February Update
The Aspens are busy with their ancient Egypt curriculum. They are finishing their autobiographies that are decorating the outside of their pyramids. The class has also started a unit on sewing with Winky Cherry. She is the grandmother of Greta, who is a Seed. Winky has taught sewing for over 40 years, has developed her own curriculum, and has published books on the subject.
The Aspens are also working on R-controlled words for the first two weeks in February. We are also discussing the concept of making judgements while reading and how we may use our values in that process.
In Math, we have been focused on fractions and borrowing in subtraction. We recently had an enjoyable river cleanup with the Seeds classroom.
Zozobra – Here we come!
We really enjoyed getting out on this hot yet beautiful day! We walked through the river and talked about our local environment and its people and before we knew it had walked 2 miles to Fort Marcy! We made it right on time for the hanging of our moany, groany friend Zozobra. 
We enjoyed picnicing on the grass and then running around and playing tag and frisbee with students from other local schools. We played wheelbarrow tag – which was a student favorite.
Aspens learn about their world!
The past couple months have been spent stealing as much time outdoors as possible. We were able to assist the Saplings class in identifying 13 species of birds right in our own backyard!
Time indoors has been spent doing hands-on activities such as making our own paper mache globes. Students had a fun filled and educational time using tempura paints and continent cut-outs.
At Ghost Ranch, the Aspens were able to cast their very own fossil of New Mexico’s indeginous dinosaur population. The students had so much fun during our museum tour and I was surprised at all to see how much they already knew about dinosaurs!! Afterward, we were able to enjoy a nice hike and lunch, taking in the beautiful sights of Abiquiu all around us!
Aspens class news
The Aspens have started a book club/discussion group!! We are so excited about this and plan to discuss a different genre every 3-4 weeks, we are now reading a historical fiction book called “Boston Jane”.
In January we will launch our reading program, ”The Amazing Reading Race”. The students will each have passports that they use to track their “miles” around the globe.