January 2017
Dear Parents,
    We are excited to have new friends joining our Target classes! Due to the snow days, we will need to re-schedule our new parent meeting. We will send home information about the new date shortly. Please attend if you are able. We’ll have some information about our program curriculum, routines and expectations to share with you. For now, new students need to bring 2 pocket folders and a composition book. 
    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.
     5^th grade will continue with Inventure, focusing on the latter stages of the engineering design process. We’re excited to put our plans into action! Please be on the lookout for information about our local competition and needed supplies for prototypes.
     4^th graders will be Reinventing Shakespeare! This unit is an interactive introduction to Shakespeare - his work, his times, and his continuing impact. It is also an exploration of the 21^st Century 4 C’s – Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity.  Students will actively engage in Shakespeare’s works and creative responses to his work. They will read, write, discuss, recite, perform, and create.
      It’s getting chilly on Fridays! 3^rd grade students will be completing a STEM mini unit called The Great Arctic Circle Challenge. Each team will be completing weekly STEM challenges to help a stranded arctic exploration team get back to safety.
      1^st and 2^nd grader graders are Sailing the STEM-y Seas with our pirate-themed STEM mini-unit. Weekly challenges include building a floating pirate ship and creating water-proof treasure chests. STEM can be challenging, but our youngest Target students have shown that they are very capable!
     After our STEM mini-units, 2^nd and 3^rd graders will be exploring our new problem-based learning unit, Cubism. We will study art (mosaics) and art history (Cubism), while incorporating math-based lessons about perimeter and area.  
      1^st graders will be working through our introductory Target unit, with a focus on convergent and critical thinking and primary algebra. We will also be completing additional STEM mini-units as an extension.
   2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th graders will receive information on Genius Hour expectations soon.
   As always, please feel free to contact us with questions or concerns.
              Welcome back!
                  Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Sanders