March at GAP School!

Yellow Mushrooms with Emily and Virginia

The Yellow Mushrooms have been hard at work as they finalized this quarter's Community Day projects! Educators watched proudly as this incredible flock collected all their hard work. As it starts to warm up and the sun starts to shine a little bit more, these Learners are continuing to grow deeper in collaboration, exploration, and learning together. 

In ELA this last month, we have been diving into phonics, descriptive & narrative writing, and sentence structure! After reading a few attention grabbing stories from the Phonics Adventures book series, the Yellow Mushrooms have been learning important rules to follow as they read and write. Through poetry, narration, and eye-catching illustrations, the mushrooms have learned the reasoning behind “sometimes y” as a vowel and about the floss rule! In anticipation of getting ready for community day, this dedicated flock worked hard as they wrote a narrative story based on a mathematical story problem. Here, they used descriptions as they painted a deeper picture of the character's problem in their story. In order to share their work to their audience, the families, they created a video commercial giving a summary of their stories! Nature journals continue to be an awesome tool as we learn how to write sentences. By using word banks, learners are able to identify and sound out needed words to caption what nature items they notice, what they wonder, and what it reminds them of. We have fun as a class as we tie in the letter of the week into our entries. Small groups continue to assist students in their learning. Our book study of the Zoey and Sassafras series allows us to review parts of fictional stories. 

We have used the changing of the seasons to begin a lot of new concepts in science! We have learned about adaptations, and different animal characteristics that animals and plants have to help them survive. We have put this into action by nature journaling— both with pet animals at GAP and native plants and animals around school. In math, March has been a lot about reviewing topics from the previous quarters. We have reviewed both fractions and word problems, and reviewed data sets for our community day presentation. As the year draws to a close in these last nine weeks, we will wrap up all math concepts and use them in order to make a spectacular project for our last community day. The Yellows have learned so much and worked so hard this year so far!

Red Hamsters With Lauren

The Red Hamsters have also been learning more about natural resources versus human and capital resources. We have been playing Settlers of Catan to practice using these terms in a fun way! We’re beginning discussions around how trading is used when a group of people aren’t able to source or make something that they value. We’ve looked at some of our everyday items and asked questions about what it’s made of, where it might be made, and who it is that makes it. The learners have explored reasons that resources are in some areas and not others and we’re beginning conversations about the climates that produce particular goods that we use often. The Red Hamsters are starting to work with budgeting as we continue to practice using money. They have begun to consider how a budget affects the choices we make when we’re spending money and when they created their individual lists of needs along with their wants, it was interesting to see the value judgments that were made when it came down to choosing how their money would be best spent! 

In Language, the Red Hamsters have been working on Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms. We’ve been comparing the similarities and differences of each and the learners have created impressive word collections from everyday life! The learners have been working more with apostrophes and contractions and we’ve begun a deeper dive into word study. Oral history and folktales from around the world have taken center stage in our read aloud. The Red Hamsters are making impressive connections between the similarities and differences in the various cultures’ stories. They have especially enjoyed the stories that feature animals with human-like characteristics and it’s been a lot of fun to dive more deeply into the diverse cultural perspectives in our group discussions. 

In Math, we’ve been working with geometric solids, planes, and patterning. We are finding ways that we can make plane figures into three-dimensional shapes and experimenting with templates that would be useful for future projects. The students are practicing with matching plane figures with corresponding geometric solids and identifying ‘sphere’ ‘cube’ ‘rectangular prism’ ‘edges’ ‘vertices’ ‘faces’ and their count.

Silver Serpents with Furn and Elijah

 Happy spring, Silver Serpents! We are so excited to enjoy this very special season together here at GAP. As our learners continue to grow and surprise us with their creativity and knowledge in new, exciting ways, the world around us blossoms into brightness. This March, we have taken time to slow down and closely observe how nature speeds up. The days lengthen as light returns, critters crawl out from crevices in the earth where they weathered the winter, and the birds sing the spring into action! 

