Our First Year

Week 16

It has been quite a whirlwind in our final week in the session. We want to start by thanking everyone who came to the Exhibition & Holiday Party and supported our Eagles. We also want to thank all those who supported our Eagles in numerous other ways we can't even begin to count.   The Stop Animation Quest was a success and we are very proud of the Eagles' final video. You can watch their video here: Eagles stopmotion   In Writer's Workshop we continue to work on persuasive writing with the topic of "Pitch a Field Trip". Seeing as this session was so short, we will bring this WW into the first couple weeks of next session to make sure there is enough time for the final product. We also talked about rhetoric and we "built a house" for making good persuasive arguments. ( Picture below of the "house" drawing).   In Civilizations we read about the early Greeks. We imagined that we were inventing a tool that was to be used for farming but then someone figured out it could also be used as a weapon. Would you still invent the tool?   This week in Music we had a lovely holiday party and played musical chairs. We also practiced our percussion skills focusing mostly on dynamics and contrast in our music.   In Art, we did another snowflake based project and worked on developing visible patterns.   In PE we played more games based around winter, practiced our tumbling and received a very kind gift from Ms. Sheri.   We took a trip to the Laconia Library and everyone received a library card! The Eagles are excited and had fun reading in the sailboat in the children's room.

Zoom in below to see the picture of the "rhetoric house"

Parent Coffee Friday!

Week 15

We had an excellent week. This week at music we practiced our piano skills, as well as learning a new instrument, the recorder. We also spent some time working on rhythm skills individually with Ms. Karen. In art with Miss Sani we made holiday cards so look forward to seeing those come home after the exhibition. At PE we played some winter and holiday themed games like floor hockey and pin the nose on Rudolph. We got some laughs out of pin the nose on Rudolph.   We built and decorated gingerbread houses this week and it was really great to see the Eagle have a discussion about what the consequences would be if they ate the candy. Lets just say a lot of push-ups happened ; )   In Civilizations we learned about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. We discussed which is worse for a ruler to have: too much anger or believing that you are better than everyone else? We also asked if it was right for a leader to use a lot of the country's tax money and resources on a personal project like the hanging gardens?   The Eagles have been working hard on our current animation quest. We are EXTREMELY blown away by the focus and effort that they have put into the quest this week. We look forward to sharing the results with you at the exhibition next week. Writer's workshop is moving along well and we think that the pitch for a field trip will be quite persuasive.   Laura's blog post that we would like to share with you this week is a story told by one of the Acton parent's in Austin TX. It is an amazing story of who your child can become after being in an Acton environment for a while. Here is the link: https://www.actonacademyparents.com/about-mornings-a-story-shared-by-an-acton-parent/

Civilizations reading   Free time = music time!   Stage 1 of gingerbread houses!   Stage 2 gingerbread houses!

Singing The 12 Days of Christmas   Braydon leads a discussion on rules of the game for gingerbread houses

Week 14

This week was the start of our Animation Quest! The Eagles were challenged with creating a story board and a flip book as they build up to making a stop-animation greeting card.   During Writer's Workshop the Eagles worked on "Pitching a Field Trip" where, over the course of 3 weeks, they will come up with a field trip idea that needs to meet certain standards and try to persuade us to accept their idea and actually go on the field trip! Our younger Eagles are working on written expression and connecting words to images.   Music was fun this week - the Eagles were able to try out Ms. Karen's tuba and we also played different kinds of bells and sang Jingle Bells. During Art the Eagles made beautiful 3D snow flakes! At gym the Eagles were challenged with completing an obstacle course.   We had time this week to start making a snow fort in the playground and to go on an adventure to Opechee Park. The Eagles also decorated the studio for Christmas!   This week in Civilizations we read about the Phoenicians and the Assyrians. The Eagles had to choose if they would have been a sailor, hunter or fighter and why. We also talked about how each society was innovative in a different way: the Phoenicians invented glass blowing and made the first purple dye from snails while the Assyrians developed new Armour and weapons. We talked about which is more important, the invention of a library or the invention of the internet?   On Friday we had a milestone ceremony! Nolan earned a milestone in literacy. In order to earn a badge, each Eagle needs to complete a number of milestones to achieve their goals. Nolan is now one step closer to his second badge!