Here we are mid-September already and it feels like school just started!  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the time passes.

This week we have our student council elections.  With two students running from our own class, your children are being immersed in the election process.  With Constitution Day tomorrow, we are beginning to get a picture of what it means to be a good citizen.

Our afternoons are filled with Geography at the moment.

Level 4 students are studying the basics of navigation on maps using latitude and longitude.  We were even lucky enough to find a beautiful copy of Ptolemy’s world map.  I love maps and seeing the origins of our maps today is always exciting.

Level 5 students are also looking at maps, but in a slightly different way.  Last week they learned basic compass skills and created their own indoor “orienteering” maps for each other.   This week they are learning about topography by studying Mt. Everest through a beautiful topographical map.  We discussed George Mallory’s contribution, and consequently his sad demise as well.

Level 6 students are beginning to study early explorers of N. America.  By creating their own US maps and tracking the routes of early explorers such as de Soto, Cartier and others they are getting a sense of the difficulties encountered by early explorers.  This study will lead to our focus of US history this year.

As an aside, several field trip permission slips (3 to be exact) have come home with your students the last week.  Although 2 of the trips are not scheduled for at least another month, please return those with your children at your earliest convenience.   I will send reminders several days before the field trip so you and your children are prepared, but I wanted to try and get all of the paper work settled well ahead of time.

Our first field trip is next Friday, September 25, with Ms. Holly’s class.  This has been a nice walking trip for us the past two years.

Don’t forget, IXL homework is mandatory, if your student was absent the day new homework assignments were given, they can always be found on the blog at the top of the page where is says IXL homework.  Please be sure your children are spending time each night practicing these skills.

Have a wonderful week!