Week 27 -- Cover your cough, wash your hands

Checking on the tulips that we planted earlier this year

As I’m sure you’re aware, our class has been ravaged by illness for the last two weeks, making the daily taking of the attendance a somber affair. Happily, we have plenty of ongoing project work that lends itself well to independent and small group work.

Recess across the street at County Farm Park

Place Out of Time is, of course, an ongoing concern, and there has been plenty of (make belief) drama in the simulation in general, and among our class in general. On a grand scale, a photo has emerged of the shoplifter at the center of our case dining at a very expensive, exclusive restaurant with Mr. Steven Spielberg. What are we to make of the supposedly homeless, impoverished Mr. Roman Ostriakov dining on a $600 dinner? Opinions varied, as you might imagine. More specific to our classroom, three of our students have been selected as justices in the trial, which makes them focal points in the online conversations. As a result, we’ve spent a lot of time reading messages and posts from other participants, trying to parse useful, if pointed questioning from things that feel more antagonistic, and then crafting appropriate responses. The Place Out of Time banquet will be on the Monday afternoon when we get back from break. Costumes are optional, but encouraged, so if you’re so inclined, it might be worth having a chat over break about how to best represent our characters for Monday. Some people go all out, others simply wear a name tag (and perhaps carry something that indicates who they are). Take a look at this blog entry from a few years ago to get a sense of the range of what people have done.

There's a lot of dancing in our group. 

Kids also spent time working on their biome games, most of which are nearing the home stretch, as well as squeezing in some work on our art projects.

There's also a fair amount of singing. 

It was a short week for math groups, which was spent doing a combination of Singapore book work, math games, and trying out a new math game called Prime Climb.

Have a great break!