Gamma News
September 23- October 2, 2014
Announcements:
We need building supplies!! In the coming weeks, we’ll be building a model medieval village, complete with houses, businesses and a posh manor house for our special guest Peep, Prince Magnus. We’ll be asking Gammas to look around their worlds to see if they might spot anything that is the right scale (Peeps are between 3” and 4” tall) to create furniture, floor or wall coverings or other props for our Theme project. The goal is to find ways to MAKE what we need, not use ready-made objects such as dollhouse or Play Mobile parts, so Gammas can practice problem-solving and creative skills.
Things that can be used for our Peep buildings:- oatmeal boxes
- yogurt cups and lids
- scraps of fancy fabric that can be cut up for rugs or tapestries
- empty matchboxes
- bottle caps or lids
- a cup or two of sand for some of our floors
- small pieces of balsa wood
- a variety of fimo, clay or modeling wax
- bits of nature~ rocks or sticks shaped like things a medieval Peep serf or lordling might use!
A taste of the Middle Ages will happen on Tuesday, October 7th. Gammas will get an opportunity to eat the way a medieval See the Middle Ages Food Research page in the purple PnP folder!
Circle:
The Traveling Easel : it “eases” Gammas into their morning and travels between the two rooms before Circle.
We are settling into our school year, and the Gammas are doing some familiar things: yoga with Ms. Stacey every other Tuesday, singing in rounds, hosting visitors, showing/telling about our interests/enthusiasms/adventures. We are also doing some NEW things that Ms. Amanda brings to us: a Gamma-made calendar and written appreciations of classmates are the great new routines! We have also added a Morning Question and our Journaling Prompt help Gammas learn how to interpret and summarize graphical information as well as articulate their thoughts and feelings on paper.
Fess reads his appreciation for a fellow Gamma.
Sue Butler, Clark’s mom, shared some information with Gammas about her recent visit to Britain. She got to see the manor of Lord Carnarvon, the patron of the expedition that discovered King Tut’s tomb. Gammas 2013-14 learned about Ancient Egypt and this amazing discovery in theme!
The Gamma-made September calendar, which featured two days from each Gamma with an interesting animal on the front, and a corresponding fact on the back!
Yoga with Ms. Stacey
Literacy:
In literacy last week we worked on learning new vocabulary connected to our Middle Ages Theme study by creating a match up card game the students made and played with one another. We also finished the “Publishing” stage of the Writing Process, as we created rustic looking covers for our Peep Writing and bound our books. The Gammas are also getting very excited about our read aloud story called The Adventures of Sir Givret The Short. We’ve been practicing listening comprehension and recalling ideas as we read the book in class. Next week we’ll be working on Words Their Way sorts to practice spelling patterns and starting our Book Clubs so students can read with one another in class practicing Reading Strategies and comprehension skills.
Ms. Amanda helps binding Peep biographies.
Clark, Navi and Kahlil show their “aged” biographies of their medieval Peeps.
Math:
These first weeks of AHB have been all about applications of what we already know in Math! Gammas have reviewed money to calculate building measurements and costs. We have been estimating measurements for linear objects like string and yarn to the nearest inch, for estimating area to the nearest square inch to determine area and costs of fabric, walls, floors, roofing and for three dimensional objects measured by weight. Once Gammas know how much individual building components cost, we can add up columns of numbers to find the total cost. Some of the Gammas noticed that the area of a space like a shoebox are related: the area of a floor might be the same as the ceiling~ wow! What is the simplest way to add these up? Can you multiply by two! Very cool!
After this “jump starting” of multiple math concepts (adding, measuring, area, geometry, multiplication, money), we’ll settle into Math Pentathlon during our Math week.
How to find the area of a Peep cloak…
…now how much does it cost?
We find the area of the walls for the spaces we are creating so we know how much paint we need…
Kahlil painting his Peep’s rogue hideout.
Collaborative painting with Jolie and Ella, who are making the manor’s stable.
Theme:
The building of our medieval manor has begun! Our theme has been moving many of the reading, writing and mathematical topics forward this quarter! The Gammas have been very busy learning about what interests them for the Middle Ages. Here are a selection of our manor building and the Be a Historian projects that Gammas presented to the class:
Historian Kanai hanging around showing his facts.
Historian Alexander shows us the parts of a castle he learned by building a scale model himself.
Historian Fess shares the book he has written.
Historian Sarah dressed as a medieval builder for her presentation to Gammas.
Historian Jojo shows and tells Gammas information about Joan of Arc.
Historian Nate tells us something about medieval timekeeping.
Reece letting us know “Who knew the Middle Ages were so interesting?” during Clark’s presentation on medieval armor.
Gammas are also discovering the rudiments of ratios in the human face body with our Byzantine Portrait projects and through Peep-making.
Finn and Nate finishing illustrations for their Peep biographies.
Ian makes a Peep.
Other Fun:
Jolie hanging around at recess.
Alexander cruising to avoid being tagged out during dodgeball.
Ed, Alexander’s dad, shares a saxophone with Finn at the Band Petting Zoo.
Jojo showing a Beta friend the “who, what, when, where, why” of a book she recently completed.