Peregrine Press

January 20-22

 

Schedule

Tuesday: No Out and About

Wednesday: Guest Speaker from the Chamber of Commerce; PE

Thursday: Art

Last Week:

We spent time wrapping up a couple of odds and ends this past week.  The rest of the literacy groups completed their books.  The geography bee finalists competed at the School Geography Bee, where an 8^th grader named Timo was announced the champion.

For our consumerism unit we went on a scavenger hunt through Forest Grove to see what our local small businesses have to offer.  A place that only a few students knew about was the Community Garden located at the end of Cedar Street near the Aquatic Center.  When we returned the students made lists of businesses they would like to see in Forest Grove.  We then had a discussion later in the week that really impressed me.  They came up with pros and cons for some of these businesses.  We discussed what it would be like if the Max came to town, or if a New Seasons, Chocolate/Candy shop or a Toys R Us were built here.  I would never have imagined the students would have come up with some of the pros and cons that they did.  This is clearly a class that "thinks outside the box."

The rest of the week's consumerism unit focused on "Price vs. Cost."  The students all identified where their clothes came from by reading the tags and then read about how many companies do not provide a clean and safe work environment for their employees. We also found that a clear majority of our clothes come from Asia. They read a poem by two voices that shared the experiences of two teens working in two very different kinds of factories: one factory being safe and the other one breaking laws.  This topic was very intriguing to most of the class and we decided to research it more.  So, on Thursday we went to the computer lab to conduct our research.  The computer lab has never been so silent.  The students were so engrossed and appalled with what they found that no one really felt like talking much.  On Friday the students critiqued magazine advertisements and rewrote the ad including some of the hidden costs that the consumer typically does not see. The students wrote some very clever things!

 

***Sadly only 13 students turned in their homework this week.  I expressed my disappointment with them and hope that they will eventually learn to be responsible.  Many of them gave me excuses for not turning it in, but the bottom line is that those excuses won't get them out of trouble when they get older.  They will get fired from a job or do poorly in college if they can't learn to be responsible.

 

This Week:

We have a very short week due to the holiday and report cards.  The students will do some self-reflections for the semester that I will send out with the report cards.  They will also each be responsible for doing a very small project on consumerism.  I will provide them with time in school to do this, but some students may have homework if they do not manage their time wisely.  Finally, students will begin to brainstorm ideas for the treasure books.  At the Level 2, each student will create their own treasure book that will be a professionally hardbound book.  I will send out more information on these books in a few weeks.  I would like to students to start thinking about possible ideas they would want to turn into a book.  Last year I had students write a book of poems, a how to guide, a series of short stories, or one long story.

 

Snow Day Make-Up days

Due to the snow days, we will have to make up 2 days.  Those days will be Presidents Day which is February 16^th and, March 6^th which was originally an in-service/no student day.