Hello Room 8 Families!

I've got a couple of things to let you know about that can't wait until next week.

Science Fair! This year’s science fair is going to be held on Wednesday, June 7th. I introduced it yesterday so you should have some kiddos coming home excited to get started. Here is the handout I gave the kids. You will find a schedule on page two.  Here is a list of testable questions if your kiddo doesn’t already have an idea. This is an experiment that needs to be conducted at home. All the writing, charts and graphs can be done in the classroom, but the actual science experiment part should be conducted at home. If you have any questions, please reach out! I am happy to go over any experiment details or design questions you or your kids may have.  

Classroom Changes During Outdoor School On Tuesday, May 23rd, 6th graders and some of our upper el teachers will be off to outdoor school. We will be spending 3 days and 2 nights in Ashland learning all about the wetlands, farms, and forest. Unfortunately, there are not enough subs to accommodate all of the leads being out of their classes. To help relieve the burden on substitutes, Room 10 will be split up into two groups and welcomed into Rooms 8 & 9. Jacob will be joining Room 8, and there will be a substitute with Adriene in Room 9. We appreciate everyone's flexibility and dedication to new opportunities. It is our hope that the 6th grade overnight outdoor school can become a new standing tradition at Ridgeline elementary school!

Laughing Planet Fundraiser tonight! Laughing Planet is donating a portion of the day’s sales to Ridgeline. If you are able to make it by 4pm you will be able to listen to TRUE, the middle school ukulele band as well. The address is  2864 Willamette St. Should be a beautiful afternoon for dinner and a show!

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine!

Kris and Jonathan

-- 

Kris Korfanta 

(She/Her)

Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School

www.ridgeline.org

Dear Parent or Guardian, 

We have invited a community educator from Planned Parenthood to present information in our unit on Human Growth and Development. The materials presented are in alignment with Eugene School District’s elementary health education curriculum goals and objectives. 

4th Grade

Session 1: Anatomy and physiology of the reproductive systems and conception

5th Grade

Session 1: Anatomy and physiology of the reproductive systems and conception

Session 2: Puberty: Physical, emotional, and social changes      

Session 3: prenatal development, birth, and personal boundaries

6th Grade

Session 1: Healthy Relationships

Session 2: Gender Identity and Sexuality

Session 3: Birth Control  & Sexual Protection/STI

Session 4: Sexual Decision Making/Consent (Review of Consent)

Hello families,

It has come to my attention that the email group I thought included you all was in fact not a group at all.  So here goes attempt #2 to send out last week's teacher update.  

Class Happenings

• Room 8 recently finished state testing.  The students had two math tests along with a language arts test and an essay performance task in state testing.  In addition, 5th graders took a science test.  Easy CBM testing will begin soon.

• May is Asian American and Pacific Islander month so students are working on researching and writing biographies about the famous person of their choice.

• Science Fair! Science Fair is a 3+ week project where students develop and design their own science project. Don’t worry, we have lots of ideas and supports to get kids started. The projects will take place at home, but the data analysis, typing, and poster board creation will happen at school. The fair is scheduled for Wednesday June 7th. Mark your calendars to visit all three upper el classrooms after school on that day!

• Last week room 8 started book clubs containing 3-5 people in each group. Every group has a different role, and the members decide as a group who is what role for each week, and what chapter/page they will read to. 

• Human Health and Development class will take place May 30-June 2.  This year Planned Parenthood will be joining us to talk with all Upper El grades. We will have an info session for questions as well as handouts later this month. 

• Ridgeline’s sixth graders are excited for outdoor school on May 23-25.  The sign up sheet is due today, May 4th, and the sixth graders have already received their packing list. This will be a fun experience for the students, where they can learn about nature, animals, and camping/outdoor skills. 

• Students have been enjoying a “spot of tea” in room 8.  The students bring in their own tea and mugs and heat up water for themselves and their classmates. In another change, tables were rearranged a bit to allow more room for class circles.

• Another fun upcoming fundraising event is Laughing Planet! This year it will be Tuesday May, 16th at 2864 Willamette St. near Market of Choice. Hope to see you there!

Enjoy your three day weekend!  

Kris and Jonathan

Hello room 8 families!  

