Dear family and friends of room 104,
The windy weather delivered new objects for us to explore this week on the playground. Many cocoons and chrysalises were found under the live oak and gumbo limbo trees. A small group of children made a barrier for them and brought others over little by little to observe the sphinx moth cocoons. Other children collected fruits and seeds from the gumbo limbo, fig, and live oak trees.
Our study of the Americas continued and this week and we learned more about the Dominican Republic on Tuesday and Colombia on Friday. From both countries we heard about their locations, flags, and special dishes, (rice, beans, and meat from the Dominican Republic and pandebono from Colombia). We also saw photos of Juan Luis Guerra and Shakira. Following the presentation of the Dominican Republic we practiced merengue dancing and following the presentation of Colombia we colored a paper after watching a short video that can be found online called, "Colombia is Passion".
A special thanks to all of the multi-sensory cultural items that have been shared, (shiny treasure of jewelry, roasted coffee beans, and jingling pesos from Colombia were delightful)! We will continue talking about the Americas until the end of the year and if you wish to share a presentation of any specific country or tradition pertaining to the Americas, please send me an e-mail and be sure to have your level one volunteer clearance.
The administration is asking that all presentations and visitors have level one clearance in order to be in the classroom. Be sure to sign up on the community portal under dadeschools.net before observing in the classroom.
Last weekend's garden workshop and the spaghetti dinner were great successes! Thank you very much to all that attended. These improvements will help us develop our school both indoors and outdoors. If you missed these events, be sure to check out future garden workshops, school festivals, and the Family Fit and Fun Fair later on this year.
This Thursday October 29th children are welcome to come to school in a costume and all children will have a parade around the school around 9 AM in their costumes. For additional fundraising efforts, the middle school is throwing a Harvest festival on this day. For $5 students may participate in various games during the morning and receive popcorn and pizza. The fourth through sixth grade classrooms are selling Boo grams for $1/each and Harvest photos for $5. Be sure to send in any of these orders before Wednesday!
Enjoy the rest of the windy weekend,
Ms. Joanna Boone