 12; 7:1) What is half a year?

Measurement: liquid and dry measures used in cooking(gallon; quart; pint; cup); length (yard, foot, inches); weight (pound:ounces)

Cutting paper into halves, fourths, eighths or thirds, sixths, twelfths

The next book report is due Friday. Please be sure your child is selecting a new way to present their book report from the list.

Have a great week!

Middle Grades: October 14 - 18

It was great to see everyone at the parent conferences. I look forward to having a family gathering sometime in November.


We have begun the new Math Block. It's all about counting and making math fun, so we played with regular playing cards today.

Try this game at home: Take out the face cards; leave the aces - they count as one. Lay eight card face down on a table. Turn them over and add them up as fast as you can. It helps if you add up the tens and then add the other cards. Today we had two teams. Time and accuracy are important.


Do you have your Kingdom of Halloween tickets??? It's going to be amazing, thanks to the efforts of Sarah Darby and friends. Thank you, Sarah, for all of your efforts.


Asher Benson turned 9 yesterday. We will be celebrating tomorrow. If your child has allergies, you might want to send an extra snack, just in case there is flour and/or pineapple.


The book reports on Friday were well done!!! The next book report is due on November 1 - that may not be a good day to have them due. 1st Friday after Halloween??? Let's make them due on Monday, November 4 instead. There are no spelling words for this week yet, so we will skip a test. I will give them the words tomorrow and the next test will be next Tuesday, Oct. 29.


Have a great week and enjoy this beautiful weather!!