Lois Ehlert

Lois Ehlert is our September Author of the Month! She has written and illustrated many acclaimed books for children, including HANDS: GROWING UP TO BE AN ARTIST and WAITING FOR WINGS, and LEAF MAN, both New York Times bestsellers. We read the story, RED LEAF, YELLOW LEAF before going on a leaf hunt outside at Calvert. In this book Ehlert created textual collages from a variety of seeds, roots, fabric, ribbon, wire, paper, plastic, cardboard, watercolors, crayons, pencils, pens, and oil pastels. She even scrunched some of the paper leaves with her sandals! We later used these leaves to create leaf rubbings to decorate our Author of the Month bulletin board.

Helping Hand

Can you tie your shoes? This friend can! I have been encouraging 6D friends to lend a hand when another student needs help tying their shoes (if they are unable to tie their own). Thanks for lending a helping hand!

26 Letters and 99 Cents

Today I read the book 26 LETTERS AND 99 CENTS. There are many items in this book which can be sorted, including numbers, letters and coins. The mathematicians were put into groups and asked to work with their friends to sort these items into three groups. After this initial sorting, they were asked to sort again, into three different groups. What interesting ideas they had! Take a peak to see them in action!

New Food Challenge

Trying new foods can not only be fun, it can be entertaining! I try my best to encourage my students at snack and lunch times to venture outside of their comfort zone when choosing foods to eat from the Calvert menu. Some you may have tried the food in the past and not appreciated it, but tasting it prepared by an expert Calvert chef can really alter your thinking- in a positive way! I, of course, need to follow my own rules! I had my brother-in-law over for dinner last week and he prepared green curry soup and brought rambutans for dessert.

Below are some photos of my husband and I tasting rambutans, the out-of-this-world fruit!

ABC Sequencing

Today we listened to the story ABC 3-D in reading. This book was a HUGE HIT! Afterwards we worked independently to sequence the alphabet. When we finished, we counted eleven sequenced alphabets total. Good work, readers!

The Colors of Us

This week 6D listened to the story THE COLORS OF US by Karen Katz. Beautiful illustrations describe how people come in many colors. Katz used words like honey, toffee-coffee, chocolate, and french vanilla to describe skin color. After listening to this story, we created self portraits. The students began by choosing a skin color paper which they felt best represented themselves. We added eyes, a nose, a smile, and yarn for hair, and this morning we painted on a shirt (and bows for the girls). What fantastic work! Tomorrow we will finish this project by adding buttons to our shirts and bows. I am excited to display these throughout our room for the remainder of the year!

6D Visitors

We have had two parent readers this week- what a treat! Mrs. Elkins read three silly stories- Mr. Impossible, Mr. Tall, and Mr. Strong. The children were delighted, as was I! They were very funny. Mrs. McCreadie read us two stories- one was about dinosaurs (the book even had googly eyes!) and the other was a rhyming book about popcorn. The popcorn book made me hungry, what do you think, 6D?

Mrs. McCreadie read us a googly-eyed book about dinosaurs!



Mrs. Elkins read us books from "The Mr. Men" series.




Thank you for reading to us! We enjoyed this time with you!

Having Fun

Below are some photos of 6D friends having a good time at Calvert School.

The 6D Tree!

6D adopted a tree on Calvert's campus last week. We are lucky it is so close- it's right outside on the playground! We will visit this tree four times this year and will document each of these visits with a picture and photo in our journals.


We spent thoughtful time observing our tree by taking note of its colors and shapes. Can you guess which season it is just by looking at our tree?

Lost Tooth!

A 6D student lost a tooth on the way home from school last night! Congratulations!

"Say Cheese, 6D!"

Both the Lower and Middle Schools gathered to kick off the 2010-2011 Calvert school year on the Brown field today! Dr. Martire, Dr. Trusty, and Mrs. Herrity talked about the importance of putting forth our best efforts. After the assembly, 6D enjoyed recess with friends on the playground and had time to "say cheese!"

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First Day of School!

Yesterday was the first day of school! I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of my thirteen new friends. All the students were excited to be at Calvert for the start of a new school year! I am so proud of 6D for hanging in there despite the heat and for being patient as we learn new faces, names, and areas of the school. I promise you will have THE BEST YEAR of school EVER!
Love, Mrs. Armstrong

Geoboard Designs


Playing is Learning

Playground Fun!

Building Tall Towers

Playing with Dolls

Mr. Potato Head and Friends!


Football Fun!