Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We have had a fantastic week with many interesting and learning-filled activities.

On Tuesday afternoon, a real musher from Peace Pus came to visit our team to teach us more about dog sledding.  We learned about the equpment used for dog sleddding, the harnesses and how to take care of the dogs.  We also learned what is required for the lead dog to successfully lead the team to the finish line.  We also had the opportunity to pet the dogs.  They were so adorable and well-behaved.  Here are some pictures.

A couple of weeks ago, we had another visit from another musher.  Her name is Morgan and she is currently studying at the University of Vermont.  Morgan has spent a lot of time in Alaska and she came to Harmony to share her expertise in dog sledding and mushing.  Although she did not bring any dogs, she brought in gear that the dogs use in the Iditarod, such as booties to keep their paws warm, belly blankets and various harnesses.  Morgan has trained dogs for many of the mushers in the Iditarod this year and years past.  For example, she has worked with Dallas Seevey and his dad. Thank you Morgan for sharing your knowledge with us.  Here are some pictures from her visit.

Although the real Iditarod race has ended, we will continue with our Iditarod reading logs for another couple of weeks.  I will let you know when team Harmony officially ends the reading race, but I am still waiting to hear back from the other teachers.  I am thrilled to see the writing every week.  We have such a terrific groups of readers and writers in our class!  Keep it up everyone!

We had another great 4 Winds class today.  We learned about the Water Cycle and had the opportunity to participate in different experiments in our classroom.  The students learned about water's surface tension while using droppers to place small water droplets on pennies.  They used magnifying glasses to act as scientists as they carefully observed the water droplet's quality and shape.  The students also witnessed condensation through an experiment using hot water (which our parent volunteer carried out) and practiced evaporation using fans.  It was a great class.  Once again, thank you parents for making this possible every time.  We love science!

Lastly, I wanted to inform everyone that my intern, Amy Winter, will do her solo week next week.  That means that she will be teaching all of the lessons in our class.  While I am still at school, I am not officially teaching the classes.  I will still check my email and be available to you if you need me, of course.  If you have any dismissal changes, doctor's appoinments or other daily changes, please let me know just like before.  If you wish, you can also copy Amy on that email.  her email is awinter@cssu.org
After Amy's solo week, Amy only has another 2 weeks with us.  Her last day is April18th.  We will miss her very much but wish her all the best in her future endeavors.  She has already accepted a job as a teacher in Connecticut, in a town very close to where her parents live and where she grew up.  Congratulations Amy!  We are so proud of you!

Have a great rest of the week,
Maria
Have great rest of the week everyone!