newsletter

Peregrine Press
November 30-December 4

Schedule
Monday: Art
Tuesday: Out and About to new School Garden to help move leaves and prepare the soil for winter
Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Music
Friday: Fitness Friday/Running Club

Last Week
With only having a 2 day week we mostly spent our time wrapping up projects that needed to be completed. Students finished their Outdoor School Persuasive Essays and their Outdoor School Probe Posters. Tuesday the students presented their project on the Tillamook Indians to the Friends of Historic Forest Grove. The audience was small, but they were very impressed with the work the class did, and so was I! The project really came together nicely! I introduce the Independent Project to the class and each student worked on a proposal for what they would like to do for the project. Some students were stumped so they needed the weekend to think about it. They need to return their proposals to me Monday (tomorrow) morning because we start researching right away!

This Week
From here until Winter Break we will be spending the majority of our time working on the Independent Projects. Hopefully you all got the letter I sent home last Monday explaining the project and all the deadlines. the deadlines are incredibly important because we dont' have very much time for this project and they need to be done before we leave for Winter Break. We will have three days this week to research in the computer lab so if you child is not able to get their research done in that time they will have to continue to do research at home. Out Out and About on Tuesday will require some good workers so please be sure that your child dresses for doing outdoor work! We have a chance to help get our garden ready for the spring and we can't wait to get started!

*You should be getting a progress report in the mail late this week or early next week that will update you on the progress your child is making so far this semester. After you have received them, please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Important Dates:
Saturday December 5th: Light Parade DownTown Forest Grove
Thursday December 10th: Celebrations of Learning and Night of Traditions at FGCS
Friday December 11th: All School Meeting 9:15 at the Grove Room at Central School (Our class will perform the play we have been working on so you are welcome to come and watch.)

Friday December 18th: Last Day of School before Winter Break

Newsletter

Peregrine Press
November 23 and 24

Schedule
Monday: Running Club; Art
Tuesday: Tillamook Presentation for the Friends of Historic Forest Grove

No School the rest of the week!

Last Week
We had a great week back in the classroom after a great week at Outdoor School the week before. We spent some time each day working on posters that each student creates that demonstrates the different things they learned at all the Field Studies. For most students this didn't feel like work, so that made the activity that much more enjoyable for everyone. They turned out beautifully and I will post them in the hall for a few weeks so the other classrooms can see them. Students also started a persuasive essay about Outdoor School. They had to choose a stance between: We should go to Outdoor School or We should not go to Outdoor School. We spent time reviewing how to write a 5 paragraph essay and discussed the importance of developing thorough arguments when you are trying to persuade someone to your "side."
Literacy circles wrapped up on Tuesday but many students did not complete the packet of activities that were due on Friday. This was not a surprise to the students that the packet was due last week, some just struggled with how to manage their time and ended up with homework. It is all part of learning how to be a responsible Level 2 student.

*Note about microwaveable food: I am noticing several students are bringing Cup-o-Noodles and Ramen that require more than 1 or 2 minutes to heat up. Remember that at the Family Visits I went over this food policy. If students bring things that need to be heated for 3 or more minutes it creates a very long line and then some students don't even get to start eating their lunch until it is almost time for recess. It is not that I don't want students to have warm food, I just ask that they cook it at home and then it just has to be reheated at school. Thanks!*

This Week
We have school for only 2 days this week. We will be wrapping up the Outdoor School persuasive essay by Tuesday. We will also be preparing for, and then presenting the Tillamook Indian Project we have been working on that will help the Friends of Historic Forest Grove. I am hoping to have Running Club on Monday because we skipped it last week due to the very yucky weather.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

***Progress Reports will be sent out the week after Thanksgiving. They will be a simple check in to let you know how your child is progressing on their goals. If they are not making adequate progress I will let you know what we can do to hopefully see more progress in the future.

Upcoming Dates and Events:
December 5th: Light Parade
December 10th: Celebrations of Learning followed by the Night of Traditions (At FGCS)

Art Update

Art Happenings from Teresa

Greetings Falcon Families! Level 2 students have been working diligently creating personal totem poles carved out of clay and inspired by the Northwest Coast Native totems. By developing symbols for important aspects of their lives, they are each creating a unique visual narrative. The totems will be fired and glazed over the next month. During this process we will be refining drawing skills and creating leaf creatures!

Newsletter

Peregrine Press
November 16-20

Schedule
Monday: Art
Tuesday: Out and About (Recap of Outdoor School-possibly In and About instead)
Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Music
Friday: All School Meeting and Fitness Friday

(I will get some pictures up on the blog soon of Outdoor School.)

