Elementary

4th/5th: Week of Feb 3

General News ELA Update This week in ELA we started to spend more time diving into our novel. On Monday we went over P&P and got into small groups for discussion about our reading response questions. On Tuesday and Wednesday we explored figurative language and vocabulary from the novel. We learned about how to make an inference about the meaning of an unfamiliar vocabulary word through the equation of schema + context = inference. We did a little storytelling about times we were in a situation similar to characters in the book. We talked about our worst injury ever, a […]

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Elementary students walk outside at field trip at private school in Austin.

K/1st: Week of Jan 27

Last week… WE explored the landscape and habitats west of the Great Plains and Panhandle. We found the Chihuahuan desert…home to many amazing creatures and cacti , the Davis and Chisos Mountain ranges with their juniper, small oak, and pinon trees, and Beautiful Big Bend National Park along the Rio Grande. We discovered that creatures adapt to their environments. Like the Kangaroo Rat that doesn’t drink water…it gets enough of it from it’s food AND it can kick a rattlesnake like nobody’s business! The javelina, a collard peccary whose favorite food is the prickly pear and guess what?! The cactus

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Kindergarten student plays on parachute at private elementary school.

2nd/3rd: Week of Jan 27

Math – Ms. Andrea’s math group practiced estimating & measuring like crazy! We also had several discussions about measurement, how and why we do it and why accuracy is important. We looked at inches, feet and yards as well as centimeters and meters. Paxton chose to measure a popcorn kernel – that was the only time we delved into millimeters :) We measured some pretty large items by learning a new skill: “marking our spot” and there were calculations to be done – mostly inches into feet but also inches into centimeters! The Beta 1s practiced ordering sets of items

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Elementary teacher reads to students at project-based school.

4th/5th: Week of Jan 27

General News ELA Update This week was all about finishing up our fiction stories and the laborious task of editing. Ms. Ansley played the role of publisher and editor! As each student finished their writing she went through and highlighted areas to be reviewed for CUPS (capitalization, understanding, punctuation, and spelling). Once that was all done they had the super fun task of making cover art, back covers, and about the author pages in Canva. These were then sent off to the publisher (Ms. Ansley) for lamination and binding. If your kiddo hasn’t quite finished typing up their story you

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Elementary student working on computer at STEM school in Austin.

K/1st: Week of Jan 20

This SHORT week in Alpha! Ace “Just keeps truckin’ on…” This week in Our Big Backyard… It was a crazy blur! We learned a lot about West Texas’ flora and fauna and got started on our West Texas diorama! We will upload an update on our journey’s progress next week! In Math… Ms. Kim’s Mathletes learned about a distinctive group of polygons this week: The Quadrilaterals! We also practiced turning the sums we created into equations – and we even crammed in some SEL with a great role-play on how to say “excuse me” when someone is in our way.

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Private school kindergarten student works hard with marker and paper.