Basque, Hindi, and the Rock Cycle
/This week Ms. Susan's husband, Steven, visited us on Zoom to teach us about the language of Basque. Basque is a language spoken in a region of Spain and France. Very few people speak this language and it's a language isolate, which means that it's unrelated to other languages. Ms. Megha, a graduate student working at the ELC, came in to teach us about Hindi. We learned to say hello in both of these languages. This week during content time we learned about the three different types of rocks: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. We learned about the rock cycle and simulated actually being a rock in the rock cycle. We were surprised how often erosion caused us (as rocks) to be broken down into sediments! Then the sediments repeatedly became compacted and cemented into sedimentary rocks. We experienced melting into magma, cooling to become igneous rocks, and undergoing heat and pressure to become metamorphic rocks. Outside we discovered erosion at work in our sandbox as a team of engineers designed intricate river systems. This week we played many exciting rounds of Clumsy Thief as we practiced our fluency with math facts. In aftercare several students worked on sewing projects for an upcoming fashion show. During writer's workshop we discussed how varying our sentence starters and lengths can make our stories more interesting for readers. This afternoon we watered the flowers in our rainbow garden and observed dozens of geese flying overhead.
Rocks Needed for Next Week- We are looking for specific examples of the following types of rock: metamorphic (marble, slate, lapis lazuli, schist, quartzite, gneiss), igneous (granite, diorite, obsidian, pumice, basalt), and sedimentary rocks (sandstone, limestone, shale, conglomerate) to show the class next week. If you have any examples of these types of rocks please send them to school in a bag labeled with your child's name and the type of rock. We will return the rocks at the end of the week. Thank you!
