COMING UP THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 25!

Sourdough Slim Concert, 12:45

Everyone welcome!

Come and enjoy the yodeling cowboy.

Gradeschool Math-a-Thon, 1:45

How can you help? See below!

Georgia shows off a skull she found poking through an owl pellet.

Comparative Anatomy for Third Graders: WHAT!!??

Liam and Abby, like the rest of their third grade classmates, were totally engrossed for hours teasing apart owl pellets.

Owl pellets are not..you know. (No bathroom talk at school!) They are part of the owl's digestive system, but at the front end. Because birds have no teeth, they rip their prey into sections and swallow the pieces whole. In the stomach, soft matter is broken down by digestive enzymes while the hard matter is formed into a pellet and regurgitated. An owl pellet can be up to two inches long. And, guess what! Some of the owl pellets had more than one and, even, more than one kind of skull. Some pellets had fur and feathers; some skulls had teeth and some didn't.

Tara's grandma, Irasha, a naturalist and team-building leader, stops by third grade to help. Thanks, Irasha!

Can't you just imagine silent owls swooping down on a dark and stormy night...well, foget about the weather, just consider for a moment the poem on the right, Poem About an Owl. Once you've handled an owl pellet, you know what that poem is about. There it is: connection. It's what makes us feel alive intellectually. Humans can't get enough.

This dissection is the first of several Ms. Hon's students will encounter in the next months. As they consider what makes a vertebrate, they'll also be dissecting an invertebrate, the squid. Then they move on to cow hearts, sheep brains, and bovine eyes. They really begin to understand that the heart is a muscle, the brain is made up of accordion pleated grey matter and that the eye has a lens. They don't have to imagine; they can see for themselves. And with all that "gross-out" emotion at work to strengthen the memories, they should never forget it!

KINDERGARTEN TAKES A CUE FROM THE SUPERKIDS

One of many things we love about our language arts program, Superkids, is that the stories are about classrooms just like ours. Sometimes, our teachers turn it around and make our classrooms just like the superkids'. Pictured here is Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Fiore, with half of our kindergarten students (the other half were in math

with Mrs. Krout) while they reenact the problems that happened at the Superkid's picnic. Biggest problem: they forgot the food! After acting the picnic scene and reflecting on the different problem solving choices made by both classrooms (the fictional and the real), our students went straight to the table (below) to write excited about the depth of their experience and ready to use more complex ideas and a broader vocabulary in their work. That's super!

No Time Like the Present for a Math Fact!

In First Grade, Miss Mico and Shanti

consider fact relationships.

By the time a student finishes kindergarten, they should be able to recognize and order all numbers up to 100. They should be able to add single digit numbers from 0 to 10. In first grade, number manipulation truly begins and memorization of those pesky math facts takes on great importance.

It's worth it to take the time to start memorizing the facts now. It isn't all that's required, but an ability to add quickly will aid in the establishment of numerical literacy. While it's true that even very young children can have an inherent understanding of more complex math concepts; for example, multiplication. It's just about impossible to sustain enthusiasm for math without the ability to automatically compute common math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) for 0-12 and, even better,

0-15 by the end of third grade.

Some children are memorizing machines. Others are not so lucky. Time and patience and more time will help. Work during several short periods during the day is essential, both at school and at home. These early years are the most effective for laying a basis for the rest of your child's education. Keep going!

Last of the BBQers!

Last of the BBQers Thanks you to Ben and Max's families who through the final Third Grade BBQ. Also thanks to the penultimate hosts, the Hoopers and Schryvers of whom I have no photograph. I guess the third graders are going camping. They've raised plenty of money to pay for the campsite, lifeguard. and food. Great job!

PAM's Next Move?Mad Hatter's Tea Party &
Teacher Appreciation

The whole school stops everything on May 1 at 10:00 so that we won't be late for our very important date with the Mad Hatter. Parents set up tea tables on the lawn decorated with everything from roses to Legos (TM).

To find out more about the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, click here.

On May 19, we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day. If you'd like to help, please contact Penny Herring or Tania Kirchner, PAM Co-Chairs, or your room parent.

Thanks, PAM!

We didn't come close to burning the school down, but we did enjoy s'mores at the PAM Movie Night last Saturday. Parents headed off for some together time and the chaperons, Penny Herring, Tania Kirchner, and Mrs. H, had a great time. Yeah!

Poem About an Owl

by Deborah Garrison

I've never seen an owl

Not a real one

But often enough at night
Have started up at the wingbeat:

Long, with loaded silence between lengths
Like velvet ripping

The children's-book eyes
Saucerish and startled with wisdom

Sweeping the forest floor
For a little something, a little something

And I leapt from sleep
If indeed I was sleeping

Belted my robe like a mother of old
And rushed to their beds to see

If it got them, the skidding talon,
Where they were quietly

Breathing in their own
Animal dreams

"Poem About an Owl" by Deborah Garrison, from The Second Child. � Random House, 2007.

EVERYTHING

PAN!

Peter Pan

Grade School Play, May 16, 6:30

The grade school is always full of magic, but right now we are enjoying an extra bit of pixie dust. With our spring production of Peter Pan in rehearsal, everyone is imagining their own Neverland. In first grader Lily's Neverland (below) :

"[E]verything is made out of candy and animals are everywhere. Water is grape juice. There are orange bananas. The fox and the rabbit are friends. The cloud is cotton candy."

That's all very well and good, Lily. But, where are the pirates?

All the classes are reading Peter Pan, so Lily will find out soon enough.

Red Roomer Adina stopped by to leave everyone at Monica Ros a message. I promised her I'd share. Thanks, Adina!

Sponsor the Math-A-Thon at the office or on the kiosk with a per problem pledge or a general gift.

The Red Roomers grab their writing utensils and work in their Handwriting Without Tears workbooks.

They were practicing forming numbers on this day.

STAY IN TOUCH