Peregrine Press
March 1-5

Schedule
Monday: Art and Running Club
Tuesday: Out and About (LEED Tour of Pacific University)
Wednesday: Art,PE at Pacific University, and Celebrations of Learning 5:00-6:30
Thursday: Music and ELC Buddies
Friday: StarLab Presentation

*Friday will be my last day as the Peregrine Falcon class teacher. I have a mix of emotions going on right now and to be honest, I don't think it has hit me yet that I won't be coming in to school everyday and seeing your wonderful children. In many ways these kids have really felt like my own kids and I feel incredibly attached to them all. I am going to miss them tremendously, as well as the families that I have gotten so close with over the years. I will definitely be coming to visit as much as possible after I get into a routine with the new baby. I am leaving the class in great hands with Becky Tengs and I know everyone is going to have a great end of the year with her. Please be patient as we transition as things will be changing. For example, homework might look a little different for a while as Becky gets into the hang of that. Also, communication will probably look a little different. Becky will continue to update you all weekly in some form of newsletter or blog but it might look a little different (probably way better than I what I do because she is great with technology).

Last Week
Last week our two main projects were Treasure Books and PowerHouse (our energy unit). The students all completed their sloppy copies and have started working on their rough drafts. The rough drafts of the Treasure Books will be due Wednesday the 3rd, and the final drafts are due Monday, March 15th. I have been very impressed with how hard everyone has been working on these. It seems to be going so much smoother than last year! Students are editing more thoroughly, including a lot of details and writing with really nice handwriting.

For the PowerHouse unit students did a great deal of reading. They were learning about passive solar heating, the greenhouse effect, micro-climates and how heat and temperature circulate and move through a house. We conducted a few experiments to test air flow in our mini PowerHouse model and also how to heat water just using solar power (in our case a lamp) in a greenhouse. For our In and About on Tuesday, students made solar ovens in small groups using cardboard, foil, plastic wrap and black paper or plastic. Hopefully this week we will be able to test them out in the sun!


This Week
We will continue to work on Treasure Books and PowerHouse this week. Students will complete their rough drafts and start the final drafts. I will be sending home the order forms on Monday and in case you didn't get the email earlier in the week, every student will get ONE FREE Treasure Book after all. If you want to order more, that it was the form is for. If you plan to just get the one free copy, please write on the order form that you don't want additional copies. Let me know if you have any questions after you see the form. Please return those forms ASAP.

For Out and About we will head to Pacific University to get a tour of their LEED certified buildings (the buildings that are energy efficient.) We will also conduct a few more experiments and do more readings with our PowerHouse unit. Students will be learning about desalinating water, preserving food and how air conditioning and refrigeration work.

We will return to our ELC buddies and share the typed stories that they wrote together the last time we were there. On Friday the students will get to attend a great presentation called StarLab at Central School where they will get to go inside an inflatable dome to learn about the stars. I have never seen it before, but is sounds really fascinating!

Please come to our Celebrations of Learning on Wednesday night from 5:00-6:30. It is open house style so come any time in that block of time. Students will have work displayed so you can see the kinds of things they have been doing in class recently.

Music Update: Students have been learning a states and capitals song, as well as a Fats Dominoe song called "I'm Walking" on the xylophones. The plan is to have a performance in May but I will send out more details as soon as it is all confirmed. It has been so much fun watching these kids smile so much in music. We have some very gifted musicians in this class!

Whale Watching Update: We are still finalizing plans with the coordinator for our whale watching trip so expect a packing list, itinerary and permission form in the next two weeks.

Thanks so much for the pencils that many people donated!

Peregrine Press
February 22-26

Schedule
Monday: Art
Tuesday: Out and About (making solar ovens)
Wednesday: Art and PE at Pacific University
Thursday: Music
Friday: Fitness Friday

Last Week
We wrapped up our solar system unit last week with activities based on the phases of the moon and seasons. The students acted out the different phases of the moon, how the seasons happen and what day and night, and a year look like in small groups. The students also used bagels with cream cheese to represent the phases of the moon. We watched a fascinating movie on the Mars Rover to finish up the week! This unit went by very quickly, but I was very pleased with how focused everyone was and the amount that they all learned. The other main focus for the short week was the Treasure Book. Students have all been writing their sloppy copies and will soon be turning those into very nice rough drafts after editing and revising.
Thursday we met up with our ELC buddies again and did things a bit differently. The little buddies told stories to the big buddies who wrote them down. This coming week the big buddies will type up the stories and then when we return in another week they will do some illustrations together that go along with the story. We also got to play out in their very cool play yard. Some students created an obstacle course that turned out to be quite fun for everyone. The All School Meeting was full of many different announcements and the class did a great job of being a respectful audience. We followed that up with Fitness Friday at Central with Gretchen's class. It was fun to do that together-seeing so many kids exercising together is always a great site!

