WELCOME BACK! It was great to see the kids this week! The cold day was a great chance to get caught up on some planning (and blog posts). Please take a minute to read about what we have planned for EY.

SUPERSTARS OF HISTORY

As we begin the second semester, we are working to complete our Superstars of History projects.  This is an exciting project based on a book purchased for us from the Scholastic Book Fair. The students have been researching, looking for connections, causes and effects, and how events developed during their chosen time period of history. Students then  began writing about the superstar of his/her choice. Here is a link to the book we are modeling if you want to take a peek. I am eager to have the students share them with you.  I am hoping to have these done and  ready to share by mid January.  We will be setting due dates at the next EY meeting day.

WONDEROPOLIS

Upon completion of this unit, we will focus on Science.  We will be exploring  Wonderopolis and the endless resources found there. The student’s  culminating project for these studies will be to choose a science question, become an expert  in that area, and create a multimedia Wonderopolis page answering that question.

Math Olympiad Competition

We will continue with the Math Olympiad Competition in 2015.  These are the math tests that we take each month, November through March.  The meeting after the test is a great learning opportunity for the students. It is interesting to see how they approached the problems and to see the light bulb turn on as we discuss how to arrive at the correct answer using various methods. We will go over our first Olympiad during our next EY time.

Science Olympiad

The Science Olympiad is coming up on January 27th.  Please ask your child if he/she is planning to submit a plan for an edible car for a chance to attend this Science filled day.  Their plan is due on January 14th.  Here is the link to the activity https://ey.westside66.org/category/teachers/. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this project. Your child will be notified if they are chosen to attend. We will be looking at effort and creativity to determine attendees.

Math opportunity

There are math minutes posted weekly through early March for students to check out.  The EY team is planning an extreme math day for those students who participate in these activities. Check it out at https://ey.westside66.org/category/learning-opportunities/mathminute/

Battle of the Books

We will keep working on Battle of the Books during E/I time through the end of January. Encourage your child to read as many of the 20 books as possible. We have a exciting event planned for those student who complete at least 10 books and activities. Invitations for the event will be out in early March.

I  wish you all a very happy and safe 2015!  I look forward to the second semester working with your children  and their teachers to enrich their educational experience.

Sincerely,

Jenny