Jessica and Jia's 4th/5th Grade Class

Welcome to Jessica, Jia and Daniel's 2018-19 4th/5th Grade Class!

July 2018

Dear Students and Families,

Although it is early in the summer, we are already looking forward to another exciting school year together. Some of your faces will be familiar and some of your faces will be new. We cannot wait to hear about the wonderful books you have read, the games you have played, the friends and family you have visited, and all of your adventures.

During summer vacation, Jessica is spending time with her son Henry, who is 21⁄2 years old. We will do lots of scootering, sprinklering, sand-castle building, hiking, swimming, climbing, reading, and building. We will travel to upstate New York and also to Maine with family.

Jia is spending time with her son, Andre (an Earth School graduate who is now in high school) and traveling in and out of the city visiting friends and teachers in other states. She’ll be going to California to visit her family in August before the start of school.

The theme of our Core Study this year is “Justice for All?” We will try to answer some basic questions like: What is a right? Where do rights come from? We will start by thinking about the rights and responsibilities that we have as a classroom community. We will learn about how the United States became a country. Who had the power to make a country and give it rules? What were some of the big ideas that went into those rules? The main puzzle in our study will be to think about how our country, which was founded on the idea that all people should be treated equally, could have so many examples of groups of people being treated unequally. One of the most important words we will use this year is perspective. We will learn history from the perspective of groups of people that have had to take responsibility to fight for their rights and even their freedom. Studying the perspectives of Native Americans, Africans, and European colonists will be a good starting point.

Our class is located in Room 114, which is right next to the 6th Street building entrance. Our emails are jessica@theearthschool.org and jia@theearthschool.org (we are checking email sporadically over the summer).

See you in September!

Best, Jessica and Jia

.Jessica & Jia’s 4th/5th Grade Supply List - 2018/2019

With the exception of the folders, notebooks, and pencil case, all of our supplies are shared. Therefore, you needn’t label anything other than your child’s folders and notebooks.

The items are listed in order of priority. If you are not able to purchase them all at this time, please start from the top and work down. Thank you!

• • 1 sturdy homework folder - plastic is best - label with child’s name 4 folders - one each of red, yellow, green, and blue

  • 5 composition notebooks

  • 1 pencil case

  • 2 boxes of tissues

  • Glue sticks

  • 1 roll of masking tape

  • 1 roll of clear packing tape or duct tape

  • 1 roll of clear (Scotch) tape - with dispenser

  • 1 pack wide-ruled lined paper Sharpies (thin, any color)

  • 1 bottle of hand sanitizer

  • 2 rolls of paper towels

Optional but helpful:

• • Office supplies: folders, poster paper, dry erase markers, velcro tape Arts and crafts materials: modeling clay, fabric, beads, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, etc.

  • Cleaning supplies: Sponges and natural cleaning spray, dish soap, ziploc bags

  • 1 reusable water bottle for trips and picnics. Please NO single-use plastic water bottles at school or school events

For Earth Studies:

• • 1 pack of pencils

  • 1 roll of yellow highlighters