HELLO ALL,
The class is going awesome lately and I am really starting to see our group come together more as a community instead of just the old crew and the rookies. Friendships are growing and students are beginning to work together more effectively. Mediation is much more effective than it was at the beginning of the year and students are learning how to avoid conflict and manage it when it comes.
We finished up our unit on Immigration and are now moving to the Midwest where we will be talking about the Great Lakes, farms, and weather. Immigration was a success as I think that students understand what it is and some of the reasons it occurs, but I think that next time I will try to focus more on current events around immigration. It was difficult for the students to put themselves in the shoes of an Irish immigrant near 1900. We live and learn.
If anyone has any pictures from the pumpkin patch, please let me know so that we can post them to the blog. I know Megan has set up a Flickr.com account for the class where we can post pictures and then view them through the blog. You can either email them to Megan or visit www.flickr.com.
Username -
Password -
SCIENCE FRIDAYS
Thanks to those of you who have signed up for upcoming Science Fridays. For those of you who don't know what this is here is the lowdown. Your family signs up for a week and that week you bring home the Science Friday binder. The binder contains three books of different science experiments for our age kids. The family then performs (practices) the experiment or lesson at home for Friday presentation. The Friday lesson can be simply a demonstration or it could be more in depth where all the students perform the experiment. The family who does the experiment also fills out the assessment worksheet which is in the binder for record keeping. It is fun and keeps families involved in our activities.
HOMEWORK
*Spelling - same as last week. Spelling Bee on Friday. Students should study all words for the year thus far.
*Letter of the week- Y
*Sharing Topic - Something scary
*Students should bring in a food label for their favorite breakfast. We are discussing nutrition and looking at what is in our food.
*Write a scary Halloween story. (Students will start this in class on Tuesday and share stories at the end of the day Wednesday.
HALLOWEEN
Students can wear their costumes to school on Wednesday but should bring a change of clothes so they don't wear them to the Corbett Farm field trip. They will get dirty and may not be usable if they don't bring change of clothes. Please bring a bag for your students Halloween costume to go into once they change.
Here is the schedule for Halloween.
8:30 Morning Choice Time
8:45 Annual Trillium Halloween Parade
9:10 Change into clothes for barn field trip
9:30 Leave for Corbett Farms
10:00 Snack at the Barn
10:30 Rotating Centers
Hiking
Folk Dancing - Tutorial
Crafts
Animal Barn
11:50 Group Dance
12:15 Leave for Trillium
12:45 LUNCH
NO SCHOOL
Remember that we don't have school on the 9th (planning day) and 12th (Veteran's Day)
LEARNING PLAN EXHIBITION
We will be having an event on Thursday, November 8th from 3:15 to 7:15. This will be an exhibition of what individual students have been working on from their learning plans and other projects in the class. The event is a drop-in where parents and students can come at their leisure and talk about their work. It is also a great opportunity for students to see what others are doing and maybe even get great ideas for future learning plans.
THANK YOUS
It is hard to remember all the thank yous all the time, but I hope you all know that I appreciate all that you do for the classroom. Here are just a few for the week.
Thanks to all the people who helped bake something for the preschool Cake Walk. It was a lot of fun and we raised money for books.
Thanks to Ellie for starting a sewing class on Mondays from 2-245. The kids needed it since I can't sew to save my life.
Thanks to Mykle and Phina for chiseling away at the lincoln logs which will soon be arriving on our playground.
Thanks again for the computer. It is awesome to be able to print and access the Internet in the room.
Thanks to last year's parents for my massage from Nephyr. I have still not taken the time to indulge myself, but I think it will be coming soon.
Thanks to Micki for organizing and taking the lead on the Scholastic Book Orders. I love those things.
Thanks to Nephyr and Aaron for continuing to provide an awesome snack for the kids and saving me a trip to the store. It helps out a lot!
Thanks to all the drivers for all the field trips.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Week of October 22
Homework
Spelling Words: read, green, when, your, think, has, off, then, how, walk, again, could
Challenge Words: immigration, Ellis Island, refugee, country, state, city, New York
*Bring in pictures of things that start with the letter H.
*Answer ancestor questions with your parents. (to be written in class)
*Figure out how many days until your birthday. Use a calendar to help you and remember that most months have 30 or 31 days. Show how you figured out your answer on a piece of paper using pictures, numbers or words.
