Spring time learning and teaching can certainly be a challenge for any student and teacher. The end of the school can feel so close and yet so far away and the sunshine and warmth beckon us all to abandon classrooms head into the outdoors of summer time fun. But while the 6th grade is off to New York City for the class trip this week, PreK through 5th at FES continue to engage with learning as if summer isn’t just right around the corner.
The 5th grade has been engaged with a STEAM theme these last few days and as part of that work, they have been tie-dying T-shirts for their field trip to Shelburne Pond for a forest walk and a visit at the Shelburne Museum which happens this week. Take a look at their utter creativity of color and white-space.
The next step with these T-shirts is to use the CriCut to add additional details and names to their shirts.
The 4th grade was spotted doing independent reading, with a variety of books in growing hands. The skills of independent reading support life long learnership that reaches well beyond school years. Practicing decoding and comprehension, coupled with the stamina and endurance of longer times for reading not only builds up literacy, but also primes the capacities of learnership and strengthens transferable skills.
The 3rd grade has been studying Ancient Civilizations during Social Studies and I was with them for a bit as they were learning about Egypt, pharaohs, pyramids, and the Roman Empire. The students were practicing the skills of extracting and recording content and facts. You can see clipboards in action.
The 2nd graders spent time this week continuing their learning around foundational concepts of algebraic reasoning as they did a Math Talk at the rug about how many dolls were on a truck. Take a look at the photo to see if you are smarter than a second grader.
The 1st graders have been learning and contemplating about the sky. What do we see in the sky above? What do we see when it is Night? And what do we see when it is Day? With a head-hand approach to learning, the students created artistic 2D and 3D one-pagers with a variety of different materials. What do you see in the sky?
The Kindergartners were also engaged in a Math Talk at the rug when I popped in. They were working collaboratively on place value and writing a three-digit number. The students were able to decode squares, tally marks, and dots into hundreds, tens, and ones. Can you figure out what the three-digit number was?
The PreSchool students in the Cottage took to the kitchen with real-life food ingredients, working together to create cereal bars for the class to enjoy. With butter, sugar, AND honey, you know it’s got to be yummy! Each student took turns adding the next ingredient to the bowl.
Art this week was working on Form Drawings, using circles and ovals to represent limbs, joints, and body in a variety of different positions. Students would create from their own imagination as well as pose themselves into fun and silly poses for each other.
You wouldn’t know that summer is around the corner at Fletcher! Here’s to one more week of strong and fun learning.
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Danielle Drogalis
Data Manager & Assessment Coordinator & Title IX Coordinator