The Lion's Den is in Production

In addition to creating Orchard Garden's Yearbook, students in the 8th grade elective also produce The Lion's Den. The Lion’s Den is a snapshot of some of the best writing and visual art done by students and staff K-8. The Lion’s Den will be available for purchase at our December 17th Visual and Performing Arts Show. Using rubrics and their own sense of what makes a piece of work publish worthy, the students have been jurying art and writing submissions to prepare our next volume of The Lion's Den.

Our Alphabet Journey Continues with Letters C, D & E!

Letter C

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I love using My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss for Letter C. Using this book gives me an opportunity to revisit color words (Put Me In the Zoo) and rhyme. We talk about our favorite colors and how our favorite colors can make us feel.
My kindergarten students in our Autism Strand also do the same curriculum with differing supports for our activity. After our read aloud, students apply what they have "learned" from our story of the day. In order to allow all learners to participate, the lesson activity could take several forms. Some students "make a match," while others use a word bank for support. All students receive an activity that has the color of the word printed on it and there is a key on the board to follow.

Letter D

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Our featured story for letter D was Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman. An excellent book to use with

your child to have them start reading. There are many early words with pictures that give meaning. I
can even see the students reading along as I read. This year I also added a video to support more differentiated reading for some of our English Language Learners and Autism Strand students, but differentiating instruction helps ALL learners.

I love to share my favorite page of the story, see below!

Letter E

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Students and I read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and discussed trying new foods to celebrate the Letter E on our alphabet journey. Sam-I-Am does not give up until he convinces the character to try the green eggs and ham...and he likes them! You may find getting your child to try new foods a bit easier if you remind them of the story of Green Eggs and Ham!

The Media (Class) Is The Message!

Students in my 6-7-8 Media Elective Class create posters that reflect who they are; their likes, dislikes and dreams. Each student created a word cloud on the computer using free software abcya word cloud on abcya. They also cut magazine words out and then with dramatic pictures of themselves on a backdrop of an old map put together their own personal statements about themselves. Weaving the media is challenging. Results coming soon!

2015-2016 Yearbook Is In Production!

Nineteen 8th graders meet three times per week plus out of class time to create the Orchard Gardens' yearbook, The Pride. The 2015-2016 yearbook will be the 6th edition and promises to be the best ever! Students in the class did a fabulous job analyzing previous yearbooks and had the most suggestions for improvements and new features than students in the past. The yearbook presents students K-8 but focuses on the middle school and especially the 8th graders that will be moving on to high school next year. Reserve your yearbook today!