I have the pleasure of being a part of room 8 for the remainder of the year.  I bring to this over 15 years of experience in upper elementary and middle school teaching as well as having spent the year, up to this point, as the floating assistant here at Ridgeline.  My family and I moved to Eugene from Boise, Idaho last May and I feel lucky to have found a place such as Ridgeline to continue in education.  The Montessori model is not new to me as both of my daughters attended Montessori preschool, however it has been a while since that happened and I am enjoying being a part of a school that uses this philosophy.

As for happenings in the classroom, state testing will begin tomorrow and continue into next week.  Testing will take place first thing each morning.  Please make sure your child has a good night’s sleep and breakfast each  morning.  

I am looking forward to getting to know the students and families of room 8.

Kind regards,

Kris Korfanta

Dear families,

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of my decision to resign from my position

as a guide at this wonderful school. It has been an absolute privilege to work with such a

dedicated and passionate community of teachers, families, and learners.

As we welcomed your children back to the classroom after at-home learning, I was filled

with a deep sense of gratitude and joy to witness the excitement and wonder on their

faces as they immersed themselves in the joy of learning. It was truly a privilege to be a

part of this special community and to have had the opportunity to help guide our

students in their development and growth.

I have always held the tenets of Montessori close to my heart — the prepared

environment, the prepared guide, and the liberated child. It is these principles that have

allowed your children to thrive and reach their full potential, and it is these principles

that will continue to guide them on their journey no matter who their guide may be.

As I move on to pursue another opportunity for the financial well being of my family, I

want to express my deepest gratitude to the entire Ridgeline community. In particular, I

want to thank Jonathan, who has been steadfast and consistent in his commitment to

Ridgeline and Room 8, specifically. I would like to remain involved with Ridgeline as

appropriate. My last day will be April 14, 2023 and I plan to share the news with your

children Friday, at the end of the school day.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of such a special and inspiring community. I will

always cherish the memories and experiences I have gained here, and I know that the

students will continue to persevere and flourish under the guidance of the exceptional

team of educators and staff at this school.

Sincerely,

Adrienne Parker

Hello, families! 

Students wrote some great biographies for Black History month and are now shifting their focus toward personal research for Going-Outs. Jonathan led a unit on Fiction writing and students learned about the Story Arc and Modes of Storytelling. They will work completing and publishing their fiction stories. 

In math, we are working on word problems, math modeling, fractions, geometry and volume. 

Going-Outs

The hallmark of the Upper Elementary experience are Going-Outs. Going-Outs are mini field trips that students plan and coordinate themselves after doing some research. In order to have Going-Outs, we need family volunteers to take students on these day trips. Do you have a Green Volunteer Badge? If so, can you email adrienne.parker@ridgeline.org and let her know. If you would like to become a volunteer with a green badge, please contact becky.fay@ridgeline.org. 

DDD 2023: Grow with the Flow kicks off!

This year’s Direct Donation Drive is officially here! Your financial support provides PE and art for every Ridgeline student, helps maintain and improve our school buildings, and supplies resources for our teachers and classrooms. Our goal is the same as last year: raise $10,000 in 10 days and earn a matching $10,000 gift. You can donate right here, right now if you’d like! Every gift matters…every gift is appreciated! Check your students’ backpacks and watch your email for more about DDD 2023 and support Ridgeline students as they Grow with the Flow!

Have a great weekend!

Hello, families! 

Students wrote some great biographies for Black History month and are now shifting their focus toward personal research for Going-Outs. Jonathan led a unit on Fiction writing and students learned about the Story Arc and Modes of Storytelling. They will work completing and publishing their fiction stories. 

In math, we are working on word problems, math modeling, fractions, geometry and volume. 

Going-Outs

The hallmark of the Upper Elementary experience are Going-Outs. Going-Outs are mini field trips that students plan and coordinate themselves after doing some research. In order to have Going-Outs, we need family volunteers to take students on these day trips. Do you have a Green Volunteer Badge? If so, can you email adrienne.parker@ridgeline.org and let her know. If you would like to become a volunteer with a green badge, please contact becky.fay@ridgeline.org. 

DDD 2023: Grow with the Flow kicks off!

This year’s Direct Donation Drive is officially here! Your financial support provides PE and art for every Ridgeline student, helps maintain and improve our school buildings, and supplies resources for our teachers and classrooms. Our goal is the same as last year: raise $10,000 in 10 days and earn a matching $10,000 gift. You can donate right here, right now if you’d like! Every gift matters…every gift is appreciated! Check your students’ backpacks and watch your email for more about DDD 2023 and support Ridgeline students as they Grow with the Flow!

