newsletter

Peregrine Press

February 23-27

          

 

Schedule

Monday: Running Club; Please return Treasure Book Order Forms ASAP (I passed them all out last week.)

Tuesday: Out and About to Ash St. Field or B Street Farm

Wednesday:  PE at Pacific University

Thursday: Art

Friday: Homework Due

 

*If anyone can volunteer by helping walk the students over to Pacific University on Wednesdays until April 15^th we would greatly appreciate it.  The students have this great opportunity to have PE at Pacific, but it means that us teachers have to forfeit our prep/planning time in order to get those students over there.  The role of the volunteers would be to simply walk our class over to Pacific University's Athletic Center right after lunch and then walk them back to school after PE is over.  Volunteers would not be required to teach any part of PE.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if you will be able to help.  All Level 2 and 3 Classes will be walking over at the same time so the sidewalks will get a bit hectic. J  The time required would be 12:35-2:15 give or take a few minutes.

 

Last Week:

Last week the students were incredibly productive!  The main activities continued to be the Treasure Book rough drafts and the World Fair group work time.  I was pleased every day to see the majority of students managing their time properly and working hard to do their best work.  The tri-folds they are making are looking really beautiful and I can't wait for them to show off all their hard work at the World Fair.   They spent several days in the computer lab typing their research to make professional looking boards.  They are really computer savvy!

On Tuesday we headed out for a quick tour of some local restaurants that serve foods from different parts of the world.  The students asked interesting questions and were very well behaved!

We also had to say goodbye to Beth.  She returns to Korea on Monday.  She taught us a Korean game called Gongi that was a really fun way to end the week, and her stay here.  The month she was here flew by but it was a great experience for everyone and she will really be missed.

 

This Week:

The students will start the final draft of their Treasure Books finally!  This is the last step of this project and it will be due on March 6^th.  They will have 3 days this week and 3 days the following week to finish.  If they want to type it, they may, but they will have to do that at home which means they will have alternative writing activities to do at school during Treasure Book time.

They will have some more time to work on their World Fair projects as well, however, more of the focus will be on teaching more geographic concepts.  They will learn about different kinds of regions and human-environmental interactions.  The interactions will also be tied into our Out and About on Tuesday.  We are hopefully going to become site stewards for Ash St. Field, but there are some complications this week, which means we might practice what being a site steward would look like at B St. Permaculture Farm.

After looking at their weekly goal reflections it appears that some students are ready to start new goals so we may spend a bit of time working on our goal reflections and selection of new goals.  As we get ready for Independent Project starting March 9^th I would like the students to start thinking about a project they may want to do that would incorporate a goal they made for the year.

It has also become evident that several students need to practice their spelling more.  We will start doing an additional day of spelling activities.

 

Celebrations of Learning March 4^th

This will be an opportunity for students to show their World Fair Projects and the almost finished Treasure Books!  Like the celebration in December, we invite you to bring a treat to share.  Please bring your own mug.  The theme for this month is "A Green Forest Grove."

March 6^th will be the official World Fair.  You are invited to attend between 11:30 and 12:30.  All students will be there presenting their information.

newsletter

Peregrine Press

February 16-20

 

Schedule

Monday:  Running Club

Tuesday:  Afternoon Out and About: Restaurant Tour (World Fair Foods)

Wednesday: PE

Thursday:  Art

Friday:  Rough Draft of the Treasure Book is Due; Beth's Last DayL

          

 

Last Week:

Boy is it intense to have two major projects going on at one time!  The students have been working diligently on their treasure books, making sure that their rough draft is a significant improvement from their sloppy copy.

For the World Fair geography unit the students learned more about the five themes and practiced applying some of those themes to station activities.  The stations included note-taking and citing sources, understanding place (human and physical characteristics), hemispheres and latitude and longitude.  I was very pleased with how well they did on these stations for the first two rounds, but by the afternoon when they did the last two rounds they got pretty off task.  Many students did the work accurately but it was sloppy and there were several spelling and capitalization mistakes.  It is really important that they get used to spelling words correctly as often as possible and even if it isn't a "writing" focused activity they need to use conventions properly.  As a consequence for sloppiness they all had to take home an activity on Thursday that was simply a rote, practice of capitalizing proper nouns and spelling.

