Tales Of A 4-5 Something

On January 27, 2014, Julianna Acheson came to talk about Russia. Julianna is a Cultural- Anthropologist. First she talked about where she lived in Russia. She and her family lived in the Komi Republic which is located in the asian side of Russia.  She went to Russia because was teaching English at a university in a city. She said buildings are very different there. Later in her trip, she went up to the Tundra. The tundra is a one of five ecosystems in Russia. It is very cold! She was very close to the Arctic Circle. She and her family went there to spend time with reindeer herders and their families. They lived in a chom, which is like a teepee. We used our "wow" signs when we found out it took just 15 minutes to take down the whole chom so they could follow the reindeer. Thank you Julianna! by Nahum

There is talk about having a Minecraft club in school! Four students had the idea. Eli, Owen, Tenny, and Keller worked together to come up with the idea. The idea is we would research famous landmarks and buildings across the globe then try to build them on Minecraft! The reason we have access to Minecraft is because last year we had something called Special Classes and playing Minecraft was one of the options. It went well so the teachers decided to try another thing that involved Minecraft earlier in the school year. We had to build the Oregon Trail from Independence to our own farm in Oregon. We think we could use Minecraft to build and learn about new places. What do you think should be a landmark or building we study? -Owen

In the Lower School our global focus is Russia. In 4-5 we start earlier than the other programs. We are learning about matryoshkas or Russian nesting dolls, the Russian ecosystem, people and culture, and the history of the Russia through famous Russian people. Oh, and don't forget the Winter Olympics which is being held in Sochi. What is your favorite winter Olympic sport? Mine is snowboarding halfpipe.  We were curious about what our names would look like in Russian. They are very different than our names in English. These are our names: Levi turns into Леви Griffin turns into грифон In units we are studying Russia. In Tim’s class we have been put in groups of two or three and we have been given a famous Russian to study. In Kai’s we have chosen a building, landmark, or animal to draw and put on the map. We also have painted a map of Russia with the corresponding biomes: Water, Tundra, Taiga, Forest and Steppe. In Nancy’s class we have started designing and some people ...

Today at buddies Tim's homestation and Bob's Garden Habitat studied Martin Luther King, Jr. and his “I had a dream” speech. We made our own dreams up that we think could turn the world upside down. Tennyson's buddy's dream was to keep wolves and pandas from becoming extinct. Nahum’s buddy's dream was to have equal food for everybody. We thought this was a fun activity to do because we liked drawing pictures for our dreams and we all want to make the world a better place. - Eliza

4-5 has recently made a new sports club. We like sports so we just talk about sports during a recess. We have a schedule all set. For example, we talk about soccer and basketball on Monday second recess. Football on Tuesday and hockey during second recess on Thursday. With the Olympics starting on February 6th we will have a lot of hockey to talk about. There may be even MORE sports but we are not sure when we can meet yet. The sports club was originally created by three students but more helped put the idea into action. People do not have to sign up. The students can come and say something they found out. After the meeting we will write an article that you guys will see for that sport. Enjoy your sports and watch the Super Bowl, the Halftime show, and the Olympics! By Nahum and Owen