March 2026 at GAP School!

Yellow Superstars with Emily

March for the Yellow Superstars has been victorious, hands on, and experimental! Learners were so excited to see their hard work displayed at Community Day. The success of their society project left them feeling tons of pride and a strong sense of community. The Superstar society consisted of an office, library, pizza parlor, veterinary clinic, and bank. Each Learner interviewed for the jobs they were interested in and were assigned daily tasks for the jobs they were given. At Community Day, each learner had the opportunity to complete a bingo sheet with their families. This encouraged GAP School families to visit each business within the society and participate in games, view displayed work, and observe their child's routines and daily activities. Learners, educators, and family members had a blast!

In ELA, the Superstars are continuing to build on their phonics skills. Each week we dive deep into the letter of the week. We focus on formation by practicing writing on lined paper as well as experiencing the formation through sensory activities. Painting on logs at Water Chicken Way is one of our favorites! We've been partnering science learning through enrichment activities. While learning the letter Rr, we did an experiment on capillary action by watching rainbows expand and connect. While learning the letter Ee, we did an "EGG-xperiment" where we observed an egg shell dissolve within a jar of vinegar. Here, we talked about acids and bases. When learning the letter Gg we participated in a fun enrichment activity when we made "gack" (slime) together! 

Along with phonics and letter formations, our DEAR time routine has grown strong. Each day, learners are gaining love for books as they look through library books from the Book Bus. They love to explore pages, illustrations, captions, headings, and photographs together; often showing each other and their educators their discoveries and findings. As they build their knowledge on nonfiction text features, learners are highly encouraged to search for the ones they know and attempt to read what they see. These ten minutes of class is when they practice their reading fluency. Learners are using BOB Books to revisit sight words, segment and blend new words, and gain reading comprehension. It is magical! Learners practice sentence structure through nature journaling. This perfect pair of ELA and science gives learners the thinking routines needed to become observers and scientists alongside practicing uppercase letters, spelling, spacing, and punctuation. 

In math, the Yellow Superstars tracked their reading using bar graphs. Each learner had their own bar where they graphed their independent reading minutes during Read Across America week. This also helped learners revisit counting by ones. Another way we've practiced counting by ones is by jump roping! Superstars are extremely devoted to their jump rope personal records. One learner in our class even has a personal best of 206! Another thing Superstars have been practicing in math has been story problems: adding and subtracting  within 10. Learners are also using number lines in order to add and subtract within 20. 

Superstars are wrapping up our money unit! As we get closer and closer to our goal (earning enough money to buy pizza for a pizza party), we honor our class expectations, reflect on our day, and earn a daily pizza income! Learners have been focused on coin identification, value, and adding. We are so close to our celebration! As the concept of measurement has been introduced, learners are learning to use non-standard units of measurement in order to compare size, height, and width. Unifix cubes are some of our favorites manipulatives! We have also been learning how to measure with rulers. Our favorite activity so far? Measuring ourselves!

Along with the enrichment activities already discussed, learners have continued to explore habitats in science! Our newest habitat to explore was the ocean as learners did research on jellyfish! We have also been exploring the signs of spring around our environment and logging our findings in our nature journal. During the rain, sun, and snow that continued into the month of March, learners created songs that spoke about the water cycle. 

Red Rubies with Virginia and Sapna

The Red Rubies have grown so much this year. We are so proud of how they have been following expectations and treating each other with kindness and respect. We have had some wacky weather to challenge the learners. We were so proud of them for all the perseverance and grace they displayed. As we enter spring and the days get warmer, we are so thankful to you all for sending your learners with layers for them to take off throughout the day.

In ELA, we have continued with our structured literacy and phonemic awareness activities. We have begun vowel teams- when 2 vowels go a-walkin, the first one does the talkin! Although it can be challenging at first to figure out which vowel teams go where, our learners have been working hard and doing a great job! We also have been focusing on writing, and sentence structure. It is so exciting to see so much growth the Reds have done this year in their writing!

