Diwali Celebration with Primary students

This has been a very exciting week as the children put the final touches on their masterpieces for cultural day. Ms. Denise's class learned about Italian stained glass and the parts of the flag. They were very excited to wear their flag costumes complete with finial hats. Ms. Lisa's class highlighted the country ITALY- the children enjoyed learning about Leonardo DaVinci, we talked about how many old buildings are decorated with mosaics- they made their own mini mosaic pots with the flag of Italy and talked about the food Italians like to eat-Pizza, Pasta and Gelato! We smelled fresh Basil, Oregano and Rosemary; then made our own bread dipping mix using dried herbs. It was great to see everyone come and enjoy our Fall Cultural Day!

Ms. Lisa's class has a classroom pet- two very active Hermit Crabs. We are coming up with names for them and learning how to care and handle them.

On Wednesday we learned about Diwali, the "festival of light" which is celebrated in India. The traditions include, food, dancing and art. Thank you, Lakshmi, Saathvik's mom, Ramitha, Vinayak's mom, Vimal, Uma's mom, Michelle, Bodhi's mom, Shetal, Jenna's mom and Mona, Krisha's mom for sharing your traditions with us!

Thursday we had a special visit from Dr. AJ, Krisha's dad. He brought his life-sized skeleton to help us learn about the many bones of the human body and how to take care of them with a healthy diet.

Ms. Lisa's class welcome's a new friend, Lucy Baldwin! Lucy just turned 4 and has a younger brother, Ben.

Thank you to Uma's, Aunt Jaya, who came to read to Ms. Lisa's class on Wednesday, also thank you to the Mokin family for donating a CD player to Miss Lisa's class. Thanks to Isabella's mom for all the extra envelopes she gave us. Thank you, Gio's grandma, for sharing her time and reading to Ms. Denise's class.  

Doug and Elena

Thank you to everyone who helped their students with the cultural projects. Each student showed their individuality, creativity and thoughts in their beautiful projects. We all had a great time creating them and making the suitcases and passports, along with our written reports.

Thursday, students previewed their cultural projects and had the opportunity to view others work and learn from each other. This will enable them to focus on serving the community on Friday. The upper elementary helped clean the school in preparation of the festival.

Next week we look forward to getting back on track with our regular work-cycle and work plans and soon it will be time to get ready for our next festival. In addition, we will start working on our musical performances for the Renaissance fair in the spring and are planning on planting herbs that were used and grown in both the medieval times and during the Renaissance period.

We have several drivers already who have committed to our first field trip to visit the Tampa Port Authority. As a reminder, we will be visiting on Wednesday, November 5th. We will be leaving promptly at 8:30 that morning. We have also confirmed our visit to the World War II SS American Victory Mariners Museum the same day. After the port tour, we will enjoy lunch together and then visit the VictoryMuseum. We will return at about 1:00pm. If you would be willing to drive that morning, please contact Mr. Greg.  

For our math facts this week, we are extending our work on the 6x tables due to the cultural festival this week. So next week, we will study our 7x tables along with the 6x tables and will quiz on Friday. Please practice with students at home to support our work in the classroom. Many students could still use practice with previous work, especially the 3x, 4x, 5x tables.

In addition, we noticed that many students are falling behind in their Mobymax homework. We can speak to students here at school, but since we are not able to be home with them, any support from home would be appreciated. Thank you very much for your continued support!