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Welcome Back!

We have jumped right in with both feet! As much fun as we had over break, it feels great to be back into our routine and catching up.

This week we've been working on some renovations and problem solving as an SBLC family. The students are discussing issues with our current job market and the quality of work that's being done to take care of each other, our materials, and our space. They are brainstorming new ways (and jobs) to create better autonomy and accountability. We've also been revisiting the value that mistakes are absolutely necessary in our lives and show that we are growing. In addition, the piece of honesty and vulnerability when you've made mistakes has been addressed. Sometimes a belief that we are "getting out of trouble" or "brushing things under the rug" by not opening up about our mistakes makes a small problem a bigger issue...because it will come up later in one way or another.

In ELA, we worked on compound sentence structure and expository writing. They are taking on more and more responsibility for taking the whole piece from prompt to draft form. We have been practicing how to create vivid details through description to best develop our examples.


In reading, we completed the journey with Winnie. Major Harry Colebourn made a decision to give up what he held dear so that others might have happiness, a lesson he learned from the War. We discussed as a class how Winnie discovers her purpose is to help others, and how that so perfectly matched what Harry left her to do. We analyzed it further to realize how that applies to us...take a look in their notebooks (it's a perfect analogy of parent/child and how it's their job to discover their purpose and go do that big work, while it's our job to let them go, despite wanting to keep them...)!

SBLC mathematicians are back in the swing! We started on Monday with a Match it puzzle that challenges all to remember accuracy and attention to detail across all four operations. This also reminded us about persistence and the joy that comes through a fabulous struggle and a satisfying solution. We also build, drew, and compared fractions with both like and unlike denominators. It's been amazing to hear the variety of solutions that use logical reasoning and visual strategies. As we move from a concrete to an abstract understanding, we're also noticing computation strategies that use multiplication and division. This big work will continue next week.

In science, we're immersed in authentic inquiry. As the Kiker science fair kicks up next week, we're using all the components of the scientific method to answer our questions related to water. Students finished researching and sharing expertise with their group, then used their additional understanding to develop thoughtful hypotheses. They designed experiments with a testable question and are collecting data over the next week or so. 





Thanks for prioritizing portfolio and report cards as conversation opportunities - enjoy your weekend!

Jen and Jewellyn


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