Week of April 7

Homework

Big Word: a t v a i n o c
Number: Count how many toes are in your house. Show how you solved these problems by making pictures.
Challenge: How many toes are there on your block?
Project: Take home parent packet for National Parks Theme Unit
Theme: Choose a national park to do your project on.

Welcome back from our long break! I know everyone is excited to get back to the learning of school. We have 10 weeks left and a lot to do in that time. I wanted to give everyone a heads up on what is coming up through the end of the year. Here is a list of events that should be put on everyone's calendar.

Friday, April 11 Field Trip with Buddies (Play after Play)
Monday, April 21 Swimming at Mt. Scott
Tuesday, April 22 Parent Information Night
Saturday, April 26 Volunteer work day for the classroom (9 am to noon)
Friday, May 2 OMSI Field Trip
Thur-Fri, May 8-9 Campout at Nehalem Bay with Brian's class
Saturday, May 10 Trillium Annual Auction
Tuesday, May 13 Rhododendrun Garden
Thursday, May 15 Trillium Service Day
Friday, May 30 K12 Learning Plan Exhibition and Hawaiian Luau
Week of June 2-5 INTENSIVES (Sign up to teach a class)
Friday, June 6 End of the Year POTLUCK at Megan's
Wednesday, June 11 Publishing Party
Friday, June 13 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
Class Bike Ride at Noon

Field Trips
We are slowing down on the field trips but still have a few more planned. Please keep in mind that we do have swimming two weeks from Monday and we will need drivers. This will be the last swimming of the year. Please check the sign up board for updated information on upcoming trips and opportunities to drive.

Conferences
Thank you to all of you who met with me for your conference. I think that we have created some great learning plans and the kids are going to be working hard to show off what they have done at the end of May. I really appreciate people showing up on time, being patient with me and rescheduling when necessary. If you haven't had your conference we can schedule one this week. Also, your student's learning plan is in your folder outside the room.

Theme Unit
Over the next few weeks we will be working on a National Parks project where each student will choose a national park to research and present to the class. This will involve some work on the parent end since it is very difficult to manage 20 different projects. You will be receiving a parent packet this week. Please ask your students for this information or talk to me if you do not have it by Wednesday. After studying the national parks we will be talking a lot about Native American cultures and students will be thinking about an independent project they can do on Native Americans.

Volunteer Work Day
On Saturday, April 26 we will have a class work day at Trillium. We will be painting, nailing, hanging and working on things for our class and for the playground in general. There will be many opportunities to volunteer and kids are invited to help out. It would be great if we had two parents volunteer to manage the kids who are not as helpful as the rest. I will see if the preschool room is available that day. There will be a job sign up list as the event nears, but if you can commit to this event then sign up on the appropriate field trip sheet.

Supplies
Please help our shortage of markers in our class. If you could all get your students a set of Crayola or any type of markers for them to use in the class that would be great. The community use markers have been ramshackled and are not very functional. Put your child's name on their markers and ask them to keep track of them. I will still have markers for community use but it is frustrating having so few. I wanted to get more, but to buy them for the whole class is pretty pricy. Any extras you have not being used at home would be helpful as well.

Wish List
These are some things that will be helpful in the class as we start to work on our projects and prepare for our auction project.

terracata planters
plain wood planter boxes
plastic spray paint
caps, caps, caps (we still need more for the project we want to do)
chalkboard paint
grout (dark, sanded)
extra unused paint
shoe boxes