During our Junior Great Books class for the week, we read the poem "Blue" by Claudia Lewis. The students wrote wonderings about the poem and began drawings to illustrate what the astronaut in the poem was seeing. Ask your child to read the poem to you! It is meant to be read in a rather unexpected way. The students were also shown works by other poets who sometimes write their words in shapes. Poets arrange their words in different ways to communicate what they want to say.
Math began with the book Earth Cycles to show how the sun and the moon play a role in measuring time. We also watched a video clip that gave us a bit of the history of clocks. Students then searched for clocks or other timekeeping devices in their workspaces. The in-person learners looked in the classroom, hallway, main office, and out the window. Ask your child to name some of our time discoveries!
In science, we focused on insect symmetry. The students thought about why animals might find a symmetrical body to be advantageous. They also pointed out the lines of symmetry on a variety of insect models. After this, they drew the missing half of drawings of insects and shared their efforts with each other.
I continued reading Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World to the class during the Closing Circle. It is always insightful to read first-person accounts of events or places.