As most of you have probably heard, we have an inadvertent addition to our classroom, a little hornworm. Godzilla has decided not to eat him, so we’ll see how that goes. Our other highlight was our art project, inspired by the bright colors of Kev Munday. The class discussed the common themes they saw in his work and came up with guidelines to make sure they were matching his style. Some of the guidelines were using markers to make the colors more vibrant, not mixing colors, and the bold use of lines. We then came up with drafts, interpreting the shapes until we found a design that spoke to us. Finally, we colored the final pieces, cut them out, and then gave them to Ms. Bridget. I am excited to see what the final design looks like.

We had a number of other fascinating learning experiences. We started designing our individual pieces of the spaceship after comparing various historical and fictional examples. We came up with drafts this week and are excited to assemble the full ship next week. We had a blast reviewing everyone’s submissions for the newspaper contest. We had our most straightforward math discussion ever, breaking down ratios with real world examples, a deep conversation, and more a-ha moments than I ever expected. Finally, we started our final project for Paulie Fink, rewriting the entire book. The class is rewriting scenes from the book from the perspective of each character in the book, down to matching the style and concerns of each character. After we finish the sections next week, we’ll compile them into a companion novel. What a fantastic week.

With Columbus Day coming up, we read an article that dived into the complex history of Christopher Columbus. We compared the praise Columbus received when I was in school with the wide condemnation he receives in some circles now. Based on this essay, we tried to come to a nuanced understanding that remembered both the triumphs and the failures of the conquistadores. The class then wrote essays attempting to either examine their own cultural history or reexamine an episode from history that they are thinking about from a new perspective. What an insightful group of students.

The rest of the week was similarly productive. The class was working on the design spaceship and bringing together their different design elements. We’re going to start amping up the science content of the designs, thinking about how the conditions in space will affect the ship. Our math work was subtly intense. Based on a Mindset Math task, we learned a new game, Tic Tac Pro(duct). It’s a cross between bingo and Tic Tac Toe, where each player selects one factor and then gets to cover up the product, attempting to get 4 in a row. This started as a simple way to practice mental math, but soon the class started investigating the strategic elements (the prime numbers were way harder to get, compound numbers needed to be watched closely, and so on). I was incredible impressed by the work they did and the enthusiasm with which they tackled learning.

As a heads up, we’re going to be finishing Paulie Fink in the next couple weeks, so you can start working on acquiring our next book. We’re going to be reading the Odyssey, specifically the translation by Emily Wilson. Everyone in the class has some familiarity with the work, so we’re diving deeper into it and I can’t wait. This translation is stunning and I can’t wait to work through it with the class. You can find it on Amazon here, or you can get it used or from the library. However, please make sure to get the Emily Wilson translation, as it is both the most approachable and the one we will be using in class. Thanks everyone.

We did it! We got the newspaper published in time for the Bake Sale and sales are going well. I was thrilled to see the class working on their articles, organizing the submissions, and discussing how to format and sell it. This was an amazing experience that really helped them grow as writers and business owners. Now the struggle will be maintaining the momentum, building the paper up, and deciding what we want to include in future issues. Wish us luck!

Beyond that banner achievement, we also had a ton of other growth opportunities. Our math and science is growing steadily, with intense work designing a space station, both for Operation Orpheus and a Scholastic contest, Khan Academy assignments, and the Four 4s math activity from youcubed. The Four 4s was quite a struggle and we’re continuing to work through it, and I was impressed with the creative problem solving and persistence they displayed working on this problem. We also continued discussing Paulie Fink, wrapping up section 5 and the big reveal that Paulie Fink was back! The class has been working on relating to the book and the characters more deeply, which has been great. We also started discussing our end of book assignment, where the class will rewrite the book from a different perspective. What an incredible week of learning!