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 11^th 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. 5^th grade will continue with Inventure, focusing on the latter stages of the engineering design process. 4^th 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.  2^nd and 3^rd grade will be learning about coding and computer programming through an innovative new unit. 1^st 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 5^th 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 5^th grade students can see us for guidelines.

   2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th graders will receive information on Genius Hour expectations soon.

  We will also be sending home information on upcoming events (4^th grade Alliance Theatre trip, 5^th grade dissection and Inventure).

   Welcome back!

                  Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Sanders