This Week
We are returning to a full week this week. Students will be starting a new unit on energy called "PowerHouse." It is a great unit that will teach about renewable energy with great hands on experiments. In the coming weeks students will be creating solar ovens, using mini-solar panels, getting electricity from lemon juice and learning about a variety of other ways to harness energy and use it without harming the environment.
Students will also be working on their treasure books. I would like their sloppy copies turned in to me by Wednesday so students can start editing and then start writing their rough draft. The rough draft will look almost as good as their final draft so they will need to slow down and put even more effort into that stage than the sloppy copy. From what I have seen so far, these books are going to be great!

Upcoming Events
*Celebrations of Learning: March 3rd 5-6:30 (This is an open house type event where you can come check out things that have been going on in the classroom and the school. Please come!)
*No School March 12th
*Final Draft of Treasure Book Due March 15th
*Spring Break March 22-26

**Garden Club is on Fridays after school and we would love to have more students involved. If your child is interested they can pick up a permission slip from me. We really want to get this going!

**We are out of pencils. We have noticed that Ticonderoga is a brand that doesn't seem to have as many problems with sharpening so if anyone can donate that brand in particular that would be great. I am also happy to have students bring in their OWN mechanical pencils that they can keep in a small pencil pouch with them throughout the day. The room is constantly cluttered with broken pencils, and I am willing to try letting students have their OWN pencils if that would mean less trips to the sharpener and less of a pencil wasteland on the floor. If they do use mechanical pencils they will need to have their own lead refills.

Newsletter

Peregrine Press
February 16-19

Schedule
Tuesday: Out and About (Phases of the Moon) & 4th Grade State Writing Test
Wednesday: Art & PE at Pacific University (Very last day of 4th Grade State Writing Test)
Thursday: Music & ELC Buddies
Friday: All School Meeting & Hopefully Fitness Friday

Last Week
Last Week we spent time looking at the Solar System, and distances all the planets are from the sun and each other. On our Out and About we were quite surprised to see how far they really are! The students also spent a great deal of time working on their planet projects and everyone presented to the class the things they learned about the planet they studied. The 4th graders spent time working on the writing test while the 5th and 6th graders completed a variety of different literacy activities surrounding editing and reading comprehension in particular. Some students also worked on reading fluency and writing. We did our second round of Mystery Classroom and looked at improving our calculations of photoperiods. I was very impressed with how quickly many students were able to transfer to military time and calculate photoperiods. On Friday students did watch the different body changes videos and I feel that it went very well. I was very impressed with how mature the students were in dealing with a somewhat awkward topic!

This Week
We will be learning about the phases of the moon to conclude our mini-solar system unit and will view a video on the Mars Rover probably on Friday. Students will also continue with the Mystery Classroom activity. The majority of the rest of the time will be spent on the Treasure Books. My goal is to have students working on their "sloppy copies" this week and part of next week. After the sloppy copy they will do a lot of editing alone and with me and then they will write their rough draft. That will be followed by more editing and then they will do their final draft. In total they will have about 1 month to do this but it is really important that they meet the final deadline because if they don't, their book will not be bound. The final draft is due on March 15th. If students are going to type them they have to do all that at home and print them at home. It gets way too complicated to do that at school. It is NOT required to be typed, and to be honest, I would rather they write them because if they type them at home, they are often left with "nothing to do" during Treasure Book time at school and will be tempted to just goof off.

There are a few 4th graders that will have to finish the writing test this week so they will miss treasure book work time. I talked to them about this last week and they are aware of this so they may have some work to do at home to get caught up on their sloppy copy depending on how much time they take on the state test.

Wednesday we will be starting PE at Pacific University. This is a great opportunity for the students to have a more traditional PE (in a gym) and Teaching Students at Pacific will get the chance to practice being PE teachers. Rick will still take them to PE but he will not be the instructor while they are there. The teaching students are supervised by Pacific Education staff so they are in good hands. They will go for 3 weeks now, then take 3 weeks off and go back for another 3 weeks. It is kind of a scheduling mess, but it was the only way to do it.
Friday we will have an All School Meeting and then if time permits, we will have Fitness Friday as well.

*There will be no Word Work (spelling) this week because of the tight schedule so some students that normally have spelling homework from me will not be getting that this week.

