newsletter

Peregrine Press

December 15-19

 

Schedule

Tuesday:  P.E.

Wednesday:  Art

Thursday Out and About to Goodwill

Friday:  Holiday Celebration

   Last Week:

We had another great week!  Our Out and About took us near B Street Farm where the students worked in groups to create "natural sculptures."  They recently studied the work of an artist named Andy Goldsworthy that created these natural art forms using only the materials that were in the natural place.  Our class created beautiful sculptures using fallen limbs, ivy, morning glory and other plant life.  I again was very impressed with the teamwork and cooperation that took place in the different groups.

On Wednesday we spent some time learning about how to write a friendly letter.  We then used those skills to write letters to our soldiers and to children in the hospital.  We used old cards, fabric and other miscellaneous materials to create cards as well.  This fit nicely with our study of consumerism, and the kids were able to see that you can create beautiful work without buying new materials.

The focus for the consumerism unit this week was "How Green is Our Clothing."  We talked about different methods for growing cotton, and the impact of pesticides on different species.  This sparked a great discussion about the challenges people face with trying to decide what to buy.  Many kids feel that organic food is too expensive so their families can't afford it, but then they feel bad that they are hurting the environment.

 

We continued our work with literacy circles.  I have seen some great leadership come out of this experience!  We also reflected on our goals (we have been doing that every Friday).  A new thing that I am hoping to incorporate every Friday is a weekly summary.  As a class we brainstorm all of the things we did during the week and then each student is responsible for writing a summary about one or two of the topics.  I feel that summarizing is a skill that students need some more practice with.  I also have noticed that many students are mixing up plurals and contractions.  During morning meeting we reviewed the differences between them, as well as when to us "a" and when to use "an" when dealing with a singular noun that starts with a vowel or consonant.

 

This Week:

I have no idea what to expect this week with the weather so we will just have to be flexible and prepared for anything.  If we do have some regular days of school we will be working on our reindeer tales, literacy circles (creative writing activity) and consumerism.  Our trip to Goodwill will only happen if it is safe to do so.  If it is too cold to walk we may try to take the bus, or we might try and reschedule for January.

**I am not sending homework this week, or over Christmas break.

**We are out of erasers so if anyone feels like donating either the eraser tops or the big pink erasers we would really appreciate it. Thanks.

**I will be boxing up the soldier care packages mid-week so any more donations of treats, or money for shipping would be wonderful!

newsletter

Peregrine Press

December 8-12

 

Schedule:

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to Ash Street Field for an Art connection

Wednesday:  P.E.

Thursday: Art

    

Last Week:

Thank you so much for coming to the Celebrations of Learning!  There was a great turn out and I have to say that the hot chocolate and cocoa made the night perfect.  I loved watching the students and families interacting in a social setting where everyone was so happy.  That night really showed me just how great our community is!  I love being a part of it all.

 

We kicked off our consumerism unit with a study of potato chips.  The students learned about how long it takes, and how many different materials are required to create a bag of potato chips.  This process includes "inputs" and "outputs" that your children should be able to explain to you.  We then visited Waste Management where we were able to see how much waste Forest Grove creates.  We learned that 20 loads of semi-trucks take waste to the landfill in McMinnville every day, just from the Forest Grove site.  The trucks can't weigh more than 92,000 pounds (including the weight of the truck itself).  That is so much waste!  I think one of the most favorite parts of the Out and About was when we all got on the giant scale and found that we weigh over 2,000 pounds as a class.  On the way back to school we picked up litter off of the sidewalks to try and help clean up our town.

 

On Wednesday we watched the video title "The Story of Stuff" that I encourage you all to watch.  You can google it and watch it on your computer.  This showed the students the process all goods go through from extraction to production to waste, with a few other steps in between.  This helped the students to see that we consume in a linear cycle that is polluting our earth and is not sustainable.  Thursday the students were assigned a group and a task with very little direction from me that was to simulate the steps in creating any "good or product".  They could earn reward tokens or penalty tokens depending on the actions they took. (Those actions either polluted the environment or helped conserve materials.)  This was not only a great activity for the kids to see how every single thing that they do effects someone or something, this was also a great teambuilding activity.  I saw students working really well together to accomplish the task.