Have a great weekend!

Hello, families! 

We have been studying Ancient Cultures and students are putting a lot of thought and effort into their presentations. Did you know one of the first Earthquake sensors was invented in Ancient China? Or that the dreaded alarm clock originated in Ancient Greece? Or that we have the Ancient Egyptians to thank for toothpaste? Pretty Cool. 

Next week we will begin our biography writing focusing on Black History Month. We are tentatively planning a field trip that will incorporate black history. More to come on that….

Going-Outs

The hallmark of the Upper Elementary experience are Going-Outs. Going-Outs are mini field trips that students plan and coordinate themselves after doing some research. In order to have Going-Outs, we need family volunteers to take students on these day trips. Do you have a Green Volunteer Badge? If so, can you email adrienne.parker@ridgeline.org and let her know. If you would like to become a volunteer with a green badge, please contact beckyfay@ridgeline.org. 

The Talent Show is tonight! The show starts at 6 p.m. in the Gym or you will be sent a link to watch the YouTube at home. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hey, families! 

6th graders are taking on more and more responsibility, including writing the newsletter for families. 

For the past few weeks we have been learning about early humans. Did you know that we most likely evolved from apes in Africa? 

The essay on the Civil Rights movement and MLK Jr. has been a large work for a while, and everyone is making great progress. In the morning one day, Jonathan taught us a lesson on the Bill of Rights. We had a morning work block on Tuesday where Adrienne worked with us, showing how much work you can get done in such a large amount of time. 

Also a group of kids are working on a long division problem that is currently around forty five pages long. They hung it from the balcony and it touched the ground!                                           

Announcements:

The talent show is coming up on Feb 10, submissions are due Feb 6 to

wobblyKate@hotmail.com.

Have a great weekend!

Hello, families! 

Happy New Year! It’s great to have the kids back and see how excited they are to drop back into learning. We spent the first few days back just enjoying each other: playing games, doing Vision boards, learning the Fibonacci Sequence with Jonathan. 

We have a lot of exciting things happening this term including our new Friday electives that we are offering. Students are intermingling with the other cohorts in a choice activity: Chess, Dungeons and Dragons, Newspaper, Watercolor Art and Outdoor Club. It’s been really nice interacting with the other classes. 

We started studying Early Humans and we will be moving pretty fast through Ancient Cultures as we prepare for Jonanthan to take over the cultural curriculum of the class in February. Our amazing assistant is in the final semester of earning his teaching credentials and I am excited to help usher in the next steps of his educational career. 

Friday, February 10, 223 @ 6 PM is the Ridgeline Talent Show! This year, the talent show will be a hybrid model. We are still asking students to submit a video clip of their talent to wobblykate@hotmail.com, but we are thankful to have the opportunity to come together on February 10 in the school Gym to watch the video together on a big screen! 

Talent Show Acts must be 3 minutes or less. Any musical lyrics must be school appropriate. Please avoid themes of violence, drugs/alcohol, sex, etc. Kids are welcome to provide a solo act and/or a group act. 

If your child is interested in being a classroom MC and introducing their peers, please email wobblykate@hotmail.com. We will accept the first 2 applicants from each class on a first-come-first-picked basis. Parents will be emailed a script for their MC to read/recite on video a few days before the talent show and those videos will play before the class performances. MCs may also submit a talent act, but do not have to submit an act for the talent show.

We will have volunteer opportunities for the evening of the talent show, so please email wobblykate@hotmail.com if you would like to help.

Hello, families! 

Wow! It’s hard to believe all that has happened in two weeks: book fair, stone soup, short week, long week, snow delay and more! 

It was really nice having families in the classroom helping the children cut vegetables. The students did an awesome job and really enjoyed the soup the next day. Many had seconds, thirds and even fourths!

In math, we started exploring patterns in 4th grade, equivalency in 5th grade and algebra in 6th grade. The road trip projects turned out great and most students completed some hard math to get to the finish line. 

So far, students are following the expectations with computers and the transition has been seamless. 

We will be starting our beloved Great Graham Cracker project in the coming weeks, anchoring their designs in the mathematical principles of area and perimeter.  

Have a great weekend!

Hello, families! 

We finished quarter one of our math studies, working with place value and the four operations including decimals and fractions for 5th and 6th grades. As a culmination of their efforts, we started our beloved Road Trip project. This multidisciplinary assignment includes geography, measurement, research, and lots of math! The children love it and I hope they are sharing with you some of the fun places they are going. 