Classroom Updates
Class Meeting has been really developing and Django moderated the last meeting where we passed a proposal to make the loft a quiet space for activities and reading. Many of the students also attended the first Lower School Meeting of the year. Some of our students brought a proposal to the committee and the proposal was heard loud and clear by the teachers. The proposal never made it to the meeting because teachers felt it was a safety issue and needed to be addressed without student oversight. Thanks to Mason, Stella, and Django (and the class contributions) the outside boat will be bolted down to make it more safe for kid play.
Pokemon Club is meeting on Thursdays during recess and is going well. Pokemon had infiltrated the classroom for a short period of time but since the boundary was set that club meets on Thursday, the students have been responsive and responsible about the issue.
Immigration
We have been studying immigration and what that meant for people in the late 1800s. We have been discussing what immigration means and the different types of immigrants that have come to our country for the varying reasons. We have discussed slavery, religious freedom and this week we will be talking about a different kind of immigrant: the refugee.
Students are also working in small groups to develop a “storyline” of an immigrant family in New York. Groups are creating individual characters and houses to show where they would live and how it would look to be in an immigrant family. There is one group acting as a Native American family. We have talked about how they were not immigrants to our land.
Thank Yous, snack, sleepover, etc.
It seems I always have so many thank yous but they just keep coming. The Jorgensons have helped out our classroom with providing an Internet ready room, calculators and hand held pencil sharpeners (whew.) Misty, Nikos and Ellie braved the sleepover and survived the restless legs and wild dance party. It was a blast to see kids being kids even if it drives their parents to the edge. We love our kids! Nephyr and Aaron are also continuing to provide very healthy options for our kids at lunch and the community is really helping out with the snack donations. Thanks a lot! The kids and their bodies love the snacks.
Field Trips and Halloween
We will be starting to turn our attention to the Midwest and farms. This week we are heading to the Pumpkin Patch. This will be just like in years past and is a fun annual outing. On Halloween, we are doing something a little different. We will be attempting to avoid the sugar craziness and will visit a farm in Corbett. This trip will introduce students to the real underworkings of a farm and square dancing is planned. It should be fun. When we return to school the students will finish the day by writing and sharing spooky Halloween stories.
White Take Home Folders
Some of you have noticed the white take home folders on the entryway shelf. These may be used more frequently in the future but for now they are simply a vehicle for me to send work home and for students and parents to keep track of the books students are reading. The folders will probably only come home every three weeks to correlate with the theme units. When it is sent home, please bring it back empty the next day. Thanks!
Parent Conferences
These are coming up and will be scheduled for the week before Thanksgiving break. Just giving you guys a heads up!
Spelling Words: read, green, when, your, think, has, off, then, how, walk, again, could
Challenge Words: immigration, Ellis Island, refugee, country, state, city, New York
*Bring in pictures of things that start with the letter H.
*Answer ancestor questions with your parents. (to be written in class)
*Figure out how many days until your birthday. Use a calendar to help you and remember that most months have 30 or 31 days. Show how you figured out your answer on a piece of paper using pictures, numbers or words.
Classroom Updates
Class Meeting has been really developing and Django moderated the last meeting where we passed a proposal to make the loft a quiet space for activities and reading. Many of the students also attended the first Lower School Meeting of the year. Some of our students brought a proposal to the committee and the proposal was heard loud and clear by the teachers. The proposal never made it to the meeting because teachers felt it was a safety issue and needed to be addressed without student oversight. Thanks to Mason, Stella, and Django (and the class contributions) the outside boat will be bolted down to make it more safe for kid play.
Pokemon Club is meeting on Thursdays during recess and is going well. Pokemon had infiltrated the classroom for a short period of time but since the boundary was set that club meets on Thursday, the students have been responsive and responsible about the issue.
Immigration
We have been studying immigration and what that meant for people in the late 1800s. We have been discussing what immigration means and the different types of immigrants that have come to our country for the varying reasons. We have discussed slavery, religious freedom and this week we will be talking about a different kind of immigrant: the refugee.
Students are also working in small groups to develop a “storyline” of an immigrant family in New York. Groups are creating individual characters and houses to show where they would live and how it would look to be in an immigrant family. There is one group acting as a Native American family. We have talked about how they were not immigrants to our land.
Thank Yous, snack, sleepover, etc.
It seems I always have so many thank yous but they just keep coming. The Jorgensons have helped out our classroom with providing an Internet ready room, calculators and hand held pencil sharpeners (whew.) Misty, Nikos and Ellie braved the sleepover and survived the restless legs and wild dance party. It was a blast to see kids being kids even if it drives their parents to the edge. We love our kids! Nephyr and Aaron are also continuing to provide very healthy options for our kids at lunch and the community is really helping out with the snack donations. Thanks a lot! The kids and their bodies love the snacks.