Together, the Serpents have noticed spring ephemerals (Johnny Jump-ups, Common Blue Violets, Rue Anemone, Cutleaf Toothwort, Hepatica, Henbit Deadnettle) and watched the birds (Downy Woodpeckers, Eastern Phoebes, Eastern Bluebirds, Tufted Titmouses, American Goldfinches, Song Sparrows and so many more) sing and fight for territory. Notably, we spotted birds like the Common Raven, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Pine Siskin! As we refresh our naturalist skills and gain new ones, we encourage you to pick your learner’s brain about the excitements of spring that they have most enjoyed! And learn from them, too! What spring wonders have you observed so far? Have you taken time to stop and marvel at the violets?

In SEL, the Silver Serpents learned about the importance of feedback—how to give it, how to receive it, and how to reflect on our responses. What’s the difference between positive feedback and an attack? How do we step into a mental space where we can give positive feedback and respond to less kind reactions by de-escalating our responses? Together, we can choose HOW we want to respond to the feedback of others. Instead of getting defensive, we can get curious! Instead of volleying back a criticism, we can take a breather to work on our tone. These are vital skills your learners are working hard to exercise. Moreover, the Silvers similarly continue to investigate the nuances of how to ask for help. Are we using a whiny tone, or are we asking for support in a calm, mature manner? Are we interrupting conversations, or are we waiting until others finish speaking to ask questions? Are we throwing up our hands, throwing ourselves down, and saying “I need help!” or are we choosing to ask specific questions in a kind manner? We can feel whatever way we feel, but how we act is a different deal. The Silver Serpents have been diligently trying out healthier ways of seeking help.

In ELA, the Silver Serpents worked together to make this past Community Day a resounding success! By collectively locking-in during Brain Blast to plan, conduct, and reflect on their interviews, they all successfully completed their projects in time for Community Day. They worked on many skills, including typing, videography, formal e-mail writing, formal interviewing, describing the 5 Ws (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How), drafting, editing, reflecting, and sharing feedback. It was a long, extensive project, and the Silvers absolutely rose to the challenge. Additionally, we have been expanding out textual analysis skills by investigating the author's purpose, point of view, and figurative language. We explored the Book Bus for examples of persuasive, informative, and entertaining writing to compare and contrast them with an epic triple Venn Diagram. And together, we read Jon Klassen’s books This Is Not My Hat and I Want My Hat Back to realize that the words of a story may not give us all the information we need to understand it, and that the narrator may not know what we know! Finally, during Morning Meeting for the past few weeks, we learned about figurative language and how they add detail and color to our writing. By reading poems, stories, excerpts, and thinking of our own experiences, we are becoming experts in the world of simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and more!

In Math, we played review games to refresh and refine our understanding of place value, multiplication, a dip into division, area, perimeter, measurement, fractions, decimals, and rounding. After reviewing, we are continuing to work on IXL check-ins to monitor and reflect on our growth. And to reward all our hard work, we spent a day up at Kinser’s enjoying the beautiful weather, nature, and completing ELA and science challenges before an all-class lunch party! We hope you enjoy your spring break, Silver Serpent families!  

March was full of life… cycles! Silver Serpents started the month putting our chicken eggs in the incubator. We decided to make a scrapbook documenting our chicken-hatching journey, and got started on that right away to celebrate our first few days of incubation. On day 6 of incubation, an egg exploded! While this was unfortunate (and stinky), it provided us with a valuable lesson about the science behind something rotting. Silver Serpents were introduced to our Life Cycles project… making an informative and creative baby mobile for our soon to hatch chicks. These mobiles detailed the life cycles of each Silver’s chosen critter. From studying up on cherry shrimp to white tailed deer, we were excited to learn how some of our favorite animals come to be. Silvers researched, drafted, crafted, and wrote about their animal, culminating in some beautiful, educational final products displayed at our community day. A couple of days before community day, on day 20 of incubation, we saw our first egg pip! Excitement filled the air at GAP School as learners of all flocks witnessed the hatching of 10 baby chicks over the course of 3 days. The excitement continued after community day, as we started to learn about chick behavior and physiology. We talked about chick’s muscle development after hatching, and were lucky to see their pin feathers start to come in. Silvers acted like true researchers and did some timed behavior trials. We finished out the month charting our behavior findings (that chicks walk and peck… alot), and completing a cross-curricular scavenger hunt atop Kinser’s. Though we are saying goodbye to our chicks, we look forward to more spring science in April!

