Welcome back to Rivendell! We are thrilled that you have chosen Rivendell as a partner in educating your child. It is such an honor to be with your kids every day. We had a wonderful first few days of class. Everyone seems excited to be back and ready for a new year. We have spent some time getting to know each other and introduced some important procedures and expectations. In Older Kids we work on personal responsibility, organization, and the development of good work habits in order to prepare these kids for middle school. We believe that knowledge and understanding are acquired through active exploration. Children in our classrooms do not just sit and listen to the teacher but are actively engaged in discussion, investigation, and questioning. We encourage our students to find their voice. We want them to be able to share their ideas in a whole class setting and to respectfully ask questions of their teachers and peers. We want our students to be able to advocate for themselves in order to get help when needed and to ask for clarification when the lesson is not clear. These skills prepare Rivendell older kids to excel in middle school.
This week we will be working on an almost regular schedule. We are starting reading workshop by choosing appropriate books, learning how to record our reading, and how to write reading responses. We will be working on reading assessments throughout the week to learn more about students’ reading skills. We will be getting back into the rhythm of math work sessions. We are excited to be able to give each student even more individualized attention in our small classes. We will start our first writing project and learn how the process of writer’s workshop looks in older kids. We will also begin our study of Egypt. Our classes will work together in small groups to complete tasks and projects as they learn about this ancient civilization and try to become the next pharaoh of Egypt! We will not be sending homework home this week, but we do encourage each child to read independently or with an adult every night for at least 20 minutes. Every morning at 8:30 sharp we are jump starting our kids with warm ups, such as free writing, keyboarding, or a math challenge, so please have your kids in school by 8:30. We will talk in more detail about our schedule and curriculum at Back-to-School Night on September 5th. We hope to see you there.
A sense of community is fundamental to Rivendell and good communication is crucial. Every Monday we will email a link to our Monday News. Here you will find information about what is going on in the classroom, homework for the week, recitation information, and upcoming events. We also try to include photographs as much as possible. If you have any concerns or questions please contact us via email.
Upcoming Events
Thursday, September 5th – Back-to-school Night
Friday, September 6th – Field trip to Lory State Park
Monday, Sept. 9th -Map testing
Wednesday, Sept. 11-Map testing
Friday, September 13th – Older Kids Sleep in
