Elementary

4th/5th: Week of 10/28

General News ELA Update This week in ELA was a blast! The enthusiasm they have shown for the new genre study has surprised and delighted their ELA teacher! Gamma’s were impressed with the reorganization of the classroom library and it piqued their interest anew for self-selecting books. We heard a lot of casual conversation in the mornings discussing books! On Monday we went over the new homework and found out who will be in our book clubs for this first round of books and they self-selected books from the library. Ms. Ansley told them it is a-okay to “judge a […]

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Two fourth grade students work on geography at private school in Austin.

K/1st: Week of 10/21

This week in Our Big Backyard… We began with the Blackland Prairie imagining the sea of native grasses that grew in this area we now know as Austin. We took a look at how tall the grass stood from 3’-10’…taller than most of us (we measured). But what was astounding is that their roots reach down 10 or more feet (we measure that too!) to create an amazing interweaving of roots. We learned that grasses and their roots were and are what keeps the soil in place. Native grasses created soil so rich it was black and full of minerals,

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Kindergarten student displays what she found outdoors at STEM school in Austin.

2nd/3rd: Week of 10/21

Math Ms. Andrea’s math group launched our 3rd unit – devoted entirely to addition and subtraction. For the rest of the year we’ll delve into adding and subtracting with larger numbers, learning strategies and utilizing regrouping skills. This week we focused on fact families, aka number bonds. Given a number (example: 13) we came up with 2 additional numbers to create a fact family (example: 7, 20): 13+7=20. We also learned a new name for our sum: Big Daddy. Subtraction sentences always start with our Big Daddy: 20-7=13 or 20-13=7, for the example above. We got comfortable detailing many fact

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Second grader works on writing at micro school in Austin.

4th/5th: Week of 10/21

General News It was so lovely to be back together again after fall break! We had a quick but action-packed week. Remember to look over science fair materials and due dates and add them to your calendars, as we are moving quickly through the scientific method. Testable questions (Part I of the packet) are due in class on Monday! Next Thursday, on Halloween, we’ll head to Shipe Park in costume (optional, of course.) Please be mindful of our Alphas and be sure that our costumes are Rated G on the scary scale. Thanks! ELA Update This week in ELA we

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Fourth grade student holds up spelling word at hands on school.

K/1st: Week of 9/30

Alphas are prepared for anything! This week in Our Big Backyard… We started with ice. As ice melted we saw that it became liquid and as it got warmer it transformed into vapor! And presto! We learned the 3 states of water. We talked about how heat and cold affect the different states by speeding up or slowing down those tiny little water molecules. We created droplet art and left the drops on tables. When we came back the next morning the droplets were gone! Where did they go? Some of us thought that they had been absorbed into the

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A board with vowel sounds at private school in Austin.