Hello Families!
I hope this letter finds you well and enjoying our fine spring weather! The kids got a chance to go down to the sugar house and help collect sap and stack wood. The sap is really running hard! Mrs. Theresa's class went down today and collected sap and Mrs. Costello's class did as well. The buckets were filling fast!
As you might have heard, the circus is here at Rumney for our amazing residency. For our act, we will be dressing up as dogs. Please do not buy a costume, but rather help your kiddo figure out what color dog they are going to be. Please, no pink, blue, red, etc. dogs! The performance will be Friday at 2:15. Our class should be on sometime in that first 15 minutes.
Also, we had a short discussion in class about the upcoming election. Many kids are asking me about who I am voting for, which is not information I give out to students. Adult opinions are based on ideas and concepts that (hopefully) don't fit on a bumper sticker, and instead deal with social and global issues that are far beyond what is developmentally appropriate for 6,7 and 8 year olds. What we see here at school during these times is that children emulate the polarized view we have unfortunately become accustomed to. Today we had to talk a little about how people were saying hurtful things to people who were supporting one candidate or another. "Oh, my dad says he's crazy,", or "My mom says she's a liar," were two from today. The political process is confusing for young kids, who largely see this whole thing as an American Idol popularity contest. Your assistance in helping kids understand that supporting a candidate doesn't make someone inherently a bad person is a helpful message. Thanks for your support on this.
In science we are working on identifying different types of land forms and are working toward building models, maps, and drawings of them. The kids are working on making definitions for the different land forms and will be incorporating them into their projects. Our next step will be tying together different kinds of animals into their ecosystems.
Writer's Workshop work is coming along great as well. We are writing about a land form that they have been to and writing about it. It has been great to see the variety of land forms the kids have been to. You may be surprised that some of your children have been to the ice caps at the North and South pole!
As always, folks, please be in touch with any updates from home. I'm always happy to hear from you.
Enjoy early Spring!
~B
Thanks, Ben, for your wise and thoughtful comments to the kids about the election and about respect for people who differ. At their age, this is one of the most important lessons in good citizenship. Pity their elders (and some of the candidates) seem to have forgotten--or never learned--this.
ReplyDeleteLarry Daloz (Maeve's grandfather)