Teacher Margaret's "View From My Window" - December 18th

Dear Friends,

We are having a full and rich week of learning, celebrating, and singing – even as various viruses work their way through some of our families. We have been playing in the snow and celebrating the season with parties, decorations, and music every morning through the PA system. 

As I write this, 7th and 8th-grade students are busy constructing their VEX robots. Fifth-grade students have just completed a study of the Earth’s structure and the minerals that are a part of it. Today, they are playing Math Scrabble, a version of Scrabble where they create math equations rather than words. In January, they will dig into the rock cycle. 

Second-grade students celebrated Math Wednesday with a Tang Math Wordy Wednesday packet. They took this up after they finished their Math in Focus lesson on Whole Group Subtraction. 5th and 6th-grade students have started their Creative Writing classes. 5th-grade is learning to write “Flash Fiction”- beginning with one-sentence stories and working up to 1000-word stories.  6th-grade is learning to write narrative nonfiction. Maybe we have a future Truman Capote, Wes Moore, or Elizabeth Kolbert in our midst. 

Third-grade students are marshalling all they have learned about storms to make their best case for whether a tornado or a hurricane is the most destructive. Currently, more students are making the case for tornadoes being the worst sort of storm. First-grade students had lessons with Teacher Leo on appropriate and inappropriate ways to express their anger and frustration, and with Teacher Jaylin on how to think before they speak.  Jaylin and her students came up with a great acronym using the word THINK.

We celebrated Hanukkah in Meeting for Worship. Our friend, Rabbi Gottfried joined us to light the Menorah. She sang a blessing recounting the miracles God has performed. She finished by asking us to consider how each of us has one small light, and all of us together form a mighty light. We finished our time together with Prek, Kindergarten and First-grade students signing “This Little Light of Mine” and then we managed three parts in our round “A Hymn for the Russian Earth.”

In Spanish classes, children have been learning about the ways Spanish-speaking cultures celebrate Christmas. Profe Andrea aligns her curriculum with the five Cs described within ACTFL’s standards and best practices in language learning. 

Have a wonderful vacation. Enjoy time with your children, family, and friends.

Holding you in the Light,

Margaret

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Our December Query takes its cue from the themes of Advent:  "There is, it sometimes seems, an excess of religious and social busyness these days, a round of committees and conferences and journeyings, of which the cost in ‘peaceable wisdom’ is not sufficiently counted.” How are you claiming your leisureliness this month?

Announcements:

• 12/19 Winter Concert 10 AM-11 AM 
• 12/22-1/4/2026 Winter Vacation - School Closed
• 1/5/2026 Classes Resume
• 1/7 Meeting for Worship at 8:30 - come experience Meeting with your children (grades Prek-8th)
• 1/14 Family Council Meeting 6:30 PM-7:30 PM