The Middle Kids enjoyed an afternoon of DEAR (Drop Everything And Read).  We made cozy reading spots, ate popcorn and drank yummy hot chocolate.  It was such a great way to spend the afternoon before Thanksgiving break.

This week the Middle Kids are learning all about levers. We are using levers to open paint cans and doors, and to lift heavy loads, including Bryce and Suzanne! We are learning that levers can make work easier. Look around your house and help your child find levers in the house and garden and discuss what work they do. Remember the scientific definition of work is using a force (push or pull) to move an object.

On Friday, the Middle Kids will be presenting their invention using at least one simple machine. This can be a drawing or a model. Some kids are really eager to make a model, but this may be challenging, so remember a drawing is just fine. Make sure the drawing is labeled. We are also asking that your child write a paragraph about their invention. They need to include the problem the invention is solving, or the need that is being met and details on how to use it. Make sure the use of the simple machine is included. We can’t wait to see what the kids came up with.

Next week is a short week: we are only here on Monday and Tuesday. For this reason, there will be no homework next week. This week is a normal homework week.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This week the middle kids are moving on to our new topic of simple machines. We will introduce this topic by guiding the students to the realization that we use simple machines every day in so many ways. Over the next few weeks, we will take a look at the six different kinds of simple machines as we do fun, engaging hands-on activities. We will learn all about work, force and friction while we experiment with levers, inclined planes, the screw, wheels and axles, pulleys and the wedge. We even have a recitation where our students will need to use their creativity to design an invention, using at least one simple machine. Take a look in the homework folder for more details on this two-week recitation project.

You may have heard that he middle kids are working with Beate on a community project to collect coats for Crossroads Safehouse. Here is a note from Beate:
St.Martinstag Coat Drive
Just a reminder that our coat drive is still going on until Friday 14. MK performed an inspiring skit during group sing and our collection bags are filling up. Please check your closets and consider donating gently used coats of any size. All donations will benefit the crossroads safehouse in Fort Collins.
Danke,
Beate

This week we have our fabulous musical “The Oceanography Show”. We have a dress rehearsal for the school on Wednesday and the performance for parents on Friday at noon. Tina is asking that the kids wear black pants and shirts for both these shows. Feel free to send the clothes to school in a bag, and your kids can keep them here all week. Prepare to be amazed on Friday as you watch this great performance.

It seems as if Fall weather has finally arrived, at least for today.  As the weather changes, we want to remind you to make sure your kids come to school with appropriate clothing.  We do go outside in almost all weather, so it’s important that the students can stay warm and dry.  Of course, they may choose not to wear a coat, but we can try.  Also, we would like to remind you all about morning snack.  We’ve noticed that quite a few kids are not bringing, or are not choosing to eat,  a snack for morning break.  Having a small snack can really help our students get  an energy and brain boost, so we do encourage you to send a snack to school.

This week is a normal week, at last.  We will be finishing up Mesopotamia with a look at the Code of Hammurabi and considering our own laws and rules for the classroom.  We will also be pondering our essential question “What determines the success of a civilization?”  This question is open-ended, leads to many different answers and opinions, and encourages higher level thinking.  It is also a question that can be asked of any civilization, including our own.  You might want to discuss it over dinner one day this week 🙂

In literacy this week, we will be continuing our stories.  These kids are so creative and are writing stories about haunted houses, people stranded on desert islands and junior detectives, amongst other things.  In order to reinforce the development of strong characters in our own writing, we will be looking out how characters change and learn from their adventures and experiences in our books in Reading workshop. Students who studied this last year will be going deeper and doing more character study independently.

Tonight we will be having our first Cupcakes and Curriculum event.  We will be focusing on our math curriculum.  If you have questions about how we teach math at Rivendell or how kids move through our math progression, please join us at 5:30 tonight.  Just be sure to let Jenda in the office know so we can order the correct number of cupcakes and arrange for childcare if you need it.

Middle Kids’ Musical is Friday, November 14th at noon.

We actually have a fairly normal week this week – right up until Friday afternoon.  The kids should bring their costumes to school in a bag and hang them on their hooks.  We will get changed into costumes at 1:45, and then the costume parade will begin at 2:00.  After that, there will be a party in the classrooms.  The middle kids will be able to go back and forth between Bryce’s and Suzanne’s rooms this year, with different activities in each.  We could still use more parent volunteers to stay and help out during the party.  If you are able to help out in this way, please sign up on the sheets posted outside our classroom doors.

This week for a recitation the kids are taking part in a Readers’ Theater presentation.  Readers’ Theater is a fun and entertaining way of working on using expression while reading.  Each student has been given a short script and a part to study.  They should spend this week working on reading their lines.  They do not need to memorize the lines because they will have their script to read from during the presentation.  The reason for practicing ahead of time is so that they can work on expression and reading their part in a more  “dramatic” and entertaining way.  It is a good idea to have someone in the family practice with them by reading the other characters’ parts so that they know when their parts are coming up.  Please help to make sure that the script is returned to the homework folder so it is available Friday morning.

