Thankfulness in the Classroom
Hello, Philomath community! We hope everyone had a happy and restful Thanksgiving break. For our part, we’re thankful to be a part of such a lively, engaged community of learners. What we’ve built here at Philomath Microschool is something to be proud of, and it’s something we’ve built together with all our students and families. If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment with your child to celebrate all their hard work and dedication—it’s definitely something to be thankful for!
From here on out it’s going to be a sprint to the end of the quarter. Here are a few items to keep on your radar in the meantime:
The ELA virtual school class is still working on reading Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot. It would be good to check in with your child to make sure they’re caught up on their progress in the book and their reader’s journal (as of Monday the 28th, they should be finished with Chapter 14).
In Math, 4th Grade are focusing on adding and subtracting fractions (both with and without common denominators!) while 6th Grade is focusing on multiplying decimals.
Our Science units are wrapping up this week and the students are working on their final projects. For 4th Grade, expect some new bread recipes coming to the Student Work Samples! For 6th Grade, they will be developing plans for biodiversity conservation efforts to wrap up their field guides. 6th Graders only have one more day of data collection!
The last day of the second quarter will be on Wednesday, December 21st, after which we’ll have winter break until the first day of Q3 on Thursday, January 5th. Progress reports will be coming out shortly after the end of the quarter, so now’s the time to reach out if you have any relevant questions or concerns about your child’s schoolwork for this leg of the school year.
Parent–Teacher Conferences will be happening from December 19th–21st. More details to come about this in the coming days, but if you have any special concerns or a request for a specific time, don’t hesitate to reach out to Professors Althoff and Smith.
And last but certainly not least, we’re thrilled to share the winner of our November Story Contest, “Robbin the Sentient Rock” by 4th grader Jake! This month’s contest focused on characterization, with students voting on which of their peers’ stories did the best job of showing dynamic characters who do things for a reason, who struggle with internal and external conflict, and who grow and change as a result of their experiences. Jake completed a thorough character sketch as preparation for writing this story, and our community saw and celebrated the fascinating character he featured in this work. Congratulations, Jake, and we’re looking forward to reading the next part of this story!
Robbin the sentient rock
By Jake
It was a normal day on Sentockia. Robbin the was eating breakfast with his mom Crossbones Katy and they were talking about what they wanted to do for the day.But then their cat nipped at robbins hard bones and then suddenly Robbin got a signal wave from Robbins friend Ben Quantum and it told Robbin to go right away so he did. When he got there he couldn't believe his eyes. He saw his moms drill drilling at the control of Ben and he told Robbin he was mining for a precious mineral called the crystalia o’ sentock and when he heard that name he had flashbacks of when his old parents tried mining for it and got trapped in a cave with magma that collapsed and they burnt to death. Then he realized it was worth 100s of 1,000s of rockens which are sentockias currency and 1 rocken is 100 dollars in US earth currency. He had to tell his mom he ran back to the house but he couldn't find her. He went to the android's revenge but she wasn't there either. He went back to the drill to see that my mom Katy was already there. He thought in His head that she must have some sort of tracker on it. After that life went back to normal.
Almost..
Chapter 2:
Robbin woke up and went to rimddle school for the first time. He was hoping he could make some new friends. When he got there he was shocked to see only humans and no aliens or sentient rocks like himself, the only human he had ever met was Katy, his mom.
He thought that it should be fine and fun. Robbin walked to his first class, Space Ship Safety. When Robbin walked in the room and everyone started questioning why he didn't have any skin and how he was living if he was a rock and if he had hair or not. He answered the hair question and said no he didn't have har. The teacher had to use a mute button on them all. Robbin silently went to his seat and in his head he thought maybe he was wrong about this.
Before Robbin knew it class was over and he went back home. When Robbin was home he told Katy about how bad his school day was and that he hated it. When Katy heard that she knew that she sent him to the wrong school and that she was very sorry. Robbin’s mom meant to send Robbin to the rock school about a mile away from the human school. Robbin had exactly 3 days until the weekend was over and had to go to the rock school. He thought it would be better now that he would go to the correct school.
*3 days later*
Robbin woke up and went to the new school. When he got there he was shocked by what he saw. He saw his brother. He knew it was brother because he had the same burn marks that he did from the magma spinning out from the cave. The same cave that his parents died in.
Robbin came up to his brother and went to hug him but Robbins brother just pushed him away and said “Don't talk to me or bother me I don't want you in my life.” Robbin was shocked to see his brother say something like that so he went home to tell his mom Katy.
When Katy heard all about it she didn’t have a clue why Robbins brother would say something like that. Robbin had done something, Katy didn't see him come home that night Robbin ran away or did he. Katy thought he had run away but that was far from the truth. Robbin sent a signal wave to his mom saying “I’m coming home don't worry I just need to do something.”
Robbin said that for a reason.
The End.
(Continuation coming next story contest or whenever I get a chance in my free time)
