Technology Creates Morning Meeting Togetherness!

In our Morning Meeting today, the kids do announcements at the last part. Today, you can see Eirene sharing some of her math monsters with everyone.

😍 The kids have really enjoyed seeing each other. And, anticipation is mounting for the fun to come with the Cohort Secret Gift Exchange. Today, Cohort A will bring home the little double stapled info sheet of a classmate from Cohort B! And today Cohort A will fill out their sheets for Cohort B to bring home on Friday. (It's okay to read all that again-- there are a bunch of moving parts!) Remember, the kids have the handout with the important dates. 🎁

Enjoying the Sunshine at the Geodome! 🌞

The kids of Cohort B had a great time playing together this afternoon.

It has been so different at school that I feel like I haven't been able to show the kids doing their kid things. Being at school matters on so many levels. Learning together takes many forms.

It is good to show you that they are playing and have adapted to all the changes and love to be outside. That makes them feel good and connected to each other.

Hope you all have a good weekend and are able to get some time to play too.

Take Care, Ms. Bonzo🦉

🎁4th Grade Cohort Classmate Secret Gift Exchange!

4th Grade Cohort Classmate Secret Gift Exchange!

Hi Families,

The link above is what your student will get when they come to school tomorrow, for Cohort B and on Monday for Cohort A. It is about the Gift Exchange.🎁

It has all the info so you can understand the way we will do this.🤞--that all the kids can tell you how the Gift Exchange will go too.😊 I am sure they will.

It will be a fun activity that we will do together.

A paper copy will come home with the highlighted information.

And, of course, a 1/2 sheet of paper with the name of their Secret Classmate.

Hope we all get to share some smiles and warmth together!

Thanks, Ms. Bonzo🦉

Teaching Each Other

This is the best part of being together in school-- the kids getting to interact, share, and engage in learning together! They did a wonderful job listening and going through the process of checking for reasonableness and using the math vocabulary. Raise the roof!

Science at Home--☔--🧪--Repeating the Experiment

The kids took home a data collecting sheet for this experiment that was a repeat of one that they did at school. It was another 24-hour experiment⌚. Learning to follow the procedure to set up an experiment is very important and then having the time to talk about what occurred really helps the steps make sense. We found out there were many variables.

It was a good conversation and an animated discussion!💬

This post is a reminder too for this-- help them bring back the collectors and the plastic ziploc bags.

Thanks, Ms. Bonzo🦉

Shaelyn biked in with a lot of plastic and taking a rest on the Trex Bench!

She's in 5th grade now, but she knows how important to keep bringing in the plastic!

Yay Kids!!

New Outdoor Classroom Rocks!

This is where we started our Morning Meeting.

Each student had their own place to deep breathe and balance for the start of our meeting. (These wonderfully large basalt boulders were placed on the school grounds yesterday.) Then we played a new game I invented with rubber bands called Rubber Band Relay! It was cooperative and interesting. The kids learn so much in play especially when we take the time to review the rules, remember how to treat each other to be inclusive, and how to be a good sport.

Rendezvous in 4th Grade

Ms. Cartwright had the kids imagine what it would be like to trade their goods if they were a fur trader, supplier of food, tools or, or clothes. The kids got the hang of trading and making sure they would make it alive to the next season. Some did have to eat their mocassins and that was truly a moment of realizing how much they don't think about food-- a good thing!

Lots of thinking and haggling-- good to see them thinking about the details of the chapter about fur traders. Life long ago brought perspective for today-- Yay for History lessons!🌎

Precipitation Collectors set out for 24 hours

We went through the scientific process or steps. This experiment, here at school for the next 24 hours, is to practice how to set this experiment up-- to repeat it. They made sketches to show where the one that they placed into the ground-- luckily not frozen yet!!-- so they can think about where to do it at home. Ask your child which one is theirs.

4th Grade has been successful in discussions!

(The picture is from the notes that the kids took during the lesson.)

Yesterday, there was a terrifically relevant and engaging discussion about the history of Tootsie Rolls. The history of that little candy is related to Math and Social Science.

The kids did everything right to create a positive space for how we talk to each other. 😊Our class culture of empathy and respect allows for deep thinking and conversation. It was such fun!

Today, we reviewed what made it go so well yesterday. This explicit lesson of thinking about what we did and how we did it was to show them all they are doing right!

We will continue to share and discuss many more things this year. 🎉

MCS collects 353 pounds of plastic for October! 💚

It's our 3rd year in the recycling program with Trex.👏

The kids know that capturing this material keeps it out of our landfill or from ending end up in our waterways. This group of kids remembers when the program started at our school-- they were in 2nd grade! That is really cool!

They said they are glad to be doing the job of collecting and weighing the plastic now. We keep the plastic for one month. It gets stored in the school trailer and then taken to the Moscow Recycle Center on the first Saturday of each month. That will be this coming Saturday. Spread the word!😁

💚Thanks for bringing your #2 and #4 plastic to our school!

📚Supporting At-Home Lessons💻 -- Only 1 Notebook 📝

As the first quarter has come to an end, there is a change needed in order to help the kids with the Hybrid Learning Model. The new way is designed to make the school/home connection stronger so that each student will transfer their work to their proper in-class subject area notebooks when they come to school. They do staple their work in each notebook during the start of the day when they return after 5 days at home already. Now the work will come from one source.

This will be the only notebook that goes back and forth to school and home.

💎The goal is to get more work completed while the kids are doing their online learning and have all their materials with them in class.

Each student will be given a notebook with their name and the label of ALL Subject Notebook. This is the one they work in while at home. The kids will understand that this will help for better organization. There will be plenty of discussion so that they know what to do. (The kids in Cohort B will get their notebook today and the kids in Cohort A will get their notebook on Monday.)

Again, this notebook is for the actual material that they are doing with the online portion of this model. We will keep supporting the kids in their new learning spaces! ✨

Thank you, Ms. Bonzo🦉

Feathered Bonnet-- a sign of service to the tribe

Ashton, Education Outreach Director, explained many of the items in the cases to the 4th graders. She talked about this beautiful Nez Perce artifact that shows how important taking care of each other is in their culture. The person that wore this ceremonial headdress was very important to the people. Each eagle feather represents one act that is acknowledged as service and deemed as honorable.

The kids learned a lot about cultural items and ways today.

Appaloosa Horse Museum

The kids took a lot of notes and sketches on Nez Perce Culture and thought about how indigenous people lived. The notes taken will be used in the Descriptive Writing Paragraph-- our 3rd formal writing assignment for the quarter! Yay!

All the different artifacts were discussed from cradleboards, a massive ceremonial headdress, and parfleches.

We thought it was really fun to be dressed in costumes that represent the U.S. culture's love of Halloween!

Thank you parents that joined us!! It is always special to have you come with us. The kids love it!

Start of School Protocols in Place

The kids are really getting good at doing their jobs, putting away materials, and being ready to start the day. When they are ready, they read. Today they had about 5 minutes! Yay! Everyone is really coming along. 👏

Our next task for all is to get work completed and use the online platforms that are supporting this hybrid model.

Check-in on what your child has done on Moby Max or Newsela.

Thank you, Ms. Bonzo🦉

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🎁4th Grade Cohort Classmate Secret Gift Exchange!