Happy New Year to all!

We hope your winter break has been a time of great joy and relaxation. The beautiful, wintry weather has certainly affected our outings in the mountains (as we have learned!). Mrs. Bannon and I have been playing about on the ski slopes, the nordic trails, the skating rinks and enjoying many wonderful hours with family and friends. Lucky us to be able to experience the majesty of our local Sierra Nevada all year-round.


Celebration of Learning:

Celebration of Learning was a tremendous success! Thank you all not only for coming to witness your children’s accomplishments but also for spending great lengths of time asking questions and wading through so much evidence of their learning. We loved watching as each child toured their family through the classroom– reflecting on the slideshow of our momentous hikes, discussing the steps involved in goal-setting, identifying our local mountain peaks (by contour alone!), and using a model to explain how the rain shadow effect creates our local weather. Standing back and witnessing the pride and sense of mastery of each child was astonishing. We had a ball! We hope you enjoyed the evening, too.  


Many special thanks to Ms. Lobo (Jill Stevenson) for her work with the first graders on their final product–the mural.  It is nearly complete and looks fantastic!  We will be grouting it in the next two weeks and hope to have it hanging in the library soon.


Winter Expedition:

Mrs. Bannon and I have spent many hours at the round table in our classroom over vacation, and we are enthusiastically anticipating the great learning yet to come in the New Year. The first case study will challenge your first graders to compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places around the world (social studies). Our second case study will focus on the elements of story and the art of storytelling/writing (language arts). Arm yourselves; it promises to be magical! Can you and your child guess what we will be studying? (Hint: The bold-faced type in this newsletter might help!)


Here ye! Here ye!:

  • We will see you in a few days! Don’t forget that school starts again on Monday, January 7th.
  • Monday, Jan. 21st–Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; no school.

Farewell, my lords and ladies–

:)Ms. Bell & Mrs. Bannon