January 2016
Dear Parents,
Whew! Testing is
almost over! This week, we will be working with the ALP department to finalize
our class lists for the new semester.
We are excited to
have some new friends joining our Target classes. New Target parents are
invited to attend a parent meeting on January 11th at 8:30am in the
media center. We’ll have some information about our program curriculum,
routines and expectations to share with you.
We’re also excited
to have our old friends back after a long break. We are looking forward to continuing
the fun and learning with our spring units. 5th grade will continue
with Inventure, focusing on the latter stages of the engineering design
process. 4th grade will be wrapping up our Shakespeare unit with a
Shakespearean festival, then delving deeper into Genius Hour. We will be using
the RBQ process to guide our research and focusing on developing a more
substantial product. 2nd and
3rd grade will be learning about coding and computer programming
through an innovative new unit. 1st graders will be working through
our introductory Target unit, with a focus on convergent and critical thinking
and primary algebra.
In consideration of
the rigor required in our Inventure unit, we have decided to make Genius Hour optional
for 5th grade. Students will need to spend substantial class time
and some home time on their Inventure projects, but many students expressed an
interest in still completing a Genius Hour assignment. Interested 5th
grade students can see us for guidelines.
2nd, 3rd
and 4th graders will receive information on Genius Hour expectations
soon.
We will also be
sending home information on upcoming events (4th grade Alliance Theatre
trip, 5th grade dissection and Inventure).
Welcome back!
Mrs.
Parsons and Mrs. Sanders
