Newsletter

Peregrine Press

November 10-14

 

Schedule:

Monday: Peace Hands Banner with Rachel's Class; Outdoor School Gear Drop off 6:30-7:30

Tuesday:  Leave for Outdoor School. Drop off at school between 9:00 and 9:30.

Friday: Return from Outdoor School at 2:00

 

Last Week

We had a very smooth week of activity.  Tuesday we experimented with blubber and discussed different animal adaptations, with a specific focus on marine mammals.  The students were great scientists and are going to do very well at Outdoor School with all the science and nature they will be learning while there.  After the blubber experiment Laura took us outside to do some really fun teambuilding activities.  These activities are so incredibly helpful for building our classroom community but one area that we need to work on is taking the teambuilding activities seriously.  It just takes a few kids goofing off during an activity for the activity to fail.  Friday morning we spent time with the Mayor of Forest Grove, Richard Kidd, and a City Council member, Pete Truax.  The students learned about our City Government structure and had some great questions for the Mayor.  This was a great opportunity for the kids to better understand the rules about no skateboarding downtown.

The heritage project is just about finished.  Students worked on the recipe and food connection to the project this past week (Which is my FAVORITE part).  A major setback and frustration with this part of the project was that yet again, several students had not done the necessary work at home to be able to do this part of the project at school.  The students were told 2 weeks ago to bring in a recipe and to have 4 or 5 kids still not have a recipe on the day that it was required really messed up how our work session went.  When students are irresponsible it does not just effect them, it effects me and the rest of the class because we either have to put things on hold, or I have to find other things for them to do, OR they distract their classmates.

 

* Rachel's class partnered with Elizabeth's Language Arts class and they wrote and shared poems for two voices with us.  The poems were beautiful.

 

Week after Outdoor School:

November 17:  Food and Culture Celebration at Pacific University 1:00-2:00.  This event will teach the kids about some different cultures through food and presentations.  This is sponsored by a small group of students from Pacific University for part of a class they are taking.  The event should be really fun and connect perfectly with our heritage project!  Please let me know if you do not want your child to sample the food.  (They will have Hawaiian food, Greek food and Vegan food to name a few.)

 

November 20:  Trip to Cornelius Elementary School to share our Heritage Projects and meet our buddies that we have been exchanging letters with.  I would love it if we had a few volunteers for this trip so please let me know if you can join us.  It will be from 9:00-11:00.