Field Trips and Halloween
We will be starting to turn our attention to the Midwest and farms. This week we are heading to the Pumpkin Patch. This will be just like in years past and is a fun annual outing. On Halloween, we are doing something a little different. We will be attempting to avoid the sugar craziness and will visit a farm in Corbett. This trip will introduce students to the real underworkings of a farm and square dancing is planned. It should be fun. When we return to school the students will finish the day by writing and sharing spooky Halloween stories.
White Take Home Folders
Some of you have noticed the white take home folders on the entryway shelf. These may be used more frequently in the future but for now they are simply a vehicle for me to send work home and for students and parents to keep track of the books students are reading. The folders will probably only come home every three weeks to correlate with the theme units. When it is sent home, please bring it back empty the next day. Thanks!
Parent Conferences
These are coming up and will be scheduled for the week before Thanksgiving break. Just giving you guys a heads up!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Pictures
Here is the link to the pictures from the Bonneville Dam trip. If anyone has pictures that they would like to share with the group, please contact Megan (mklepp@yahoo.com) and she can get you the info.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Week of October 8th
Hello all,
We had a great week in our class that was culminated by our first Science Friday lesson on plate tectonics, a field trip to the library and park with our middle school buddies on pedicabs and a student performed play. All is good in the land of K12. We are trying to figure out the whole posting photos to the blog in an easy way, but it is still under process.
Off to the East Coast
For the next three weeks we will be studying the New England area of the country and talking about immigration. We will be creating a storyline around six different families in the NE who come from different parts of the world. We will be asking you to help your student understand where they come from and help them discover some of the history surrounding your particular family. The unit will culminate with a potluck lunch of all the cultures we have created on Friday, October 26th at 11:30. The time may change so stay informed.
Thanks
Thanks to Jonathon, Ellie and the whole crew at PDX Pedicabs. www.pdxpedicabs.com, It was awesome to see the kids experience a completely new form of transportation. Thanks to Becky for coming in and doing a lesson on plate tectonics for the students. It was awesome to have an expert in the room. And a premature thanks to Mykle for offering to slice and chisel kid size lincoln logs for the outside space. It should be interesting what they build.
Homework
Spelling Words:
who, what, when, why, where, for, at, am, over, did
Use words to create five questions to ask an ancestor.
Challenge: immigration, Ellis Island, culture
Math: Take a math sheet on the entry bookshelf. It is called tomorrow's number. The number is 44.
Challenge Math: Ask me for a Salmon Run energy activity. This is using big numbers and advanced problem solving.
Make a word search using names of students in the class. Blank sheet should be available this week. (Thanks Watsons)
Pictures should be on the way as it was a very exciting week.
We had a great week in our class that was culminated by our first Science Friday lesson on plate tectonics, a field trip to the library and park with our middle school buddies on pedicabs and a student performed play. All is good in the land of K12. We are trying to figure out the whole posting photos to the blog in an easy way, but it is still under process.
Off to the East Coast
For the next three weeks we will be studying the New England area of the country and talking about immigration. We will be creating a storyline around six different families in the NE who come from different parts of the world. We will be asking you to help your student understand where they come from and help them discover some of the history surrounding your particular family. The unit will culminate with a potluck lunch of all the cultures we have created on Friday, October 26th at 11:30. The time may change so stay informed.
Thanks
Thanks to Jonathon, Ellie and the whole crew at PDX Pedicabs. www.pdxpedicabs.com, It was awesome to see the kids experience a completely new form of transportation. Thanks to Becky for coming in and doing a lesson on plate tectonics for the students. It was awesome to have an expert in the room. And a premature thanks to Mykle for offering to slice and chisel kid size lincoln logs for the outside space. It should be interesting what they build.
Homework
Spelling Words:
who, what, when, why, where, for, at, am, over, did
Use words to create five questions to ask an ancestor.
Challenge: immigration, Ellis Island, culture
Math: Take a math sheet on the entry bookshelf. It is called tomorrow's number. The number is 44.
Challenge Math: Ask me for a Salmon Run energy activity. This is using big numbers and advanced problem solving.
Make a word search using names of students in the class. Blank sheet should be available this week. (Thanks Watsons)
Pictures should be on the way as it was a very exciting week.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Bonneville Dam
Ranger Jane helps the students understand how power comes from the Columbia River to our homes.
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