Rivendell Older Kids

OLDER KIDS’ NEWS November 5th

OLDER KIDS’ NEWS

November 5th-9th


The knights and damsels are preparing for their grand display; tumbling jesters, singing ladies and fellows, and colorful boomwackers are filling the air as the Older Kids make final adjustments to ready themselves for their musical, “Joust”. They will perform their show for the school this Wednesday and for the parents this Friday, November 9th at 12:00 in the Rivendell Commons.  Please join us for this delightful musical!

We have been discussing and trying to digest the democratic process in class. Students have been working on an essay that demonstrates their knowledge of an important issue in this election, the two candidates’ views of this issue, and their persuasive argument for their own personal opinion. We also explored the electoral college and three branches of government.
This Tuesday, on Election Day, we will participate in the school wide vote between the wolf and the eagle, the younger kids’ chosen candidates for their “election”.
The younger kids classroom are campaigning for their chosen animals and will have set up an “official” voting booth for all students to participate in. Older kids will, in addition, be anonymously voting for their chosen presidential candidate.  No matter whom you favor in the election, participation in free elections is an exciting and worthwhile process to expose our 4th and 5th graders to.

Next Friday, November 16, we will be taking a field trip to the new Discovery Science Museum. We will be spending the majority of the day there and the students will need to pack a sack lunch. We will be taking the city bus for our transportation.

There has been a case of lice reported in the school.  Elizabeth Carol, Mato’s mom, recommends California Baby Tea Tree and Lavender baby wash and shampoo. Apparently, lice do not like tea tree or lavender.

Although we have been blessed by unseasonably warm weather, winter is bound to show its face soon.  Please bring appropriate clothes to school for the weather. Keeping a sweater or sweatshirt on your hook at school is never a bad idea. Kudos to this group of Older Kids who, overall, have kept the back coat area much tidier than in years past. As weather changes and the holidays approach, let’s keep active in taking responsibility for our own belongings.
Halloween behind us, elections and musicals in front of us; this promises to be another exciting week!

Michele, Inta, Jane, and Ashley

 

Homework


Monday:
• Vocabulary cards for Lesson 5; Due Wednesday
• Read

Tuesday:
• Purple Math: Work in your book for 20 minutes, beginning with corrections
• Practice Lines and gather all props and costume pieces for the school performance tomorrow.
• Read

Wednesday:
• Work on your Underland Project. Take the orange Underland project sheet and begin answering questions.
• Read

Thursday:

• Practice lines and gather all props and costume pieces for the performance for your parents tomorrow.

IMPORTANT:Costume Note for Musical from Tina

 Older Kids Parents – 
 
We have our Older Kids Musical, Joust!, coming up on November 7th (for the school) and 9th (for the parents at Noon). I would like the kids to begin assembling and bringing in their costumes as soon as possible. We won’t have a dress rehearsal until Tuesday the 6th, but I like to make sure everything’s in place before then.  There are basically two costumes for the show, just ask your child what part they play to know which costume to prepare. 
 
COSTUMES:
 
Knight (also messenger, jester and french soldier) – dark colored pants, big white/light button up shirt, something for a sash or belt. The knights will need to put their swords into the sash, so it must be tight around their waist.

Damsel (also french lady) – longer skirt of any kind and a solid color shirt, *or* a long dress, optional apron or sash. 
 
We also need a few prop items if you have them and don’t mind loaning them out. Please put your name on masking tape on the item if you lend it to us. 
 
PROPS:
 
Stick horses (or stick animals of any kind)
Toy swords (of the medieval shape, broadsword I think is what they’re called)
Jester hats
Wizard hat
 
Please have your student bring a grocery sack with their name on it and their costume pieces (with name on them) inside. They will keep these on their hook until the performance. They can bring prop pieces to the music room and I’ll keep track of them. 
 
Thanks so much for your help!

Letter to Parents on Revising and Editing

October 29, 2012

Dear Parents,

 

Like education, writing is a process. At Rivendell we focus on the process, on the how, on the thinking and the doing. Writing is also a craft that will enable your child to demonstrate his/her thinking, learning, intellect and hard work throughout his/her life. In order to better serve our students we would like to involve our parents in their child’s writing process. We also try to continuously improve our homework, we do not want our homework to be busy work, but substantive work, so we believe spending 10 mins. with your child observing where they are in the writing process, and recommending improvements will be invaluable to both of you.


Today and tomorrow our students will write an expository essay on an issue from the upcoming election. We have modeled what the elements are of a good expository paragraph. We start pre-writing with a t-chart for expository writing. Then our students construct a good topic sentence, support statements and details, finishing with a concluding statement.


They will be in process on Tuesday night, so wherever they are in their writing, we would like you to help them revise their work. We use our 6 plus 1 traits of writing to revise. We are including the chart below. The traits are: organization, sentence fluency, word choice, presentation, voice, conventions and ideas. You may also edit for spelling and punctuation.  We will include editing marks to use with your child. Feel free to use a colored pen and cross out, rewrite, or add appropriate words or changes to your child’s writing.  Do this with your child, explaining your reasons as you go; asking them if they see any other areas that need revision.  This does not need to be a lengthy process.  This is meant to simply reinforce the need for revising our work.


Please let us know how this process works. We have done this before, and we have had good luck with it.


