Another week has flown by in Trillium. I look forward to writing the blog each week because it gives me the opportunity to reflect back and see all that we accomplished.
We had two new faces in Trillium this week. Lauren Urton is a MRA alum and a freshman at Western Oregon University. She is pursuing her dream of becoming an ASL interpreter and asked if she could come in and teach the Trillium some sign language. She will be visiting our class on Tuesdays from 2:00-2:30. During her first visit, she explained what sign language is, what an interpreter does, and taught all of us a few animal signs. Your child may have already taught you the sign for cat, horse, pig, goat, dog, chicken, bird, duck or dog or how to clap using sign language. It was an excellent first lesson and we are so excited to have Lauren as part of our Trillium family.
On Friday, Savannah Enz joined us in the morning. Savannah is also a former MRA student and is currently a senior at Renaissance Public Academy in Molalla. She also worked in Trillium last year, as an elective during her junior year. Savannah plans on becoming a kindergarten teacher after college. As part of her senior project, Savannah will be spending time in Trillium, focusing on all different aspects of teaching. She’ll be working with students, helping with small group instruction, assessments, and learning what students at this age need to be successful. Shelley, Lori and I will be working with her on the teaching side, covering subjects like classroom management, lesson planning, assessing and more. We are thrilled to have Savannah back in Trillium.
In math this week, we continued to look at patterns on our calendar and introduced the concept of greater than/less than. Lori taught a new card game using these skills. We looked at “number trees”, which help show visually how a number is broken into parts to create the whole. For example 5 on one branch and 5 on another branch make 10 where they connect. We love seeing the enthusiasm they have for learning these new skills.
On Thursday and Friday, we discussed the upcoming holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. We read the books Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier and I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. and Kadir Nelson. The students loved learning about this remarkable man and couldn’t believe that such injustice ever occurred in our country. They couldn’t understand why the color of a person’s skin mattered, or imagine going to school where they would be separated by skin color. On Friday we all came up with our dreams of how we could change the world. Their ideas ranged from “I will change the world by treating every equally” to “I will change the world by giving everyone a trampoline” and “I will change the world by caring for animals”. We then drew a picture of what this dream will look like, then painted them with watercolors. Their art and their thoughts were beautiful.
We have many exciting things coming up! Please stay tuned for information about the winter concert, our SURPRISE Valentine celebration, volunteer needs and auction updates. Hope you had a wonderful 3 day weekend!
Best,
Shannon
We had two new faces in Trillium this week. Lauren Urton is a MRA alum and a freshman at Western Oregon University. She is pursuing her dream of becoming an ASL interpreter and asked if she could come in and teach the Trillium some sign language. She will be visiting our class on Tuesdays from 2:00-2:30. During her first visit, she explained what sign language is, what an interpreter does, and taught all of us a few animal signs. Your child may have already taught you the sign for cat, horse, pig, goat, dog, chicken, bird, duck or dog or how to clap using sign language. It was an excellent first lesson and we are so excited to have Lauren as part of our Trillium family.
On Friday, Savannah Enz joined us in the morning. Savannah is also a former MRA student and is currently a senior at Renaissance Public Academy in Molalla. She also worked in Trillium last year, as an elective during her junior year. Savannah plans on becoming a kindergarten teacher after college. As part of her senior project, Savannah will be spending time in Trillium, focusing on all different aspects of teaching. She’ll be working with students, helping with small group instruction, assessments, and learning what students at this age need to be successful. Shelley, Lori and I will be working with her on the teaching side, covering subjects like classroom management, lesson planning, assessing and more. We are thrilled to have Savannah back in Trillium.
In math this week, we continued to look at patterns on our calendar and introduced the concept of greater than/less than. Lori taught a new card game using these skills. We looked at “number trees”, which help show visually how a number is broken into parts to create the whole. For example 5 on one branch and 5 on another branch make 10 where they connect. We love seeing the enthusiasm they have for learning these new skills.
On Thursday and Friday, we discussed the upcoming holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. We read the books Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier and I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. and Kadir Nelson. The students loved learning about this remarkable man and couldn’t believe that such injustice ever occurred in our country. They couldn’t understand why the color of a person’s skin mattered, or imagine going to school where they would be separated by skin color. On Friday we all came up with our dreams of how we could change the world. Their ideas ranged from “I will change the world by treating every equally” to “I will change the world by giving everyone a trampoline” and “I will change the world by caring for animals”. We then drew a picture of what this dream will look like, then painted them with watercolors. Their art and their thoughts were beautiful.
We have many exciting things coming up! Please stay tuned for information about the winter concert, our SURPRISE Valentine celebration, volunteer needs and auction updates. Hope you had a wonderful 3 day weekend!
Best,
Shannon