%20-%204.png)
Yellow Mushrooms with Emily and Virginia
January was an amazing month for the Yellow Mushrooms! It began with several snow days and lots of opportunities for learning, playing, and exploring in the snow. We have begun to brainstorm ideas for our March Community Day, “The Story of…”, and we are so excited to show you all of our hard work!
In ELA, we have been focusing on building upon our skills as readers. As we focus on letter sounds and blending, we are gaining fluency while reading CVC words, CVCe words, as well as words with digraphs and blends! All Yellow Learners have been participating in high frequency word (sight word) activities! This month's activities were multisensory worksheets, eye spy while reading, flash card & pop-it tracking, and a special fly sight word swat game. To help translate our sight word identification while reading, we have been taking time to identify the words we know during DEAR time. We have also introduced non-fiction text features and have practiced identifying them while exploring some of our favorite DEAR books. To prepare for our unit project, “The Story Of…”, we have introduced "Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then" in order to learn how to summarize a story. With this in mind, we are excited to use this tool as we write our own story to share with families at Community Day! Ideas for Yellow Mushroom storytelling are to either create a movie or to write a book.
In math, we have explored many different topics, including review of our addition and subtraction facts. We also have begun exploring analog clocks and beginning to tell time on them to the hour and half hour. We had lots of fun using play clocks to explore why clocks work the way that they do. Many Learners were inspired to continue to tell time, even after the clock unit was over! Based on our main idea, we have begun to dive into story problems. We are working on rehearsing a “story problem show” where Learners play a “character” in the story problem and perform it in front of the class. We look forward to performing our story problems soon! This unit will culminate in each Learner writing, drawing, and solving their own story problems to put on display for our Community Day. We are looking forward to exploring more math as the year continues to progress!
As the weather begins to improve as winter draws to a close, making sure your Learner is attending school and arriving on time is crucial to develop a sense of routine and community. Continue to send extra food and snacks, especially warm things in thermoses, to keep your Learner warm and focused. We are so proud of the growth we have seen from each and every Yellow Mushroom since the beginning of the year, and we are excited to continue to watch them grow!
Red Hamsters with Lauren
This month with the Red Hamsters we have talked a lot about some of the holidays that we celebrate in America versus the ones that are celebrated in other countries. We looked at similarities and differences between the chosen celebrations and also peeked into some of the historical figures that are the reason for some of our holidays. We have also been learning more about indigenous cultures and looked at maps of the many tribes that have existed across America. The Lakota of the Plains, Pueblo Peoples of the Southwest, and the Powhatan of the Eastern Woodlands have been some of the groups that we’re focusing on in our exploration.
In Language, The Red Hamsters have been thinking about the different reasons that we write. While we have done a lot regarding narrative and creative writing, we’ve only dipped our toes in the water when it comes to instructional writing. We identified the differences between narrative, expository, descriptive, and persuasive writing, and are beginning to practice each style in a way that’s appropriate for each Learner. They are showing signs of favoring particular styles of writing much more than others, and we think it will be fun for them to see how each type can be, if not always “fun,” useful!
In Math, the Red Hamsters have been continuing to learn increasingly complex concepts in their fraction work. The Learners are also practicing their math facts nearly every day to help support their recall. They have learned about the rules that for addition and subtraction of fractions the fractions need to have the same denominators, while in multiplication and the division of fractions they do not. We’ve begun identifying geometric shapes and are continuing work with patterning and graphing.
Silver Serpents with Furn and Elijah
What a fantastic return to school after a long (then longer) Winter Break! The Silver Serpents loved our snow days, but came back excited and ready to learn. Thank you parents for all your hard work helping to prepare your Learners for school again. We know it can be difficult to readjust after a break, but it always feels easier when we get in the groove early (and have extra time to do so—thanks snow!).
For January, perseverance and integrity were two social emotional focuses at GAP School. Our Learners were challenged with the questions: What does it mean to persevere? How do we persevere in challenging conditions to find success? How do we act with integrity? Do we follow expectations even when others are not looking? Do we encourage others to do the same? We understand that school can feel hard. As we get older, the work gets harder and more challenging, all while we must learn to navigate growing friendships and increased responsibility. How did the Silver Serpents handle it all this month? Well, we conducted silly mock-interviews about stress management, we wrote personal and academic goals for the year that our Educators can help refocus and assist us on, we created our class-classic compliment wall, and we played challenging team-building games like "Human Alphabet" and "Thieves".
In "Thieves", similar to "Red Light, Green Light", Learners had to strategize on how to steal a pencil case from their educator while transporting it back to safety. The catch was that each time the Educator turned around, the entire team had to freeze! And on the way back, the Educator had THREE guesses as to who was carrying the pencil case. After many, many unsuccessful attempts, the Silver Serpents persevered to success through strong teamwork!
