Upper Elementary News - 1/26/18

It feels so good to finally have a full week of school! Our spirits have been lifted by the warmer weather and abundant sunshine. 

We have received some good feedback about the new format of the progress reports. We learned a lot in the process, and will make improvements for the next reporting period. We welcome additional feedback to make our next progress reports the best they can be!

A committee of students wrote about our off-campus excursion this week. Here is their report:

This Tuesday and Wednesday, our UE class went to TPAC (Tennessee Performing Arts Center) to see the show Kaytek the Wizard. The show was done by puppeteers with their puppets. Everyone had a different point of view. Here are some of them:

Roxy: “I liked the music.”

Maddie: “I loved when Kaytek and Sofia meet each other and become friends.”

Hazel: “The puppets were fun and beautiful.”

Josephine: “My favorite part was when Kaytek tried to make the evil wizards die, but then Sofia called him and stopped the evil wizards.”

Bob: “I liked it a lot. My favorite and scariest part was the guys with the gas masks and the zombies reaching out of the water.”

News Channel 5 interviewed two of our students after the performance on Wednesday. We have not yet heard when this will air, but will let you know when we do.

Garrett is now teaching math, along with Jodi. He meets with a few students individually, and others meet in small groups. He is also developing the Abintra Stock Exchange, and students will begin trading very soon. We’ll have an update about that next week.

We have exciting news to share about a field trip on Thursday, April 26th. To culminate our year of physical and earth science, we will visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL! We have chartered a tour bus (making sure it is equipped with seat belts) and will spend the day learning about the history of the space program, participating in a science lab, watching a National Geographic movie in the IMAX theater, and more! A cheese pizza lunch will be provided (a gluten-free option is available), but students are welcome to bring their own lunches from home. We’ll share more of the details of this trip as the time draws near. You can find more information here: https://www.rocketcenter.com/groups/uft.