During the month of March, the Red Rubies did a deep dive into government- what is government? How does ours work? Why does a society need a government? We discussed the three branches of government- legislative, executive and judicial- and what their different responsibilities are. We also talked about the different levels of government- federal, state and local. During all of this, it was important to talk about the distinction of fact versus opinion. A fact is something that is always true and can be proven, and an opinion is a belief that others can disagree with. We used our opinions to stage debates, where we respectfully shared our different opinions with each other, and gave reasons to explain our opinions. As a final project, we wrote opinion letters to the mayor of Charlottesville, Juandiego Wade, sharing our opinions about things that should be changed in our community. To no one’s surprise, we had a lot of letters about environmental impact! We also had some letters pushing for free healthcare, building a food bank for the homeless, and outlawing smoking. It was inspiring to see what the learners came up with, and what they felt passionate about!

In math, we have continued our exploration of shapes and their connection with fractions. First, we built animals using Tangram shapes and wrote fractions to determine the proportion of each shape within the whole. Next, we completed puzzles to see how smaller shapes could be combined to form a larger shape, and then connected the illumination of the moon phase to fractions. Our knowledge of shapes allowed us to deepen our understanding of our building materials. Leading up to building our society, the Red Rubies added simple machines and magnets to their toolbelts. We learned about engineers and how they work together to solve problems.

Following the engineering cycle, we took several steps: we asked questions about society, imagined a better society, designed the pieces of our society, tested them to see how the pieces fit together, and finally built our society with Legos, Magnatiles, and connectors. Our society’s goal was to work with nature and create a place for all living beings. We made sure our materials were all natural, intending for them to return to the Earth. We sourced our energy from the sun, water, and wind. We protected nature by respecting animal habitats and ensuring nothing we used went to waste. All these steps came together to create our final project for community day. We were so happy to share it with all of you. Thank you for coming!

Silver Sparrows with Furn and Elijah

March has been such a full and exciting month for the Silver Sparrows, especially as we wrapped up one unit and jumped right into another! In math, we continued building our understanding of fractions, decimals, and percentages, making lots of meaningful connections between them. We started by exploring decimal places and their relationship within the base 10 system, which helped us convert between fractions, decimals, and percentages. This was an important skill for our Community Day project, the Silver Sparrows Cookbook. Students put so much thought into this project, defining the traits that make them who they are and representing those traits as fractions. They estimated, adjusted, and made sure their fractions added up to one whole (one full “self”), which led to some really thoughtful mathematical and personal reflection.

Along the way, we practiced common fraction, decimal, and percentage conversions, compared and ordered decimals, and returned to fractions to explore them as division using real-life examples like sharing 3 cookies among 4 people (each person gets ¾ of a cookie!). We also learned how to multiply fractions by whole numbers and began adding and subtracting decimals, continuing to build fluency and confidence. With such a strong foundation in place, we are feeling excited and ready to move into time and then geometry after Spring Break!

In science, we began the month by finishing up our bat studies and completing our lab reports, which showed so much growth in students’ ability to think like scientists by analyzing data, reflecting on their findings, and clearly communicating their results. Alongside this, students created “Franken-bats,” designing their own uniquely adapted bats by combining traits from different real species and explaining how those adaptations supported survival. We worked collaboratively to build our science learning wall, reflecting on what felt most important to share from our unit and taking real ownership over how our learning was displayed for Community Day.

After Community Day, we shifted into a new unit on taxonomy, exploring how scientists sort and classify living things through kingdom, phylum, and class. Through nature journaling and observation, students practiced sorting animals they are familiar with and identifying key characteristics of different groups. Most recently, we’ve started diving into traits and inheritance, kicking things off with a “guess the puppy parents” game and now observing squirrels to distinguish between behavioral and physical traits, as well as inherited and acquired traits. Silvers have been asking thoughtful questions and making careful observations, We are excited to continue building on this as we move further into our study of heredity!

Emerald Eagles with Lauren

In math, we have been working with ratios and focusing on algebraic expressions! We have moved into practice with two-step and three-step expressions with variables and continue to work with the order of operations to solve equations. We are still visiting prior concepts to solidify skills and ensure they stay fresh as we move into our last quarter. 