The Middle Kids will be performing their musical for parents on Friday, November 14th at 12:00. Tina would like all kids to wear a black shirt and black pants. They can bring these clothes in advance if that would make things easier – they can store them in a bag on their hook. We hope that you are able to make arrangements to come watch the show. The kids are working hard, and it should be a lot of fun!

Thanks for taking the time to meet with us for parent/teacher conferences.  It is always nice to have this chance to put our heads together and make sure that our goals for the school year are “synced.”  If you have any more questions after having a chance to go over what we talked about, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

It was a lot of fun seeing everyone at last Friday’s Fun Fest!  It was a great event, and everyone seemed to be having a wonderfully ghoulish time.  Thanks to our amazing team of Fun Fest organizing volunteers!

Our third graders received their free dictionaries from the Rotary Club today! The Rotary Club gives dictionaries to all Third graders in Ft. Collins using money earned by selling peaches. Thanks to the Rotary Club and everyone who purchased a box of peaches this year!

This week is another short week at Rivendell. On Friday we have another day of parent/teacher conferences, so there will be no school or daycare. However, we do still have room in our technology or art camp. We will also be ending our week with our annual Fun Fest. This is a great time to hang out and have some fun with other Rivendell families. This year you can bring the whole family and get into this event for FREE! All of the games are free this year (no punch cards or tickets necessary!) The only thing you will have to pay for this year is food. We hope to see you there.

Speaking of Halloween – Our class Halloween parties will be on Friday 10-31 (yes Halloween!). Sign up sheets to volunteer to help or to donate something for the party will be posted outside classrooms this week. If you need more information please contact our party coordinators Angela Lindquist at smeewebe@aol.com or Lisa Peppin at lisa.peppin@gmail.com.

This week in topic work, we will be continuing our study of Mesopotamia by taking a closer look at some of the inventions of this time. Each middle kid will choose an invention and make an advertisement for it. This gives our kids a chance to use their imagination and creativity. We even tried our hands at Mesopotamian math today in math with Pat. Soon we will be moving on to our new unit about simple machines.

Have a wonderful week!

Thanks to everyone for signing up for a conference, either this Thursday or next Friday. We are looking forward to talking to you and sharing what your kids have been working on, as well as setting some goals for the school year. Remember that there is no school this Thursday or Friday. For that reason, we have decided not to assign homework this week. The kids will bring their folders home tonight just so that they can share their mad minute and spelling tests from last week. Please return the empty folders to school tomorrow. Even though there is no official homework, we still hope that the kids spend some time reading each night.

We will continue our study of Mesopotamia this week. We have talked about the geography of the area that was Mesopotamia (now mainly occupied by Iraq and Syria). Ask your Middle Kid to tell you why the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was called the “Fertile Crescent.” This week we will spend some time learning about the many inventions that were first started in Mesopotamia. Most of them are still used today, many thousands of years later! The kids will be doing a project based on one of these “Mesopotamian firsts.”

We are still in need of volunteers for our upcoming Fun Fest on Friday, October 24th. There is a bulletin board on the North wall by the older kids rooms with information about the event, and if you would like to volunteer to help you may sign up there or contact Elisa at elisa@rivendell-school.org

Have you ever wondered what chaos might look like in the Middle Kids’ classrooms?  Well, last week we explored this concept for about one whole minute.  That’s all we, the teachers, could stand! We used the experience to learn what might lead to the beginning of a civilization and to study the differences between chaos and civilization.  The students deduced that a civilization needs a strong leader(s), rules and some comforts such as food and shelter. This was our introduction to Mesopotamia.  This week we will study the geography of the region and the reasons this civilization started there.  For homework the kids have a short research recitation about Mesopotamia.  Please look in the homework folder for the details.

In Writers’ Workshop we are starting our first story of the year.  We are working on coming up with an interesting main character, setting and “meaty” problem.  We have been studying these story elements in Reading Workshop, so now we get to try using them in our own writing.   This week the kids will work on writing a good beginning.  We will be working on these stories for a while as new story writing techniques and elements are introduced and practiced.

In Reading Workshop we will be delving into character traits and finding evidence in the text to support our ideas.  Some kids will move on to studying how other characters in the story view and influence the main character.  Of course, we continue to work on building reading stamina, using strategies to decode and figure out the meaning of new words, and holding onto the story.  We have also started to discuss our books with a partner.

Next week we have no school on Thursday, October 16th for parent/teacher conferences or Friday, October 17th.  If you have not done so already, please sign up for a conference.