Elementary

Kinder/1st: Week of 1/6

This week in Our Big Backyard… We’ve learned so much about our Backyards. Now it’s time to head in different directions to explore our BIGGER backyard of Texas. First, we needed to learn which direction we were going…North, South, East or West. We got out compasses and our peeps and traveled in each of the cardinal directions. We talked about how useful maps are and how most maps have a feature called a compass rose. We crafted our own. Then we thought about what’s important for all living things in our State so we looked at where the rivers flow […]

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Half day kindergarten student proudly displays an owl he sewed at a part time school.

2nd/3rd: Week of 1/6

Math – Ms. Andrea’s math group launched into a new math unit on time! We created a large clock together, then each made our own with moveable hands. These Betas remember so much from last year! This year we will focus on precision. We practiced reading clocks and drawing hands on analog clocks to the hour, half hour, quarter hour and every 5 minutes. We also learned a new game, sorting activities based on when we do them (AM/PM). Next week our discussion of time and schedules will continue, along with practice telling time down to the exact minute! Ms.

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Two second grade students work together at non-religious school in Austin.

4th/5th: Week of 1/6

General News We had a wonderful first week back from break! The Gamma class was hardworking, thoughtful, kind, and enthusiastic – as always! ELA Update This week we began by introducing our new novel study. We are reading Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson. This story is set pre-civil war, during the Antebellum era. It is a story of friendship and community. We started the week off by exploring the setting of the novel by taking a look at the Great Dismal Swamp. This massive, forested wetland once covered millions of acres in Southwest Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. We read an

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Two fourth graders work on couch at micro school in Austin

K/1st: Week of 12/9

One of our Class Helper’s jobs… giving our worm farm a good moisture-producing rain-spray! This week in Our Big Backyard… We talked about the rich, diverse community of Ponds. What is the water’s edge? How is it different from the muddy bottom, the surface film or the open water? What creatures thrive in Ponds? We looked at how energy is transferred in food chains through primary producers to primary consumers and on to secondary, tertiary and apex consumers. We realized humans like hawks, bears, and coyotes are also apex predators! We also looked at the series of stages a frog

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Kindergarten science experiment at STEM school.

2nd/3rd: Week of 12/9

Math – Ms. Andrea’s math group finished Unit 4 with a lot of hard work and determination. This week we tackled triple digit addition and subtraction with regrouping(!), word problems containing all of the above, and our unit test! Way to go, Beta 1s! Ms. Kelly’s math group knows how to represent division equations in so many different ways! We began the week practicing together, moving on with partners to tackle challenge work with division specifically. We also practiced using division to figure out the missing factors in a multiplication equation. Using a letter for the missing variable was very

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Elementary class works on project at GT school.