In ELA, the Emeralds have been finishing their novel study of The Giver and the many complex discussion topics that arose from our question routines. We’ve worked on character analysis, story arc, and explored topics on ethics, morality and the gifts that come from challenges. We continued to work on research skills, summarizing, and taking a different perspective for final writing projects for our Community Day! 

In Science, we crafted systems with considerations ranging from social dynamics to physical limitations. As a class we dove into research about ancient civilizations and indigenous communities and crafted their knowledge into creative projects to share with families and friends of GAP on our Community Day. Our learners worked hard on their documentaries, stop motion animation, dioramas, sculptures, travel guides, and newspapers to evidence their learning.

After our Community Event we were excited to welcome one of our grandmothers into our classroom to learn more about force, motion, energy, gravity, speed & acceleration, and friction, etc.. We designed cars that would transport and protect eggs. We love having special guests in our classrooms!

To wrap up the month we reflected on where we've been and where we're going. Through collaboration and teambuilding challenges we identified new guidelines for our class. We then tested those guidelines and made adjustments to our plan. To wrap up the year, our commitments to ourselves and our classmates are:

• We help create a safe space for learning

• We will be supportive of each other's needs

• We will take responsibility for ourselves

• We will keep a consistent schedule

• We will be open to challenges in class

This agreement is about helping us be aware, to keep trying when things feel hard, and continue growing together.

SEL with Janelle

The Yellow Superstars continued their inclusiveness conversations which required a reflective look into what makes each of them unique and special. They compiled “I am special” books and added to them:

• Ways that they can stay calm

• Activities that make them feel calm when they have a variety of feelings

• A page that shows their reflection of what is and what is not in their control

After working through these pages the Learners helped create a book cover for their special books to take home on community day to share with their families.  Encouraging them to expand on these topics at home would be a fun way to see how they like to express their emotions.  

The Red Rubies continued their journey of inclusiveness which included learning more about self reflection, identity, and caring about themselves and others. They put together acrostic poems for each of their names. Carefully choosing words that identify them as a person. They diligently and excitedly whittled stakes to be able to display their work for community day. We also chose photos for their class space and worked together to create custom bark frames and finger knitting so they could be displayed in the Red class area. Finally, we created mud pie recipes and real mud pies out of nature finds that represented their individuality as GAP learners and amazing humans. The Red Rubies are putting so much work into figuring out what makes them shine!

The Silver Sparrows have been focusing on teamwork and respect. They worked together in small groups to come up with names for their SEL group name.  We implemented leadership, communication, active listening, and flexible thinking skills as they came up with a process of selection. Both groups independently decided to utilize a 16 name bracket for decision making. Our SEL groups are now officially the bananthers, a creative combo of a banana and a panther (definitely ask for an illustration if your Learner is a banather). The other group is the salamanders. The concept that respect starts with themselves was highlighted, for example, taking care of our bodies with food, sleep, and movement. See more below about a guest speaker from the community who kicked off our topic of respect this week for Silver and Emerald with some lively conversation and activities.

The Emerald Eagles have continued their learning in the areas of teamwork and community. As part of their contribution to community day they worked together to create an emotion scavenger hunt for everyone to enjoy. The scavenger hunt incorporated the games/activities they created to pass along to the GAP school community. They will continue to add to these activities as a way to expand their understanding of emotion and how it impacts their thinking and actions. They  welcomed a guest from the community to support their learning about self respect and the importance of caring for our bodies. 

Dr. Katz, local author and doctor, joined the Silver and Emerald flocks at the end of March to support their learning about caring for our bodies and all they do for us.  Dr Katz is passionate about a preventative medicine paradigm, focusing on the benefits of regular exercise, sufficient sleep, microbiome health, and social connectivity. His approach is holistic, treating the whole person rather than just the symptoms. Dr Katz is passionate about helping people of all ages to have an optimal quality of life. If you or your learner are curious you can find his book here.