We also started our research of Pacific Northwest Indians. We are grounding this research in tribes that have a presence here and now. In addition, we are doing some digital citizenship work in preparation of using computers in the classroom. It has been awesome not using them thus far and now it is time for them to gain research skills, publish final drafts, create dynamic presentations and hone their typing skills. You will be seeing a digital citizenship agreement coming home and this must be signed before students can use technology freely in the classroom. 

Stone Soup

Stone soup is next week! Your child will bring a vegetable to contribute to the soup on Tuesday and from 1:45 to 3, Room 8 will be cutting and preparing the vegetables for the next day. On Wednesday, your child will need to bring their own bowl and spoon. 

Hope to see you tonight at Whirled Pies!

Have a great weekend!

Hello, families! 

We continued our work with The Second Great Story, The Coming of Life, by learning about animal adaptations. Students worked with a structured plan, learned how to take notes from a reading, and crafted some awesome informational essays on animal adaptations. 

We also learned about Dia de Los Muertos and enjoyed some Halloween-themed math works. The class Ofrenda was a way to appreciate another culture without the appropriation that sometimes occurs at Halloween. Our students were moved by the altar and it was a really nice way to connect with each other. 

Conferences

Next week is student conferences and students will be reflecting on their work thus far, including work habits, and setting goals for the months to come. We would love it if your child joined us for the conference. Here is my Zoom link if you are attending online. 

Have a great weekend!

Hello, families! 

The Second Great Story, The Coming of Life, leads to many studies in the Upper Elementary environment. We began our exploration learning about the amazing life-giving qualities of bacteria! Thanks to bacteria, the ocean was made hospitable for other life forms and it even turned some of its food into oxygen. The rise of oxygen-producing photosynthesis allowed the evolution of complex life forms like animals and land plants around 2.4 billion years! Even today, bacteria is evolving to eat plastic in the ocean! Who knew bacteria was so cool? 

Check out some writing from our class about this: 

“Have you ever wondered what the first animal was? Well, the true answer is that there wasn’t a first animal. The first living thing was bacteria! When people think of bacteria, they think of the bad. They think of germs and sickness, but some bacteria are actually great!”

—Evelyn Trent, 6th grade 

“The oceans are dying but we may have a savior in our midst! Ideonella Sakaiensis 201-F6!”

—Arthur Therell, 6th grade 

“As you probably know, there’s lots of garbage in the ocean, mostly plastic, which takes a long time to break down. But what if there was a way to break it down faster?”

—Arya Wilson, 4th grade

We continued our studies of Photosynthesis with a mysterious case of tree poisoning. 

It was great to have families in the classroom and see your children show their work with pride. 

Spirit Week and Fun Run

Don’t forget to help your kids plan their outfits for spirit week next week and collect pledges for the Fun Run! 

Have a great weekend!

"When I dare to be powerful — to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." 

                                                                                                       —Audre Lorde 

Hello, families! 

We kicked off bike safety this week and the kids have been awesome learners throughout the process. We have already had a couple of kids learn to ride a bike on day one! 

As a continuation of the First Great Lesson, students have been studying the different elements that make up our universe. We started work on the Second Great Lesson the Coming of Life, this week. Check out this video to see the kind of wonder this story instills in children. 

Our math groups are underway and students are learning place value, operations with concrete materials and abstractly, decimals, order of operations and more. 

Last week, Jonathan was out and I started to see a glimpse of a normalized class. The 6th graders stepped up as leaders and we had a great week. Some of them even enjoyed using Jonathan’s stand up desk! 

Hello, families! 

It’s been an awesome couple of weeks watching our community start to form. We kicked things off with the First Great Lesson and students have been replicating the experiments and will present the story of the Universe to their peers tomorrow. 

We launched Hispanic Heritage month with some biography writing. Room 8 students really enjoyed these last year and the fourth grade students have been learning how to take notes from a text and structure a biography. 

One of my favorite ways to get kids excited about mathematics is a week of inspirational math, where students learn about growth mindset and are offered a new, challenging math task each day. The kids loved learning about the Hailstone Sequence and patterns in math. 

Finally, we created a Vision/Mission for Room 8 and will be crafting a class constitution over the next couple of weeks!

"When I dare to be powerful — to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." 

                                                                                                       —Audre Lorde