Emerald Elk with Corrie and Luke

Just like the returning bird species that have begun to appear near our classroom, the Elk have displayed vibrancy and energy in their learning this month. They have made new discoveries in morning sit spots, strengthened their teamwork in exploration, and created new and unique projects in knowledge seekers and maker day. Each Elk has shown major growth in taking charge of their education and taking on new challenges in all subject areas! 

As winter thawed and spring emerged, the Emerald Elk explored decimals, graphing transformations, and community day projects . The fifth grade Elk focused on decimal operations, reinforcing long division skills through real-world applications like budgeting their field trip and calculating unit prices for our bake sale. The class baked over 110 homemade cinnamon rolls to fund a field trip, applying measurement conversions and teamwork. Meanwhile, another group constructed a 5 ft by 3 ft by 7 ft photo booth, using perimeter and area calculations to bring their design to life. The seventh grade Elk practiced graphing transformations, using coordinate grids to reflect and translate polygons. This knowledge culminated in a Tessellation Graphing Project, where students designed repeating patterns, first on paper and then on wooden blocks. Their creative tessellations were displayed at Community Day. They also began studying proportional relationships in the form of ordered pairs and linear graphs to calculate the slope, or rate of change. 

In ELA, March saw the Elk work patiently and diligently on their community day projects! First, fifth grade Elk embarked on “Poetry March Madness,” a tournament of 16 poems comprised of four “conferences,” each based on a different theme the class had picked out: competition, survival, historical conflict, and nature. They then used their persuasive writing skills to argue for which poem they thought was best, learning to quote textual evidence and analyze literary devices to support their position. This learning theme of writing with audience, purpose, and format in mind then transferred to their second project: a scavenger hunt incorporating different perspectives about the same “story” of Leo stealing GAP’s hot drinks. 

The eldest Elk likewise took on new formats and styles in their own writing by composing sonnets that incorporated Shakespearean usages, literary devices, rhyme scheme, and iambic pentameter, and which doubled as algebraic word problems. For a physical product for community day, they researched, planned, and created a model of the Globe theater using the“wattle and daub” method of construction, which gives Tudor architecture its unique appearance. As part of this process, middle school leaders dove deep on the history of wattle and daub, the layout of the Globe theater, and its part in the world of Shakespeare’s plays. 

After a quick rest over spring break, we are excited to see where the Elk’s reading, writing, and math skills take them next!

Social Emotional Learning with Janelle

All of the learners are showing so much growth in SEL. March has been a month for hands-on application of the skills they’ve acquired. 

Yellow Mushroom and Red Hamster flocks brainstormed and voted on a community project that they thought would both support their flocks and serve as a contribution to the school. Yellow Mushrooms chose to make a fort building area in the Playscape and Red Hamsters chose to revive and expand on the obstacle course in the Village. As a flock each group explored the school campus and collectively decided on a location. We looked at books for inspiration, drew  ideas, brainstormed materials lists, and then dove into the building and designing. During this process we practiced teamwork, inclusivity, perseverance, active listening, direction following, respect, and responsibility.

Silver Serpents focused on inclusivity, empathy, and caring. In small groups we acted out a variety of scenarios followed by a positive and negative example of solving the problem. Daniel Tiger became a huge topic of discussion as they reflected on the topics of the month. The Silver Serpents also began an empathy obstacle course where they were asked to complete a series of challenges in small groups, followed by completion of same task with a limitation (building a magnatile square with two hands and then build it with one hand). 

The Emerald Elk flock have worked on completing a self reflection /self assessment focused on the SEL standards in order to grow in their understanding of themselves as learners.  They are also beginning a project for which they have chosen a topic of interest and will be working in small groups to create a lesson plan and prepare to guide the other Learners in their flock to an understanding of a variety of SEL topics including but not limited to executive functioning, emotional regulation, and attention and direction following, and mindfulness.