Thanks,
Jane, Ashley, Inta and Michele

Older Kids’ News October 29th

Older Kids’ Newsletter

October 29th-November 2nd


A big thank you to all the parents who attended our annual Fun Fest. There were ghouls, goblins, knights, and characters from books; the costumes were as creative and interesting as our gang here at Rivendell. Pizza rolls oozed, cupcakes brought smiles and the cake walk excited our kids into Fun Fest ecstasy.This evening is a traditional event for Rivendell School and the kids love running around the school playing games and having fun.

This week Older Kids will focus on the upcoming election. We will watch a kid friendly video on the different issues and compare the two candidates’ views. Our students will then write an expository essay examining both sides of one key issue concluding with their own opinion on the issue. We will also spend time discussing the role of the president and the long, hard road to winning the job.The elusive electoral college and the nature of a political party will also be a subject of conversation next week. We will encourage respect for each others’ views and ideas regarding this exciting election.

We will pause on academics on Wednesday to celebrate Halloween with our annual parade and party. Kids can bring their costumes in a labeled bag and we will change at 1:45 for the 2:00 parade. Parents are welcome to join us for afternoon events.

Older Kids are practicing for their upcoming musical.  Please, remind your child to go over his/her lines. Tina has been working diligently with the kids to prepare them for this exciting play. “Joust”, the musical, will be presented to parents on November 9th at 12:00 at Rivendell School.

Enjoy these Indian Summer days,
Ashley, Jane,  Michele and Inta

 

Homework

October 29th-November 2nd


Monday

  • Key Math home. Work on it for at least 20 mins.
  • REAAAAAAADDDDDDDD! remember all you read accumulates in your brain as background knowledge that you then access to make meaning out of what you are currently reading or experiencing. Reading has the highest correlation of any activity to raising the intelligence level of a person. READ!

Tuesday

  • Take your issue expository essay home for your parents to edit. Do not forget instructions on what your teachers want you to do with your parents. Please read aloud what you have written to your parents. Then, sit with them while they make the edits asked for and have them explain why they are doing what they are doing to you. Remember this is an important process.
  • REAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDD!


Wednesday
   Happy Halloween!!

Thursday

  • Study for vocabulary test.
  • Read

Halloween Parade and Party – Wednesday, October 31, 2:00 p.m.
 The Costumes! Costumes should come to school in a marked bag, not worn to school. 

    Please make the costume easy to put on and keep the swords, lances & pokey things at home—they create problems with the excitement of the occasion. 

 We also ask costumes to be in good taste and not involve blood or violence.   Extremely frightening masks are not allowed.             

*  *  Parents are welcome to come and help children dress.  We will start dressing at 1:45 PM.

The Parade! – The costume parade starts at 2:00!  Weather will influence the parade route.
We like parading outside, but if this is not possible we will parade through the school.  The parade will circle several times so you can see all the fun costumes.

The Party! – Classroom parents are being coordinated on the supplies and food needed for the party treats and the fun when the children return to their classes.

https://www.rivendell-school.org/olderkids/176/

***Art Class Reminder***

Students will be using acrylic paints in Art Class this Wednesday, October 24th.  Please make sure that your child comes to school dressed appropriately.  

Newsletter and Homework 10/22

Older Kids’ News

October 22nd -25th


Last week ended with teacher/parent conferences, an opportunity for teachers and parents to communicate about the reason we are all here, the kids. We get to discuss our students’ thinking, strengths and challenges with our parents who know them best. We reformatted our conference notes to include more detailed information about where each child is working in their individual academic work. We hope this new format will be helpful and more informative to our parents.

We begin studying the democratic process this week by reviewing the roots of our democracy in Greece. We will take a look at our constitution and our system of checks and balances. Then we  will investigate the election process and take a look at where both Governor Romney and President Obama stand on the issues. Our exploration will culminate in an election based not on personality and emotions, but on where the candidates stand on the issues based on what they do not just say. We are all very excited about the process.

Fun Fest will be this Friday. Please come and celebrate our school and our community. A ghoulish time will be had by all. Help is needed to make our celebration happen , so if at all possible, please sign up to help in the commons. The school Halloween party will take place Wednesday the 31st of October. The parade will begin at 2:00, and the party will follow.  Please send costumes with children to school.  They will be given time before the parade to change into their costumes.  

The colors, the changing climate, the warm and the cold inspire us and makes us grateful to live in Colorado, specifically in this community. Thank you.

Jane, Michele, Inta and Ashley

 

Homework

October 22nd -25th

Monday

  • Spelling and Grammar book read lesson 26 and complete pages 112 and 113.
  • Read
  • Do vocab. cards – words and definitions (due Thursday)
Tuesday
  • Key math book home 20 mins.
  • Read
  • Vocab cards

Wednesday

  • Work on your Underland project. Bring in some evidence that you made some progress on your project
  • Read
  • Are your Vocab cards done?…Due tomorrow.

 

Labyrinths

In keeping with our Greek topic unit, Polly told the story of the Labyrinth which was about an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos.Our students built mazes and ran several different types of animals through them today..such fun!!!!

Revision

Hello Rivendell families, this is Hilary, I come in on Tuesdays to have a little writing fun with your lovely kids. Today we went over editing and revising. This is often the most challenging part of the writing process. Jane and I had them do some peer editing, we emphasized reading it aloud to find awkward portions, correcting grammar and punctuation, and word choice. It is hard work, but our kids are doing a great job.