Last Week:
Outdoor School was a success! The weather cooperated until the last day which was a great relief. The students had a great time at all the Field Studies learning about the water cycle, forest succession, animal adaptations and a variety of other things. The campfires each night and cabin time proved to be highly entertaining and memorable. The class was well behaved and represented the school very well! **Please check through all the luggage that was brought back from camp and be sure that your child doesn't have someone else's stuff by mistake. As far as medications go, I am supposed to get those directly to you so if you can come and pick them up at school that would be best. If that is not possible, please let me know and I will send it home with your child.**

This Week:
We will get back to work as usual this week. We will be wrapping up the Tillamook project and Literacy Circles. We will also continue to work on the play that we will perform at the All School Meeting in December. (I will get that info to you once I have the date and time confirmed so if you would like to attend you may.) Thursday we will connect with our preschool buddies again to share about the Outdoor School experience. Students will also be doing a follow up activity to Outdoor School that should take all week. Friday we will have an All School Meeting as well as Fitness Friday.

Other Important Notes:
No School Wednesday November 25
Progress Reports will be sent home the first week of December.

Newsletter

Peregrine Press

Schedule:
Monday: Art
Monday Evening: 6-7 Outdoor School Gear and Medication Drop off at the school
Tuesday: Drop off students at 8:30 for departure to Outdoor School
Friday: Return from Outdoor School around 12:45 for pick up/ (Yes you can come before 1:05 to pick up your child.)

Last Week:
We spent much of the week doing our regular things. We worked on Literacy Circles and the Tillamook Project. We spent some time practicing our play as well as getting some of the props and behind the scenes set organized and created. We will be performing at an All School Meeting either November 20 or a date in Mid-December that I will have to get confirmation on later. For our Out and About we went to B Street Farm where we started out with a teambuilding activity and then we split into two groups to help with different projects. One group collected sunflower seeds for replanting next year and the other group shoveled and moved dirt to help create a birm for a pathway between some plantings. We had a double dose of music this week which was great. They have been learning some great songs to sing as well as a song on the xylophone. I am impressed with how well they are learning how to read music! We have a musically gifted class. We finished the week with Fitness Friday and Goal Reflections. Each week students reflect on their goals that we set at conferences a month ago. This helps them to be sure that they are takig responsible for their goals.

This Week:
We will be at Outdoor School learning all about nature and having a grand 'ol time! Please be sure that your child has packed rain gear including rain boots and extra socks! On Friday I sent home a reminder note stapled to wrists (sleeves, not skin:-)) of your children to be sure nothing is forgotten. I also sent home a packing list again because I know many people have lost them. With medications remember that they need to have written directions from you for proper dosage for over the counter medications and they need to be in their original containers, even cough drops. Prescription medications need to be in original containers.
Let me know if you have any questions.

newsletter

Peregrine Press

November 2-5

Schedule:

Monday: Art

Tuesday: Out and About to B Street Farm

Wednesday: Music; Art and PE!

Thursday: Buddy Reading

Friday: Music; Fitness Friday

*Please have your child bring in any food containers/labels for example: cereal boxes, pasta sauce, bread etc. without the food in them because in a few weeks we will be doing some nutrition studies that will require the use of food labels. This is different from box tops, in this case we need the whole container.

Last Week

Last week was a bit crazy! Our Out and About to the Historical Society was very interesting and filled with excitement riding the Max and being in downtown Portland. I was very impressed with how well all of the students behaved and how much they all learned! It was a great wrap up for the Lewis and Clark Unit, and build up for the Native American project we are currently working on. In Literacy Circles groups worked hard on their packet activities and comprehension. The Tillamook Project was much more successful than the previous week and students really started to find some great information on their topics. We had Fitness Friday on Thursday, inside due to the cold and rainy weather and I was pleased with how they did for the first time doing it this way. They jogged in place in between the 6 different stations of exercises so they all go their heart rate up and worked some muscles.

This Week

This week we will continue our work on the Tillamook Project and the groups wills start compiling their research into the form of a pamphlet. Our Literacy Circles will continue, and last week most groups assigned reading homework for the weekend so please remind them to bring their literacy books to school on Monday. The other main project will be the play we are working on called "This Land is Whose Land?" We are trying to figure out when we will perform this so to help me out, let me know if you could attend a day performance. Most students have equal parts and many will perform with their scripts because we don't have enough time to really memorize everything, but I know many students are very excited to perform this for an audience. We are tentatively planning for the first week of December. It would be fun to do an evening performance but then I know not all students would be able to be there so I don't want to impose that on anyone. (It is only a 15-20 minute play.)

We will have music twice this week to make up for the missed Fridays we have had recently. Our Out and About Tuesday will be to B Street Farm to do some more work there and some teambuilding in preparation for Outdoor School.

Outdoor School Update

Outdoor School: November 10-13,

Please come to the gear and medication drop off on Monday November 9^th so we can get as much of the stuff ready before we leave on Tuesday. We will open our classrooms up from 6:00-7:00 pm Monday night for that purpose.

**We will leave the school by 9:15 on November 10^th so please drop your children off at 8:30. We will return on Friday by normal dismissal time of 1:05. We actually hope to be back by 12:45 so you could come a little earlier that day for pick up and maybe miss the rush!

*No School November 25^th