newsletter

Peregrine Press

March 30-April 3

    

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Teambuilding In and About

Wednesday: Buddy Reading at ELC; PE at Pacific

Thursday: Art

 

Welcome back to school!  I hope that everyone had a great Spring Break whether it was restful and relaxing or adventurous and fun.

 

The week before we left for spring break was a bit odd to say the least.  It started out with me catching some awful stomach flu that kept me home on Monday.  I was back for Tuesday and Wednesday, but then was gone again on Thursday and Friday because I had a trip planned to Hawaii to visit my fiancé.  With all that craziness though, the students managed quite well and I got good reports from the subs for the days I was absent.

 

**We are heading in to our last 10 weeks of school and we have a lot to cover.  The first thing I need to announce is that Student Led Conferences are coming up in two weeks.  They will be April 9^th and 10^th and I will send out an email early next week with more information about signing up to attend.  We will not have regular school on those days.

 

**State testing will also begin mid-April and continue through mid-May.  As we get closer to the specific schedule, I will let you know what to expect and how you can help prepare your kids.

 

***Becky Tengs, our Student Teacher will be starting her full time placement with us on April 6^th.  She is going to do an excellent job and the students are excited to have her join us for the rest of the year.

 

This week we will continue working on Independent Projects.  The focus for the projects will be to complete the final drafts, finish the visual product they are making and start practicing their speech.  Several students did not turn in rough drafts on Friday before Spring Break, which was a very clearly stated requirement.  That is disappointing and as a result those students will be having homework to be sure they finish their project in time.  Speeches will start Monday April 6^th and will end April 14^th.

 

We will also try and wrap up Literacy Circles this week.  I know a few groups have finished reading their books, but there are still activities that need to be completed.  Be prepared to see these books coming home as homework for some kids.  Each group has had the choice of assigning homework previously, but it looks like I might need to require a few groups to have homework this week to get caught up with the rest of the class.

 

Our In and About on Tuesday will be some teambuilding that will incorporate some preparation for speeches for the Independent Projects, observation skills and drama.

 

newsletter

Peregrine Press

March 16-20

 

        

 

Schedule

Monday: Running Club, Buddy Lunch with High School then All School Meeting at 1:00 in the Rogers Room at the Library

Tuesday: No Out and About

Wednesday:  Buddy reading with preschool kids at the Early Learning Center at Pacific University (My student teacher from last year is the teacher of the class we will buddy with.); PE at Pacific

Thursday: Art

Friday: Out and About to Tom McCall Forest-Laura will lead Leave No Trace activities

 

Last Week

We had a great week!  The students spent three days researching for their Independent Projects and began to organize all their notes and research.  I was very pleased with the majority of the class really using time wisely and finishing their research in the time provided.  Many students have chosen to do additional research at home which is a great idea.

 

We started literacy circles again with a few modifications from last round.  So far it appears that most groups are somewhat pleased with the books they were assigned.  They focused on synonyms and antonyms and summarizing events and the main character in their book so far.

Our Out and About to Beal Pond was a bit frustrating for one main reason.  It was very cold, and many students were not properly dressed.  I asked them several times in the morning if they had enough warm layers on and they all said "yes" then when we got there, there was constant complaining about how cold it was.  I had planned to be there for at least an hour and we had to cut it short because so many students were not doing the work because they were so cold.  It was not as meaningful to have to talk about wetlands back in the classroom, which is what we had to do in the end.  I didn't want the kids to be miserable but it was very frustrating to have so many kids complain when they knew what it was going to be like.  Please help me by reminding your kids on Out and About days to dress properly, even though we are getting into spring, the mornings can be very cold, so gloves and a hat are encouraged.

 

For Running Club we went through all our data from the beginning of the year and started to calculate how many miles the class ran each week as a whole.  We will continue to analyze the data and plan a trip to "run" somewhere hypothetically.  On average we have been running 32 miles each Running Club, so we could go pretty far by the end of the year!  (Again, this is all hypothetical and we will not actually run to Eugene or CaliforniaJ )

 

On Friday we operated a clock with potatoes and lemons!  We experimented with the scientific method by trying to see if doing jumping jacks affected our ability to balance.  We will continue to work with the scientific method in the next month, doing small experiments each week.

 

 

This Week

This week the students will have 4 days to work on their Independent Projects.  The rough draft of the essay is due on Friday, but if students can get them turned in earlier that would be great because I leave for Hawaii on Thursday and could start looking through some of them while I am gone.  (That is not necessary, just an option.)  They will also have Literacy Circles Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Wednesday we will start a Buddy program with the ELC at Pacific University.  This will be a great opportunity for students to practice their reading fluency and expression by reading easier kids books to preschoolers.  My hope is that this will be an ongoing activity that we will do for the rest of the year on Wednesdays.  The class is taught by Laurel who was my student teacher last year.  She is a great teacher and the kids that knew her last year can't wait to work with her again.

On Thursday and Friday Vanessa will be subbing for me while I will be in Hawaii.  She is very excited and I think the kids are tooJ.  She will get to go on an Out and About to the Tom McCall Forest on Friday with the class and do some Leave No Trace activities.

 

*Our pencil sharpener is getting repaired and we will not have it for a few weeks, so if you feel like getting some of those pencil sharpeners that can hold the shavings in them (small little handheld ones) that would be greatly appreciated.  We have one student that is letting us use his electric sharpener for the time being but I don't want it to get overused then broken.  Also, I am totally open to students using mechanical pencils as long as they provide their own led.  They can get a small zipping pencil pouch and keep those for themselves.