 

This Week:

Monday I will be sending home an envelope that has information about purchasing the treasure books.  Every student will get a treasure book for free, but if you would like multiple copies (they make great gifts) you can order more.  Please fill out the information on the order card if you want more than just the one free copy.  Also, I want to make it clear to parents and students that if they do not turn their rough draft in on time (February 20^th) they will not be able to make the final draft that will get published.  All of these books are beautiful and the students should be very proud of them, and turn them in on time!

They will have time on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to finish these rough drafts.  Many students have been out sick lately, but I still need them to meet the deadline.  If they do not have the rough draft paper at home let me know and I can get it to them.  (Please email me if you have concerns about not being able to meet the deadline.)

 

The students will continue to work on the World Fair Projects by researching and typing the information they will put on their tri-fold posters.  The groups doing the video projects will start filming but they have to have their script ready in order to film.  I can still use some parent helpers with filming this week.  It looks like Wednesday and Thursday morning we will have time to film, so please let me know if you can help supervise.

 

Upcoming Dates:

Treasure Book Final Draft Due March 6^th

"World Fair" March 6^th

The World Fair Presentations will be open to parents, community members and the rest of the school on March 6^th from 11:30-12:30.  The students are very excited to share the work they are doing, but I think they are more excited about making food to share.  (Yes, they can make homemade food to share at the fair!)  We will be sending out information to the whole school to inform parents of this.  They will do in class presentations earlier that same week and then they will get to check out the projects in Gretchen's and Charlie's classes too.  We understand that having the fair in the middle of the day will be challenging for parent to get to, but we felt that this was the best option for the type of event this will be.  Please try and find a way to attend.  The kids are very excited!

Talent Show

I can't believe I forgot to mention that we also had our talent show on Monday! What great performers we have here at the school. The audience was incredibly respectful and well behaved too!

newsletter

Peregrine Press

February 9-13

 

Schedule

Monday: Running Club; Trip to the City Library (BRING LIBRARY CARDS)

Tuesday: 4^th Grade State Writing Test

Wednesday: PE

Thursday: 4^th Grade State Writing Test; Art (Students need to bring in a landscape type picture of their World Fair Country, it doesn't need to be color.  I can make a copy for them if necessary.)

Friday: Valentine's Day (they will have time to pass out Valentines)

 

***I was very disappointed to see that 11 students did not turn in their sloppy copies on Friday.  We talked every day about the due date and it was written on the board for 2 weeks.  These students need to take responsibility and do the work.  I gave them PLENTY of time and reminded those that were falling behind to take it home to work on it.  At this point, if they don't meet the deadline for the rough draft, which is February 20^th, I will not be letting them do the final draft that will get published.  There needs to be a consequence for those students that are not being responsible.

 

***This week 7 students did not turn their homework in.  Also, please check their homework folders for work that has been passed back.  If you are curious about how they are doing with the weekly work we do, check out their folders.  Then the work can be recycled. 

 

Last Week

We had a week full of work!  The two main projects were their Treasure Books and their World Fair group projects.  They worked on the sloppy copies of the treasure books by writing the first draft and then they were responsible for editing and finding a peer to edit.  This weekend I took the sloppy copies home and edited them myself to make sure there weren't major issues.  The variety of topics is really great and I loved seeing how well some of the students edited.  That is a very difficult skill to develop.

 

The other major focus was geography and the World Fair.  We spent a little bit of time discussing the five themes of geography and focused one day on theme one, which is location.  We explored latitude and longitude as a form of absolute location.  The students also spent time in the computer lab researching the country their team is responsible for.  We found a great site through the library that provides most of the information that will be needed for research purposes.

