Dear Families, It has been a busy week here in 4/5! Hopefully you have been hearing stories about our run up to our big simulation day at Ameritowne. This Friday Letter will be mostly U of I focused as our fieldwork days took up the majority of the week Interviews: We had a great guest panel on Monday who helped us conduct interviews for the student’s Ameritowne jobs. The students were very nervous and each interviewer did a fantastic job playing their role and also giving each student personal interview tips. Big thank you to Gina, Patricia, Steve and Sue!
Ameritowne Preparation: On Tuesday we traveled to Compass Montessori to prepare for our day at Ameritowne with the other two classrooms involved: Mackintosh Littleton’s 4/5 and Compass’ 4/5/6. The students received job training, voted on laws and held staff meetings. It was a tremendous teambuilding opportunity allowing our students to build community with the other children before Ameritowne.
Three campuses come together. Nice one Ella…
Amanda’s got her game face on during her interview.
Bennett leads the Bank’s staff meeting.
Students get to ask questions and receive interview tips from our panel.
Ameritowne: What a fantastic day! The Ameritowne simulation has something for everyone and the children seemed to have an incredible experience. So many real-‐world scenarios occur throughout the day. From having to pay out for unexpected illnesses to adjusting prices to reflect supply and demand, the students were active
and engaged all day long! I took a ton of pictures and video and have created a private Google Drive folder that I will email to all of you so that you can get a good visual on our day at Ameritowne!
I hope your family has a fun and adventurous spring break! Jim Important Dates: March 23-‐31: Spring Break April 29-‐May 1st: Class trip to Keystone Science Center
Ameritowne citizens at the end of the day.
Keystone Science Center: I received our curriculum goals from Keystone this week. I am so excited because the curriculum goals will dovetail so nicely with our final unit “How We Share The Planet” The Keystone curriculum goals are as follows: 1. Students gain an understanding of water management issues in Colorado. 2. Students learn what the term ‘watershed’ means, and build examples of watersheds. 3. Students learn about watersheds in Colorado and consider the impacts of various activities on people who live downstream. 4. Students perform water quality tests on Summit County streams/rivers and evaluate the health of these riparian zones. 5. Students see/discuss examples of sustainability on the KSS campus (solar/geothermal energy, food waste program). 6. Students explore streams/rivers, hike, and have a great time in the outdoors!