Upcoming Events
Monday, Jan. 20th— NO SCHOOL for Martin Luther King jr. Day.
Sunday, Jan. 26th— WinterFest!
Thursday, Jan. 30th— Art Show Opening
Thursday-Friday, Feb. 6-7— Cerrito goes to Fort Ross!
Welcome back Cerrito families. This week we launched all new units, in practically every subject, which felt like a great way to start the new year! We welcomed a new student—Kaleb—a 5th grader joining us for the second semester. The school also got a special visit from Will Salaverry, an alumnus of TBS. He brought his a cappella group from Yale, the Spizzwinks, and the kids were rocking out and blown away! Read on to find out what else we did this week.
Will and the Spizzwinks.
Cultural Studies
Returning from break, Cerrito students studied the tribes of the final region of California—the desert—by completing a Mojave Desert Oh, California reading and worksheet. More excitingly, we also launched our Fort Ross study which the kids have been eager to begin! Cerrito started this with a visit from Anna’s (in Strawberry) Grandpa Tom, a Russian history enthusiast, who came into class Friday and shared a wealth of artifacts and knowledge. Following this presentation, the class was visited by two Russians from the 1800’s—Aleksander and Elena Rotchev—who recruited them to join the Russian American company. The old Russian couple explained the different roles needed at Fort Ross—Clerk-Artisans, Cooks, Hunters and Militia—and then students got a chance to vote on their top 3, and get assigned a role. It was a fun way to end the week and we’re all excited to start this Cultural Studies unit.
Writer’s Workshop
While on our Ft. Ross trip, students will be keeping historical fiction journals from the perspective of their assigned character. In preparation for this writing unit, students practiced journal writing. Our first activity was to write a journal entry about winter break from our own perspective. Later in the week, students wrote the same story but from a different perspective, such as another family member who was present. Students began this exercise by listing 3 identity markers of this character (gender, age, job, race, etc.) and 3 personality traits (stubborn, easy going, anxious, etc.) Next week Cerrito Creek students will make “leather” journals that they’ll bringing on the trip in February.
Reader’s Workshop
Cerrito Creek students have been eagerly asking about Book Clubs since the beginning of the year, and were overjoyed when teachers announced that we’d begin groups this week with the relatable theme of “school.” Much like our Fort Ross role groups, Cerritoberry were presented with our 4 options—You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P., Restart, Ban this Book, and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing—and then got to vote. On Friday, we announced the new groups, got together for the first time in our book clubs, set expectations and read the first chapter.
5th Grade Math
This week in math, 5th graders wrapped up Unit 2 with a post-assessment and then started Unit 3—Place Value and Decimals. Making the connections between fractions and decimals will help reinforce our understanding of place value and fractions as division.
4th Grade Math
Our mathematicians started off the new year by jumping back into fractions. In partners, students investigated the relationship between 1 whole, half, fourths, eighths, and sixteenths by cutting same-length paper strips. We also began our investigation into similar shapes and proportions by doubling the size of shapes and finding their areas.
Science
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