 

Unfortunately our Out and About to the travel agency was canceled last minute do to an illness so we are unsure if we are going to reschedule.  We did do some teambuilding though which was really fun.  I asked Laura to do an activity that would focus on a skill the students need to work on more these days: following directions.  The students were given a list of tasks they needed to accomplish, like a scavenger hunt, but the first direction says to read ALL directions before beginning.  The trick was that the last direction says to just sit quietly.  So, while a few students followed the directions properly, the majority of the class was running around singing "I'm a little teapot," counting down from 10 loudly, giving me high fives and doing other slightly embarrassing things because they did not follow the directions properly.  It was so much fun to watch!  Luckily the students in the end weren't too upset about looking a fool.

 

 

This Week

This week the students will start the rough draft (2^nd draft) of their Treasure Books.  This draft will be a much cleaner copy that will resemble more of what the final draft should look like.  They have two weeks to work on this draft, but like I said before, some may be bringing it home to work on if they can't get it done in class.

The students will have some time to work with their groups on their World Fair Projects, but we will spend more time learning more about the themes of geography.  We will practice more with latitude and longitude and then we will be exploring theme two: place.  This theme focuses on physical and human characteristics of a place and they will practice mapping skills in particular.

Tuesday and Thursday the 4^th graders will participate in the state writing test that will be administered by Karen Torry.  To be fair, and to have the 5^th and 6^th graders practice writing, they will participate in a practice writing test in class with me.

Thursday the students will make Valentine containers, and Friday they will be able to pass out their Valentines.  My policy is valentines for everyone or no one.  Students don't have to give out Valentines, but if they do, they have to give one to everyone in class.  I will pass out class lists on Monday so they have all the names.

 

Upcoming Events:

We are trying to plan our World Fair Presentation Day.  It will be the first week of March and I will send out more details once we have the exact date and time figured out.

*Treasure Book Rough Draft Due February 20^th

*Treasure Book Final Draft Due March 6^th

 

 

 

 

newsletter

Peregrine Press

February 2-6

 

Schedule:

Monday: Talent Show

Tuesday: Teambuilding with Laura

Wednesday: PE

Thursday: Art

Friday:  Out and About to visit Travel Agent

 

Last Week:

Last week we started two new projects that will keep us very busy for the next month.  The students started their treasure books by brainstorming ideas and then starting their sloppy copy.  They will have time this coming week to work on this sloppy copy, but they need to have it finished by Friday the 6^th.  They will be required to self edit and have a peer edit this first draft.  Some children may have to take their treasure book home to work on if they don't use their time wisely, or they just want to write a lot more.

On Tuesday for Out and About, Laura taught us all about a program called "Leave no Trace" that teaches people about how to minimize impact on the environment when we recreate outdoors.  The students learned about the 7 principles of Leave No Trace and then we played a tag game that involved an "impact monster."  Ask your children if they can name a few of the principles.

Finally, we just barely started our World Fair unit.  The students were put into groups of 3 students that they will be working with for the next month.  They will learn about the 5 themes of geography by researching a specific country.  They will be acting as travel agents to inform the public about the country they studied.  To learn about how a travel agent works, we will be visiting a local travel agent on Friday.

 

This Week:

This coming week we will spend most of the time on Treasure Books and the World Fair Unit.  The students will be able to work on these projects in class, but additional time at home would be really helpful.  The two continents that our class is focusing on are North America and Africa, so if anyone has information they could provide us with, that would be great.  Specifically, some of the countries that were chosen to study are: Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Madagascar, Botswana, Libya, Chad and Guinea or Ethiopia.

 

Treasure Book Dates:

Sloppy Copy (first draft) Due February 6^th

Rough Draft (2^nd Draft) Due February 20^th

Final Draft Due March 6^th

 

Valentines Day: We will have a small Valentines Celebration on the 13^th.  Students can bring Valentines to pass out, but they need to have enough for everyone, or no one. We will make small Valentine holders in class.