Soccer with Friends School

We had an exciting morning today. First, we held auditions for our upcoming school play Alice in Wonderland. 

Immediately afterward, we hosted the Friends School In Detroit for a cordial soccer match in County Farm Park. It's part of our burgeoning interscholastic athletic organization, which our own Karl Sikkenga has been masterminding. Read more about the schedule on Karl's blog. 

It was a lovely way to spend the morning, and everyone had a great time! Ask your child about the game! 

Nik takes a shot.

Recess - Rain or Shine!

In general, our guideline for recess is "if it's safe to be outside, we're going outside." Consequently, we'll occasionally find ourselves outside in light rain. Our kids generally make the best of it: 

This is Keira's initial idea. By the end of recess, she had built a contraption of leaves and twigs that could be suspended above her head. 

Maddy was determined to read at recess without damaging her book. She found a way!

Investigating Water

Water, Water, Everywhere

Last Thursday, as part of ongoing science unit on water use and water quality, the 5-6s collected samples from various locations in and around SK.

Eva and Niko make observations of their water sample.

Then, on Tuesday, we had a class discussion about the kinds of observations they made and whether or not those observations were objective or subjective.

Collecting water samples....

Today we collected water samples around the school to see how we can assess water quality.

Magic Realism: 'Loser' by Aimee Bender

There are many facets to all of our themes, and Magic is no exception. Yesterday, we spent some time learning about the literary genre magic realism, in which magical or unreal elements accent stories that are otherwise grounded in reality (as opposed to books like the Harry Potter series, which are straight fantasy.) 

We read a short story by Aimee Bender, in which a young boy develops the peculiar power to sense the location of misplaced objects; car keys, hairbrushes, and... other things. 

The full text of Bender's story is below, along with a link to an episode of the radio program This American Life, where it was once read aloud in an episode. 

It's a short story that yielded some very insightful conversations: 
- Why is it called Loser?
- Who is the young man talking to at the end? 
- What would it be like to have this power? 
- What do people think of him? 
- What does he think of himself? 
- Is he a happy character? 

Field Trip: Mary Beth Doyle

We took a field trip this afternoon to Mary Beth Doyle Park, the location of the capstone of the Malletts Creek restoration project. We'll be doing a lot of work with watersheds this year, visiting key locations along Washtenaw County waterways. 

Read more about Mary Beth Doyle Park here! 

Math: Factor Tag

We're trying to get outside as often as possible before the changing seasons chase us indoors. One favorite way to get outdoors and active is "factor tag."