For ELA, we eased back into our rhythms with creative writing warm-ups, we embarked on our Word Study Wednesday journey, and, we decided on our Community Day Project! At the beginning of classes, Learners were tasked with 10 minute writing warm-ups. These mini-activities helped them stretch their creative thinking under a restricted time frame. With the goal of writing at least a complete paragraph, the Serpents were encouraged to share their work with their classmates aloud in a circle. We used this time to reflect on our feelings about an injured bird we found, imagine what we would do if we woke up with wings for a day, and react to a random kangaroo standing in our room! It’s amazing how prolific we can get with a silly idea and a few minutes to write.
On Wednesdays, we have officially begun our Word Study Series. Small pairs of Learners are given a list of vocabulary words to learn and investigate through a series of activities and games—charades, matching, multiple choice, word replacement, and passage reading with short answers. As we get more familiar with active reading strategies and short responses, your Learners will work toward developing the reading comprehension skills they need for increasingly independent work. We are so excited to feel our minds grow!
For Community Day, the Silver Serpents will conduct interviews across GAP School—classmates, educators, and more—to highlight “The Story Of” our community members. Please keep an eye on our blog for these extra special updates down the line!
In Math, the Silver Serpents are tackling their hardest unit yet—graphing! We have asked questions like: What is a graph? How do we read them? How do we create them? Why are they important? As we’ve learned, graphs are a math concept that most of us will encounter in our everyday lives—in school, work, the news, and beyond! Graphs are integral to representing collected data. They communicate our world back to us, explain phenomena, and help us compare everything from birds' wingspans and snowball throws, to voting preferences and frequency. The Silver Serpents learned how to decipher graphs, answer questions about their data, and create their own—with impressive independence too! We are so grateful to Corrie and her creative, hands-on approach to Math—and not just because we love making snowballs and seeing how far we can possibly throw them!
It is the New Year, and Silver Serpents are working as hard as ever in Science. We started 2025 with a mid school-year review, talking over the content that we did in the first few months of school, and playing a massive game of “Deal or No Deal” to really test out our science knowledge! Once we thoroughly reviewed and talked over anything that we missed, we dove into our next unit, weather and climate. Furn went over our Unit goals, and we started with a weather vs. climate activity to get the Silvers' brains turning. During this activity, Furn made up a variety of cups that represented different locations, and filled each up with beads that represented the weeks of the year. Each bead color represented a different weather condition of that week. After tallying up the different weather conditions over the course of the year, Silvers were able to make assumptions about what the climate of these places are like. This was a great way to start distinguishing between weather and climate! We played a “this or that” style weather or climate game, and looked at a globe to start visualizing how location on the globe affects climate. Silvers generated ideas about what other factors affect climate, like proximity to water and altitude! We played a fan-favorite game, "Monster Vacation", to help us connect climate zones to different areas on the globe. We explored the different factors of weather - wind, precipitation, temperature, etc., and nature journaled the state of the atmosphere here in Charlottesville. We then challenged the Silvers to interpret climate graphs from all over the world, figuring out how they can use yearly temperature and precipitation data to figure out climates. Silvers even gathered temperature and precipitation data for Charlottesville and made a double y-axis graph to represent Charlottesville's climate data. Moving forward, Silvers will begin identifying potential solutions to weather-related problems. We are also super excited to meet virtually with a meteorologist from the National Weather Service who will be doing a presentation on severe weather and a class Q&A.
As we move into the third quarter, please do not forget—it’s still cold outside! We’ve noticed Learners sometimes coming to school without correct layers, and as growing kids often encounter, outgrown layers. Take advantage of those end-of-season sales, GAP School discounts, or hand-me-downs, to make sure your Learner comes to school well-prepared for our dynamic Virginia weather
Emerald Elk with Corrie and Luke
2025 began with the introduction of a brand new big idea, which we are calling “The Story Of…”, and if you ask any Emerald the story of their January, it probably begins with fun in the snow. After a couple of bonus winter break days, we shot back into class, penguin sliding over frozen snow or following animal tracks across the icy terrain. As we turn an academic eye toward our big idea, we have become interested in the way that stories can be told based on who is telling them, for what purpose, and based on interpretations of facts and statistics. Considering the stories we may have to tell, we were introduced to podcasting, and began exploring how this new knowledge could inform future projects and classwork.
During math this January, the Elk had an exciting month of learning! The younger Learners focused on data and statistics, while the older Learners explored algebraic inequalities. On snowy days, Learners enjoyed solving for the average (mean) of their snowball throws and kickball kicks, then graphed their data on bar graphs. For the final week, younger Learners practiced converting measurements, like pounds to tons and liquid measurements. When the weather was especially snowy, the elder Elk applied their math skills to real-world scenarios, calculating the speed of various objects (like tennis balls) using the formula: speed = distance ÷ time. Additionally, they are enjoying solving algebraic inequalities and graphing their results on number lines.
