Thank you so much, families and friends, for coming out to support your child and our class as we celebrate the culmination of our second unit if inquiry. We have spent the last 5 weeks learning about what qualifies as a primary source, why primary sources are meaningful, and how interviews can offer valuable insight into the lives of others. The children have worked so hard to pull together their own priceless objects, documents and photographs to share their personal histories with you. I hope you enjoyed learning new and interesting tidbits about these children that many of you have known for years! The dioramas were a fun way to test the knowledge you gained from studying their primary sources. I thoroughly enjoyed your childlike enthusiasm as you made connections between primary sources and dioramas. Thank you for playing along! As promised, here are the results matching child to diorama! Thank you again for supporting your amazing children and our Riverstone community!

We had a wonderful assembly celebrating our veterans yesterday! Our very own Riverstone 4th and 5th graders honored them with a song and our sweet little first graders personally delivered letters of gratitude to each veteran in attendance. Compliments to our amazing music teacher, Kendall Campbell, for the effort and enthusiasm she put into making this performance a success! Ms. Fitz and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her as she coached our students on effort, posture, breath, voice, and gratitude. Thank you, families, to those of you able to join us at the Veteran’s Day assembly. And a very special thanks to those of you that have served and are serving! I am so grateful to you for your service and your sacrifice.

Tomorrow we welcome you all to our exposition! It will be held from 2:30-3:30 in our room. The students are excited to demonstrate the importance of primary sources in a very personal way as they share their lives with you through their own artifacts, documents, and photographs. We hope to see you there!

What a fantastic day we had together! Looking back over 22 years of Halloween celebrations, I can honestly say that none of them compared to the fun and enthusiasm that Riverstone delivered this Thursday! The parade was the highlight for me. The middle school and high school students cheered and gave high fives to the primary students as we wound our way through their spooky halls! The science lab oozed mysterious potions that we tried to touch and pop as we meandered through. Jennifer, Carolina, and Kara put on a festive Halloween party for us. The children wound themselves up as mummies, bowled pumpkins, played twister, and took turns getting creamed in an exuberant game of Pie Face! Thank you for our tasty treats and fun games. I hope you all had bushels of fall fun trick-or-treating together!

We are looking forward to our Halloween celebration today! You are welcome to join us at 2:30 for the Halloween parade! Our party will follow the parade. Thank you to Jennifer and Kara and Carolina who have put together a wonderful celebration for us! Have a safe and FUN evening with your little goblins tonight!

Over the past week, our 4th graders have been learning about the different kinds of primary sources. Although there are more kinds than these four mentioned, our teams chose to take a closer look at photographs, artifacts, and documents as a way to understand different cultures and individuals. After spending three days researching and taking notes, the teams wrote definitions for their type  of primary source and then emphasized the strengths and limitations of each type. They presented their sources to the class and we are all getting a solid grasp of how primary sources help us to gather information and understanding about our world and humanity.

Today your child brought an artifact to school and we played The Great Artifact Game! We took a tour of the artifacts brought in by our class and Ms. Fitz’s class. Below you will find photographs of the artifacts brought in and we invite you to join in and play with us! On the last slide you will find the answers. Good luck! Some of the artifacts were quite challenging!

Tonight was the night we have all been waiting for! Campfire Night! Our MOSS instructors donned costumes and props galore to host an hour of skits, songs, jokes, melodrama, and improv! What a night! We laughed until we cried when our very own chaperone, Nick, better known as “B’s dad,” gave a riveting performance as an astronaut, only to find out our Riverstone kids were interpreting his performance from a VASTLY different perspective!!! (You will have to ask!) Today we spent the day writing hypotheses, conducting research, recording data, and perfecting the presentations we will give tomorrow morning. I am very proud of the quality of work our students put into their research projects! We will see you all tomorrow!

Today our group headed into the field via canoe! We were able to observe from the water how glaciers formed Lake Payette by the dip in the mountains that formed a U. The theme for today was fire. We conducted experiments that showed how moisture levels and overgrowth of Grand Firs effect wildfires among the Ponderosas. The kids really got a kick out of creating their own mini-forest diorama which was then lit on fire, demonstrating the speed and ease in which a wildfire can devastate a forest community. It is surprising how quickly dead leaves and dry sticks can alight and spread from one to another. We ended the day by putting our knowledge of balance, fulcrum, and weight to the test as each child designed their own nature mobile. It was hard for me to capture the beauty of their creations, but I have included my primitive photos! (Carrie G., you left too early!) We are all having a wonderful time. Lots of smiles! Tomorrow the children will design and conduct their own science experiments. The day will be spent creating a report and presentation of their data and research and Friday morning they will present before boarding the bus, HOME BOUND, at 10 am!