Newsletter

November 2, 2009

First, a big thank you to all the parents who helped with our Halloween party rotations. A special thanks to Tyler's grandmother, Nancy, who provided all the ghoulish decorations. I forgot to float my iced hand in the punch, but maybe you can try this at home: take a thin rubber glove, fill it with water, knot the end, then position it in the freezer in some clawing fashion so you scare yourself each time you look for ice cubes. The hand needs to sit in warm water about a minute, then peel off the glove and you have a lovely ice sculpture. Thanks again for everyone's enthusiasm.

UCSC Life Lab Field Trip: Next Tuesday, your child will need warm clothes, a raincoat or slicker, a hat, sunscreen, sturdy shoes (no sandals), 2-3 drinks, 2-3 snacks, and a lunch. We'll spend all day outside and there is a lot of walking, so the kids will work up an appetite. We will be learning about vegetable and apple harvesting, make an organic snack, feed chickens, and learn about a variety of plant life cycles. Field Trip drivers (Simon, Adrienne, Jim, Nancy) please be in class by 8:20 and we will try to leave the parking lot by 8:30. Don't forget your own lunches. We should return by 2:30 at the latest. Be sure your current insurance card is on file in the office and that you have adequate coverage of $300,000.00 as the district mandates. If you need to increase it just for the day, most companies allow you to do this if you phone them in advance of the trip.

This month we'll read some wonderful books together that include: MOLLY'S PILGRIM about a young Russian child adapting to the U.S.; CORN IS MAIZE, a book about the history of corn in the Americas; A DRAGONFLY'S TALE, which is a very old Zuni legend about the perils of wasting your wealth (in this case, your bread). These later two books inter-relate somewhat and culminate with a corn feast the day before our Thanksgiving vacation in which I will invite the students to sign-up to bring in anything made of corn to share with classmates. In addition to corn discussions this month, we will be studying about other Native American tribes in the southwest particularly and will be creating some pictographic stories. If you have any photos of petroglyphs or pictographs to share with us, please send them in. We will also try to read some Native American legends and poetry. Please note that I am not giving any homework the week of Thanksgiving. I hope you are beginning to get some planning time with your child on their Family Tree. Do not leave this to the last minute!

Our Cultural Kaleidoscope program began this week and will go for 9 more sessions. Artist Claude Ferguson is teaching the students about the Dogon tribe in Africa. The project is mask making and has begun by having the students draw a symmetric design. Later on, they will be plastering and decorating it, then adding clothing to the base of the mask. It is very ambitious and the final product is spectacular. We have been assigned a buddy class in East Palo Alto where we will travel twice later in the year. Again, if you have any books about the Dogon culture, please send them in!

Thank you for being patient with the math homework scheduling. This program is quite intensive and I am really seeing strong results in the classroom. Remember that I expect each student play games on the computer at least twice a week. Game-playing is very important and reinforces all that we do in class.