In ELA, the Elk kicked off their January by diving into new units on poetry and drama! Our elementary Elk immersed themselves in descriptive writing, word choice, and rhyme scheme. They also began discussions about the ways in which stories can be presented based on their purpose, audience, format, tone, and topic. To tie these concepts together, they began composing original limericks based on a recent news article, similar to those found in NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me podcast. Meanwhile, our middle school Learners got their first look at Shakespeare through various sonnets and selections from Henry V, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This group has been especially enthusiastic in undertaking such a notoriously difficult subject, and is underway on a project that will combine their algebraic skills, our local context within Appalachia, and the place of nature in Shakespeare’s works. So much new and exciting terrain lies ahead as the Elk forge their way into 2025, and we can’t wait to see where they go!
Knowledge Seekers and Projects with Ryan and Max
When natuer gives you snow and ice you go tracking and make snow bricks! The weather created a delayed start to our first week back in January but we were undetered. We took advantage of the wintry weather to seek out 'easier' to find animal tracks and learn about building snow structures.
Snowy weather is the absoluty best for working on tracking skills. Animal prints are much easier to see, along with more details, in a fine layer of snow. As is tradition at GAP school, if its snowing then we are on the hunt for tracks. Over the course of the first week we learned to identify animal tracks by specific features and extrapolate the story that track may tell us. Tracking supports logical reasoning and asks Learners to consider the "who, what, where, when and why" of the tracks they see. This type of activity supports ELA standards towards fiction story writing, science standards through interpreting patterns and drawing conclusions based on evidence.
Our entire school participated in making "snow bricks" and helping to build a snow structure. We used this as an opportunity to learn more about Inuit culture and how igloos were used along with the science of how an igloo insulates in arctic temperatures. Sadly, our snow structure had a dramatic cloapse, think dominoes, as temperatures warmed up. Your Learner may tell you, "it was Max's fault" but reader, please understand that it is MUCH more nuanced than Max just knocking into the snow structure...
On our especially cold Wednesday, Learners had the opportunity to create a variety of tempearture realted experiments. We discussed states of matter, what is matter, and how water behaves more uniquely than other molecules when going from liquid to solid. For their ice experiments, Learners crafted a question, thought of variables, made predictions and displayed their experiments for the rest of school to see. The following we day we noticed any changes and discussed the results of our experiments.
Later in the month, Learners dove into their Maker Day projects including a few savory cooking dishes all made from scratch such as; frittata, tortilla chips and salsa and cheesy flatbreads. We fired up the 3D printer for two different projects. Learners are shaping slate for spear heads, felting wool, shaping bows and boomarangs along with a host of other great work a Maker Days.
SEL with Janelle
This month in SEL, the Yellow Mushrooms have been hard at work exploring the concepts of kindness, honesty, and integrity, and recognizing how these qualities increase the ability for others to trust us. This flock loves stories and rhymes! We had fun creating a poem to help them remember these qualities based on a short story we read called “The Little White Lie”. Here’s our poem:
In a forest of truth, a baby tree grew,
With branches of honesty, strong and true.
But a little white lie, like a snowball, rolled,
And soon it was tangled, its story retold.
So remember, dear friends, as you go on your way,
Honesty’s the sunlight that brightens the day.
Let’s nurture our trees, let them flourish and thrive,
For a world built on truth is the best way to strive.
During the snowy and icy days, we worked on refining our mindfulness skills through bird sits, cloud watches, and rounds of “I notice” in the playscape, log hotel, and the village. We strengthened our fine motor skills through penguin sledding, snowball making, snow/ice painting with watercolors, and ice crushing.
The Red Hamsters dove into the snowy winter wonderland full of curiosity and wonder. They fully absorbed the opportunities to explore and practice mindfulness. We’ve been focused on the topics of honesty, with a conversation about Abraham Lincoln and pennies of honesty. We did penny art to keep in the Hamster Haven as reminders to uphold honesty and integrity.
The Silver Serpents have been working hard on teamwork and emotions identification through games of "What Do You Meme Emotions Edition". The Learners have connected through conversations centered around kindness and caring. We have focused a lot on respect for self, others, things, and places. Identifying that managing our stress is an important part of caring for ourselves and being able to help care for and support others was a big conversation in our group. We identified the difference between positive stress and negative stress, and worked individually on a Take 5 project where all the Learners identified 5 things they could do at home and at school to lower their stress. Many of the Silvers showed interest in making stress balls, so you can find the link below to the activity instructions if that is something you’d like to do as a family.
The Emerald Elk participated in a lot of teambuilding activities with an emphasis on teamwork and inclusion. Many rounds of "Ouisi" helped us make connections and "What Do You Meme Emotions Edition" helped us with being able to observe how others might be feeling. We rounded out the month brainstorming ideas for an escape room, GAP School style, and can’t wait to bring that idea full circle as we continue to build our toolbox of inclusiveness.
Comments