Hello everyone,

This week we focused a lot on our ongoing projects. We rehearsed hard for our Ashes of Roses play. The students showed amazing confidence during our practice time, and blew me away with how well they knew their lines. Everyone was looking forward to performing it before spring break. Unfortunately, due to the spread of COVID-19, our play is being postponed until further notice.

The students also made lots of progress on their planet research projects. Many of the students have finished their research and have started working on their posters. The students have become experts on their planets and are so excited to share what they have learned. They are enjoying the challenge of using the information in a way to persuade people to visit their planets. The drawings of the planets that the students are including on their posters are showing so much detail and dedication; it’s absolutely breathtaking.

Speaking of art, this week the student began work on their Art to Remember projects. We used the project as an opportunity to connect with our space exploration and learned about Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The students analyzed Van Gogh’s impressionistic style and technique, noticing the small brush strokes, variety of color, and swirly patterns. The students then drew their own landscape pieces and then used Van Gogh’s style to create the starry sky. The students used a combination of crayons and water colors to create beautiful, vibrant designs and textures.

One of the student directed questions that we explored this week was “can you land on a gas giant?” To answer this question, we watched a video of what would happen if you tried to land on Jupiter. We learned that since Jupiter has no surface, you would fall through the atmosphere for miles. Eventually, the pressure would be crushing. If a person did somehow manage to survive the pressure, they would reach a part of the planet hotter than the surface of the sun! This shocked the students; they all thought that gas planets were cold since they’re so far away from the sun.

For Dynamath this week, we worked on converting units in the US Customary system of measurement. The students used multiplicative properties to determine what the equivalent measurement would be in a different unit. For Mindset Math, we worked on fraction equivalence. The students were shown a rectangle that was broken up into squares of various colors. The class had to determine how much of the rectangle was shaded in yellow, green, and blue. They determined that it was 1/2 yellow, 1/3 green, and 1/6 blue. They were then given a different rectangle made up with a different number of squares, and had to complete the same task. To their surprise, it was still 1/2 yellow, 1/3 green, and 1/6 blue. The students realized that there were many different ways to show those fractions with many different numbers of pieces. The students were then given a giant rectangle with 340 squares. They needed to work with their group to color the rectangle with the same fractions that we had just worked with: 1/2 yellow, 1/3 green, and 1/6 blue. The students used many different creative problem solving strategies to work through the problem, exploring concepts of division and remainders. We eventually solved the problem and had the whole rectangle colored in. The class couldn’t have been more proud.

Looking ahead: Unfortunately, Plato will be closed this upcoming week through spring break. Because of this, we will be doing remote e-learning. I will be sending an email detailing what students should be doing throughout the week. Thank you for your patience as we navigate this new process for learning. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a wonderful spring break. Best wishes to everyone.