Peregrine Press
February 8-12

Schedule
Monday: Art; 4th Grade State Writing Test
Tuesday: Out and About (Solar System); 4th Grade State Writing Test
Wednesday: 4th Grade State Writing Test, PE
Thursday: Music; 4th Grade State Writing Test
Friday: Art; Body Changes Videos (boys separate from girls); Valentine's Day

Last Week
Last week we started two new units: Solar System and Mystery Classroom. Students started out the Solar System unit by working in groups to research a component of our solar system, created a small poster and presented to the class what they learned. The topics included moons, planets, comets, asteroids, dwarf planets and the sun. Then they started a small project on a planet of their choice. They are working alone or with a partner to create a travel brochure/poster to advertise things about the planet they are studying. This will feed into this week as well. They are learning about atmosphere, presence of rings and moons, composition of the planets and their orbits and rotations. Students also learned about the Big Bang on our Out and About where they participated in a very interesting timeline activity to show just how old the solar system is. The other part of the Out and About was more of an In and About where students made solar viewers to try and measure the distance we are from the sun. It was really interesting!
For Mystery Classroom students started documenting sunrise and sunset times for our town, and their mystery site. The students are in groups of 2 or 3 and will be keeping track of photoperiod (day length) lengths for their mystery site for the next few months. They will start to get geographical clues as well to try and determine where in the world the mystery site is. It is a challenging activity, but I know the students will really enjoy it!
Finally, students wrapped up their literacy projects, and I must say I was really impressed with how many students turned their projects in on time and did a nice job on the different components. Compared to the group literacy projects from earlier in the year, this was a big improvement in meeting deadlines for students.

This Week
We will be continuing our planet travel brochures this week and the students will do mini-presentations on them Tuesday or Wednesday. For our Out and About we will be looking at how to make a model of the Solar System.
The 4th graders will be participating in the State Writing Test Monday through Thursday, with make up times the following week for students that are absent. The 5th and 6th graders will stay back in class with me and work on different literacy activities depending on areas they need to improve upon. Students will also be collecting data for they mystery classroom this week.
Thursday students will have time to make valentine containers out of recycled/reusable materials and Friday students will be allowed to pass out Valentines. We will not be having "party" but students will simply have time to pass out their valentines and socialize for a little bit at the end of the day. Students do need to make valentines for everyone, or no one. We don't want anyone feeling left out. Friday we will also be showing the body changes videos. Boys will be separate from girls. If you have objections to this please let me know.

*No School Monday February 15th
*We will start Treasure Books Tuesday February 16th.
*Thanks again for the surprise shower on Thursday! To give you an update on my work status, I am planning on working as long as I can until I deliver. I will for sure be gone starting March 15th, but if things get too difficult for me, or I go into early labor I will leave when I need to. Becky is on board to start whenever I need her to, but she will for sure be taking over starting March 15th. Becky will be amazing!

newsletter

Peregrine Press
February 1-5

Schedule
Monday: Art
Tuesday: Out and About (Solar System activity)
Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Music and Buddy Reading at the ELC
Friday: Fitness Friday

**Please bring in paper towel rolls if you have them. (Just the empty roll, I don't need the paper towels.)

Last Week
We wrapped up several activities last week. We finished the chemistry unit by having each student conduct their own experiment. This was a pretty crazy time, but all experiments were able to be completed which was a great success! Each student was then required to do a formal write up of their experiment explaining their hypothesis, the materials and methods they used, how they collected data, and analyzed that data to write a conclusion. Overall I was very impressed with how well everyone did with this activity.

Our Out and About with Erin was focused on the chemistry of rain where the students played a game to learn about how pollution effects rain, which in turn effects wildlife and nature. They then worked in groups to collect rain samples from puddles and then tested the pH to see if we had "acid rain" in our neighborhood. Some puddles did show some interesting pH levels!

Students all participated in another round of the practice writing test. I just finished scoring those and am pleased yet again! These students are really taking this seriously and want to improve as writers. Finally, students also worked on their literacy projects. They read their books and worked in their packets pretty diligently.

This Week
We are returning to a 5 day week again, which might be tough for some! We are going to start a new unit on the Solar System that should last about three weeks. Our Out and About will be focused on the Big Bang and how our Solar System works as a "system." If we have sun on Tuesday students will also be using solar viewers to try and measure how far away the sun really is from us. This will require paper towel rolls, so if you have some you can donate on Monday that would be great. Part of the Out and About will be to make the solar viewers-then we just need sun! Students will be doing a small group activity this week but it should be done at school, so don't expect homework on the solar system stuff, at least not for this week. I will email out though if that changes.