 

At Running Club I was really impressed with how many more kids were running.  They also are demonstrating a higher level of success and independence with working on mean, median, mode and range.

 

We started literacy circles this week as well.  I know many of the students are not really excited about the books they are reading, but I am hoping they will get past that because literacy circles are a great opportunity for students to improve their reading fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension.  It is also a great opportunity for students to be leaders and learn to compromise.

 

***On Thursday every student should have brought home a list of things that the soldiers would appreciate in their care packages.  I encourage you if you can, to provide even just one thing off of the list.  My goal is to have those done by this Friday so that they can be sent off in time to arrive before Christmas.

 

This Week:

We will continue or study of consumerism with a focus on how "green" our clothes are.  In order to do a really cool activity though I need a soil sample from everyone and the soil needs to be dried out.  I sent home homework last week for everyone that explained this, but only 2 students bought back the soil.  Please send in a snack bag of soil as soon as possible.

 

We are going to start writing letters and Christmas cards to kids in the hospital to hopefully bring some cheer to their holidays.  Literacy circles will continue as well.  Towards the end of the week my goal is to start a writing activity where the students will get to use their imaginations to write reindeer tales.  Last year we wrote Turkey Tales about how a turkey may or may not have escaped Thanksgiving Dinner and the students really seemed to enjoy that.

 

***Outdoor School money reminder:  The payments are due on the 5^th of each month so if you have not paid for December please get that to Donna in the office ASAP.  Thanks!

 

Upcoming Events

Monday December 15^th:  Buddy Lunch and All School Meeting

Thursday December 18th:  Out and About to Goodwill

Friday December 19th:  Holiday Celebration  (I would like to show a Christmas movie as part of the fun.  If you object to a PG movie please let me know so that I can make an appropriate decision about the movie.  I would also like to do hot chocolate and candy canes if anyone would like to donate either of those items.  I encourage people to bring a mug so that we don't have to waste any paper cups.)

 

newsletter

Peregrine Press

December 1-5

 

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to Waste Management

Wednesday: PE; Celebrations of Learning 5-6:30

Thursday: Art

 

Last Week:

Those 2 days were jam packed.  We had another buddy lunch and All School Meeting on Monday.  We also spent a great deal of time working on the class newsletter.  Each student contributed to the newsletter and several student editors typed it all up and designed the layout.  That newsletter will be completed on Monday and will hopefully be sent out by Tuesday.  Tuesday Laura led us in a great teambuilding activity where students created "monsters." Your children can probably explain it J. Tuesday afternoon we worked with literary devices (writing enhancers) such as alliteration and personification to write poems about Thanksgiving or November.

 

This Week:

Celebrations of Learning

Wednesday, December 3rd

-At FGCS

-5:00-6:30

-Bring a mug and a treat if you can.  We will provide hot chocolate and coffee.

For our celebrations of learning I would encourage anyone that can, to please bring in a treat to be shared.  It would be great if we could share some of the food that the students included in their heritage projects.  This night will be an opportunity for students to share their heritage projects, their Outdoor School projects and also kick start our service projects.  The class has voted on two main service projects for the winter.  The first is to adopt a local family to provide gifts for.  This will be through the Family Resource Center.  The second is to assemble care packages for soldiers overseas.  We have several students in our class this year that have family members serving overseas and we really want to show our support.  So, this Wednesday, at the Celebrations of Learning I would love to kick start these projects and get the details out to everyone.

 

For the months of December and January our main theme will be Consumerism.  For this unit students will be learning about product life cycles, persuasive ad techniques, reducing consumption and many other aspects of consumerism.  Our Out and About to Waste Management will be a great way to get the class thinking about how much we "consume" and waste.

 

Upcoming Events

December 9^th: Out and About to Ash Street Field

December 19^th:  Classroom Holiday Celebration