Crew News March 3rd, 2023

 Announcements

This Saturday is our Crew Auction: Super fun night for a great cause- our school! Hope to see there! More info below.

Next Thursday is our Winter Hike: We have spent some time this week thinking about what it means to be prepared for the hike, showing independence, Leave No Trace, perseverance, and reviewing hiking norms. Right now, it looks like our day to hike is going to be a chilly one, with a high of 33 degrees and possible snow! Brr! Here is the gear list of what students should have in their daypack and what to wear to be prepared for our hike along the Plum Creek Trail:

We call our hiking backpack our daypack. It can be your child's normal backpack or another one that is better fitted for outdoors. Inside it, please have a sturdy medium or large waterbottle filled with water, a lunch from home and 2 extra snacks (for a total of 4 snacks for Thursday), extra warm layer (if your child is already wearing their warm layer, then it is not extra- so make sure there is something extra to put on if cold), gloves (snow gloves or cotton gloves depending on weather), warm hat that covers ears, optional scarf or neckgator, sunglasses, and optional tissues.

Please put sunscreen on at home on the day of the hike. Students should wear their heavy warm snowjacket with a hood, snow pants, and snow (or waterproof) boots.

*In Take Home Folders, your child drew and copied my list so to use as a a reference.

Next Friday is our Crew Picture: Dorian Photography will be taking Crew Photos on Friday March 10th. Please make sure your child attends on this day. :) Don't forget your order forms if you would like to purchase a copy.

School Newsletter: Check out all the updates and announcements in this week's school newsletter. One of our pictures was featured this week! School Newsletter Link.Thanks for staying updated!

(repeated from last time) 

REMS Auction, Save the Date!

When - Saturday, March 4th at Cielo
Theme - 1920's, Speakeasy - Dressing up is fun and we hope you do! But if that's just not you, that's ok too!
Where - Cielo At Castle Pines
Time 6 - 10 pm
Step back into the Roaring 20s to an exclusive speakeasy for our Renaissance Community! We'll have hors d'oeuvres & signature drinks to enjoy while you bid on awesome items and experiences in the Silent & Live Auctions including Teacher Time, Crew Art, exclusive Travel Packages, theme baskets & more!
Enjoy this adults-only event to visit with other Renaissance parents and our teachers and staff. Childcare will be available, provided by RSS! Whether you're looking to cut a rug on the dance floor, take pictures at the photo booth, or take home one of our prize packages, there's something for everyone while we support our school!
Tickets On Sale Now! Now through February 10th, individual tickets are $65 and couples tickets are just $85! For families and businesses that wish to sponsor our event, each level of sponsorship also includes event tickets for you and all your friends!

Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities:

-Second Semester Rug Washing (Fridays)

-Letter & Number Formation Volunteers (M, Tu, & Th 8:30-9)

-Reading Volunteers (M, Tu, Th, Fri 9:25-9:50)

-Teacher Helper Volunteers (at home projects- Thursday; in-classroom helper Friday morning; and iPad helper Friday afternoon)

Calendar

Sat 3/4: REMS Auction Fundraiser 6-10pm (Adults Only)

Thur 3/9: Winter Hike at Plum Creek Trail

Fri 3/10: Community Reading 8:30-9am and Crew Photo (Please make sure your child is present on this day)

March 13-24th: Spring Break

Crew Highlights

Learning Update:

In reading, we are continuing Unit 7 on Holidays and Celebrations. We have been learning about how New Years is celebrated in five locations around the world. Did you know... in Santo Domingo, they have a tradition of putting 12 grapes in their mouth right before midnight and trying to say "Happy New Year!" And during the Chinese New Year, people will put money inside red envelopes to give to children and to the people dressed as dragons in the street parades. Our reading lessons have targeted noticing sepquence words, using opposites to determine meaning of unknown words, identifying the central idea and the supporting important details, and comparing/constrasting two texts.

*Ask you child something they learned about celebrating New Years Around the World.

*Practice naming the central idea of a text and the important details that tell about it.

In writing, we are going through the revision process to "publish" a piece of writing. Students went back through their blue writing folder to select something that they have written in the past two months. Then we have "cleaned it up" with sounding out words, adding missing words, adding punctuation, adding more writing, and figuring out what it needs to make it high quality work. Additionally, students added a cover page with a title and a "About the Author" page. How fun to see their excitment! We will be sharing these with you next week.

*What is something that you added to your published story to make it better?

In Phonics, our letter of the week is Ww and our new sight words are are and have. We have practiced with syllables, phoneme deletion, and the word family -in.

*Continue to practice the latest sight words. We will have a Phonics Assessment next week.

In math, we have been working on foundational skills with addition and subtraction. We have practice adding and subtracting within 5 using pictures, manipulatives, and writing equations. I noticed that it is easier for students to match the equation to the picture (of items being added or subtracted) than it is for students to come up with "what two number make 4?" (2+2, 1+3, 4+0). We will continue to work on this.

*Practice at home with stuffed animals, socks, or other silly items to make your own simple math equations within 5.

In expedition, we have covered our last two simple machines that we will be studying: the screw and the wedge. We read books, watched videos, and wrote about these in Scientist Notebooks. Then today, we watched a Rube Goldberg Machine video to see how kids will combine their knowledge of simple machines into something new. I will upload videos to Seesaw!

Next week, we will be reviewing our learning about force and simple machines. To wrap up this expedition, students will be creating a final product about their favorite simple machine. Stay tuned!

*This is a delightful video that reviews some of our learning from this unit:

Scratch Garden Simple Machines

During learning exploration time, students alternated between building with gears and Lego Kits.

Students learned how turning one gear would turn the other gears.

The Lego Challenge proved to be quite challenging!

It was a spinner that used gears and a lever to put a smaller spinner in motion.

This part was spinning like a top.

Students came up with creative Rube Goldberg Machines using the materials in our classroom.

These are FUN to build at home too! If you create Rube Goldberg Machines over the weekend (or Spring Break), please send me your videos!

A highlight of our Week was celebrating Read Across America Day. This day is celebrated on Dr. Seuss's birthday. It is a nationwide celebration of promoting literacy and a love of reading. To celebrate, our fabulous principal Ms. Trena was a guest reader. We had extra reading time throughout the day- both indpedently and with a partner. After reading Dr. Seuss books, it was fun to hear them read another way- as a rap by Wes Tank!

What a joy that we build a shared love of learning every week during Community Reading!

Speaking of Promoting Literacy- I got the following email from Vooks (which our crew can access through their Clever accounts). It had some incredible stats that were worth sharing.

Thank you for all you do at home to support our growing readers! It is my passion to inspire a love of reading and lifelong learning.

If you would like to see a few more pictures of our week, click here for the photo link.

Hope to see you back in time- at the Roaring 20s (tomorrow night)!

Warmly, ~Ms. Lauren