Students will be wrapping up their literacy projects this week which means that some students will be bringing their books home as homework if they were not able to manage their time the past two weeks. The book needs to be completed and the packet of activities needs to be completed and turned in on Friday the 5th by 1:05 If your child has already finished their book and packet, they are to complete an additional, more creative component that they can present to their peers or at least turn in to me. Some students are making 3-D creations, drawing book jackets, or writing poems etc. that connect to their book.

Important Upcoming Events:
February 8-11 State Writing Test for 4th graders

February 12th Body changes movie and question and answer session. The boys and girls will be separated. Boys will go to Charlie's classroom and girls will join Gretchen and I in Gretchen's classroom to view short videos on the changes that their bodies go through as they mature. This is a state standard that needs to be covered, however, if you do not want your child to participate please let me know asap. Girls will learn about girl changes and boys will learn about boy changes.

Treasure Books:
Many students have been asking about Treasure Books so here is the update. We are going to start working on them the week of February 16th. (However, if your child already has an idea, by all means they can be brainstorming at home.) For parents that do not know about them, Treasure Books are hard bound books that each child is allowed to create. They write a story, illustrate it and then it gets hard bound. One change though is that students no longer get one copy free, instead the first copy is $1.95 and then you can purchase more copies for about $15 each. I will have all the details very soon, but just wanted to give an update on that since I know many students are anxiously waiting to get started on these!

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Peregrine Press
January 25-28

Schedule
Monday: Art
Tuesday: Out and About (Chemistry)
Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Music
Friday: NO SCHOOL

Last Week:
We had a jam-packed 4 day week! We started out the week with making butter with our buddies at the ELC. It was really fun to see our students be such good helpers to their buddies. This activity reinforced the understanding of "changes of state" specifically, liquid to solid. We also started the Independent Literacy Projects. Each student chose a book at their independent reading level to start reading. They will also complete a packet of activities to review and teach story elements, parts of grammar and reading comprehension. The students all calculated roughly how many pages they will need to read each day so they can stay on track. There will be time in class to work on this but some students will probably bring home their books to read.
We also wrapped up our chemistry unit with two more experiments. We compared dish soap with laundry detergent and bar soap to see which would clean the best. Sadly, our results were inconclusive. On Friday we started our discussion of the scientific method and how we will use that this coming week to conduct our own experiments.

This Week:
This week is another 4 day week, however, this time we have Friday off for report card preparation. We will continue our work on the Independent Literacy Projects as well as do another round of the practice State Writing Test. The last round of essays were great, but many students did not finish in the time given. My goal this round is to have students finish their essays at school in the time given because that is the way it will be on the State Test. Students are not to receive parental help on this at all.
Another major focus this week will be each student conducting their own science experiment in class. They must come up with a question, do research, write a hypothesis, write the steps to the experiment, collect data and analyze the data all on their own. If your child has an idea about a project but you are unsure if it will work please email me. My goal is to have Tuesday and Wednesday be the experiment days and then Thursday and Friday they can be analyzing their data and doing the formal write up. These should be based on chemistry and must test a variable. Some ideas are: comparing how fast ice will melt in one container versus a container made of a different material, or comparing two different liquids and how fast they freeze. I have lots of materials like cornstarch, baking soda, vinegar and filters (among other things) but if the experiment your child wants to do requires an extensive list you might need to purchase those things on your own. Please email me ASAP with any questions about materials or experiment ideas so I will have time to check my materials. I hope this is not too confusing.

**Report cards will be sent home the first week of February.

Newsletter

Peregrine Press
January 19-22

Schedule
Tuesday: Out and About to ELC to make butter with our Buddies
Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Music
Friday: Fitness Friday

Last Week
We had a very eventful week, filled with some very fun activities. Our Out and About for Chemistry cooking was quite memorable. The students worked in groups to make ice cream, bread, popcorn and a pH tester using boiled cabbage. It was a very action packed activity that taught a lot about states of matter, whether the students really realized that while they were participating or not. I would like to extend an extra big thank you to Erin for planning this activity and Amy for helping out with the execution of it all. We also did an experiment in class to test for chemical changes. This was a bit stressful for me because students were required to wear safety goggles and gloves, and unfortunately many students had a difficult time following the safety precautions. We had a strict talk about being safe, so hopefully students will follow the necessary precautions for future experiments.

We spent quite a bit of time working on the first round of the practice writing test. Each student chose a prompt (there were 3 options) and wrote an essay to fit the prompt. I finished scoring them this weekend and was very pleased with how well the class did. The biggest areas of struggle were spelling, and for students doing the imaginative prompt, the use of quotation marks was a bit off. I did not help them with these at all, so it is completely their writing. I am planning to keep these for their files, but if you are curious about how your child did, just email me and I can tell you there score. I will also be passing them back briefly tomorrow so they can look at my comments and how they were scored.