Peregrine Press

March 9-13

 

Schedule

Monday:  Running Club

Tuesday:  Out and About to Beal Pond (Nature Study)

Wednesday:  PE at Pacific

Thursday: Art

       

                                                                                                                          

Last Week

Wow.  What a week!  The Treasure Books were completed and turned in and we held our first ever World Fair.  The students presented their World Fair Projects to the class on Wednesday and Thursday.  It was a more formal presentation in the sense that each group took 5-15 minutes to present to the whole class, one group at a time.  I was very pleased with the effort that most of the groups put forth to ensure they were prepared and organized.  Friday's World Fair was a great success.  Every class from the school attended and many parents were able to come as well!  We had a few minutes to debrief after we cleaned up and the majority of the students felt very positive about the project.  Some complained that I wouldn't let them sit during the fair and some didn't like it when people would just come and eat the food but not ask about the country they studied. J  Other than those complaints though the overwhelming majority loved it and they should all be very proud of themselves.

 

Our Out and About to Old College Hall on Tuesday was very interesting and engaging.  The students learned a great deal about our local history and the geographic themes of place and movement.  We heard a great story about Tabitha Brown who is known as the mother of Oregon and the students learned about the Kalapuya Native Americans that lived in this area before the Oregon Trail brought many Europeans.

 

This Week

This coming week we are shifting into Independent Projects.  Most of the students already turned in their proposals to me for the project they would like to do but I am still missing 7.  Please have your child fill out the form I sent home last week titled "Independent Project Proposal."  On one side it explains the project and has deadlines so I will give the form back to you all so you will know what is expected, but I do need to have the proposal turned into me so I can approve the project they want to do.  This is one of the highlights of the year for students because they get to research and present on something they personally are very interested in.  They will be responsible for writing a thorough report (expository essay) creating a model/poster/book (some sort of physical product) and then delivering a speech.  They will have time in class to research on the computers but they may have additional work they will do at home if they want to make their project even better, or if they don't use their time wisely in class.

 

Our Out and About will be a nature study at Beal Pond.  We will look at what a wetland is and compare it to Ash Street Field, which Metro is turning into a wetland.  We will do some bird identification and make some observations about changes we have seen since last year's visit (for returning students) or just some observations we find interesting.

We will also be starting another round of literacy circles. 

newsletter

Peregrine Press

March 2-6

          

 

Schedule

Monday: Read Across America Day: Kids can wear pajamas, and we will visit the library so they need their library cards

Tuesday:  Out and About to Old College Hall to learn about our local history

Wednesday: In class World Fair Presentations; PE at Pacific;  Celebrations of Learning 5:00-6:30

Thursday: In class World Fair Presentations; Art

Friday: World Fair 11:30-12:30 Open to the public; Final Treasure Books Due

 

Last Week

We had a great week last week.  The students continued to work on their Treasure Books and it looks like most students are on track to be finished by the deadline.  On Tuesday for our Out and About we ventured to Ash Street Field and learned about how to be Site Stewards for Metro.  The students practiced some data collection and observation skills.  In the coming weeks we will learn more about how we will be able to best help Metro with their decision to turn the field into a wetland.

The students wrapped up the work on their World Fair Projects by completing their tri-fold posters.  Groups have started practicing their presentations to be sure that everyone knows what part they are responsible for sharing.  I am really, very pleased with how beautiful these posters have turned out and how responsible the students have been with getting their work done in the time given.  They have stayed focused for several weeks now!

 

This Week

Monday is Read Across America Day and we will be participating by allowing students to wear their pajamas and simply cozy up and read for much of the day.  The morning will be devoted to reading and then the last hour of the day we will head to the library to check out books so please remind your child to bring their card.  We talked about it last week so they should know this already.  Also, please make sure that they wear real shoes, not just slippers because they will have to go outside to recess and go to the library.

On our Out and About to Old College Hall the students will learn about the people that lived here in the past and how that is part of our geography.  The focus will be on the geographic themes of movement and place.

I am a bit anxious for this coming week.  We have so much to do and we have been building up to this for so long now it is hard to believe that two major projects will be finished on Friday!  The students will be presenting their World Fair Projects in class on Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday from 11:30-12:30 will be the big World Fair where parents, community members and other classes are invited to attend.  For students that want to prepare food I made it very clear to them that they would be responsible for providing the serving dishes and the plates/bowls/silverware that the visitors will need to eat the food off of.  They also need to make a label for the food and include the recipe because we have lots of food allergies and then that way visitors can read through the ingredients before they try a sample.  Food is not required as part of this project so please don't feel the need to do this, even though your child may really be pressuring you.:-) 

 

Wednesday night is the Celebrations of Learning from 5:00-6:30 and I would encourage as many students and families to come as possible because I am sure many parents won't be able to come to the Friday presentations.  You are welcome to bring a treat to share and a mug for hot chocolate that will be provided by the school.

Treasure Book final drafts are due on Friday.  The students will have 3 class periods to finish them.  The students that are typing them at home should bring them in printed on Monday so they can work on illustrations during the class time provided.

 

Upcoming Events

March 9^th students will start their independent projects.  I will be sending home a letter next week explaining how they will work.  For returning students, they will be very similar to how we did them last year.

 

***We could use an additional broom for our cleaning if anyone has an extra broom at home that is not being used.

 

***We are trying to figure out our enrollment for next year so please email Karen Torry and let her know if your child will be attending FGCS next year.  Include their current teacher, grade and name.