This Week
We will continue our study of chemistry this week. We will also look more closely at the scientific method because next week students will be conducting their own experiments in class. They will all need to come up with a simple experiment that they can conduct in class. One example would be to test how long it takes for water to evaporate under a heat lamp, versus in the dark. This "Scientific Inquiry" is a requirement by the state, so it is something each child will need to do, and it has to be all their own work. If you want to help them come up with a variable to test, that is fine, but they have to do the work themselves. I have asked that it be connected to chemistry because that is what we have been focusing on lately. I have materials like baking soda, corn starch, soda water, salt, and sugar. The students will only have 1 week to work on this, so please don't encourage an experiment that will take more than a week to see the desired results. Ideally it would be an experiment that can be done in the course of 1 or 2 days so the rest of the days the student can be working on the scientific write up and analyzing of data.

We will take a break from the practice writing test this week and resume that the last week of January. Instead, students will be spending a bit more time on reading. I would like to start another round of literacy circles soon, but I think with how hectic the schedule is for the next few weeks, I will probably have the students individually choose a book they want to read and then do a report on it. That way, each student will be reading everyday and working on certain skills, but they can go more at their own pace.

No School January 29th for Report Card Prep

Newsletter

Peregrine Press
January 11-15

Schedule
Monday: Art
Tuesday: Out and About to UCC Church
Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Music and Buddy Reading at the ELC
Friday: Geography Bee at Grove Room (Central School)

Last Week
What a great first week back to school! I feel like we started off the new calendar year with some really fun activities. The chemistry experiments have been going well and for the most part, the class seems pretty interested in the unit. The experiment with cornstarch and water was quite entertaining to watch. I think they could have played with that mixture for hours and not gotten bored! They learned about solids, liquids and gases and examples of physical changes.
We also spent a great deal of time on writing. We really went back to the basics of writing paragraphs. There were a variety of writing activities that involved groups and individuals writing. There was room for creativity and also some very structured, outlined writing. For some I am sure it was a review, but for others I think it was a very important component of writing that I maybe had not focused on quite enough in the beginning of the year.
We almost completed the first round of the Geography Bee. We have a tie breaker on Monday to determine the final person that will join Mica at the school finals on Friday. The winner of the school competition will then take a written test in hopes of qualifying for the State level finals.
The rest of the week was pretty routine. We had a great music session where students learned about solphege and also practiced the 50 states and capitals song. We had running club on Friday and continued with word work and superstar.

This Week
We will continue with the Chemistry Unit this week with a focus on chemical changes. On Tuesday for our Out and About we will head to the UCC Church so we can use their commercial kitchen to make bread, ice cream and popcorn. This will be in connection to our physical and chemical changes unit. We will also have our first round of essay writing. The students will be given 3 prompts to choose from. They choose one of the prompts and will take their essay through the writing process with no direct help from me and turn in all their work. We will do this again the last week of January also. Then, the 2nd week of February the 4th graders will take the State Writing Test and the 5th and 6th graders will do one more round of essays in class. Typically we do not like to spend a lot of time on writing essays just for the sake of writing essays, because we like to integrate our subjects, but for a few weeks we do feel that we need the students to practice essay writing in this sort of setting. Friday is the Geography Bee Finals at the Grove Room at Central School. We might have Running Club one day this week but I am not sure at this point which day it will be.

No School Monday January 18th
No School Friday January 28th

Newsletter

Peregrine Press
January 4-8

Schedule
Monday: Art
Tuesday: Out and About (Chemistry Experiment)
Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Music
Friday: Fitness Friday/Running Club

I hope that everyone had a restful and fun winter vacation. That one day of snow was pretty exciting! I am sorry for not writing this last night. I got a little out of the routine and remembered to write the newsletter once I had already gotten in to bed. Needless to say I figured you all wouldn't be too upset if you got this a day late.

This coming week and month we will be trying to get back to our usual schedule. The new unit we will be starting is on chemical and physical changes. This will be a three week, very hands on unit that I am sure will please at least MOST of the class. We will also be starting some essay writing to practice writing in the different genres. This is in part preparation for the 4th graders State Writing Test in February, but also just a necessary component of school. All students will write, write, write! The essay writing will take about 1 month and each week students will be choosing a different writing prompt to respond to. This will all happen in class so don't worry about homework unless I speak to you directly. (I may address 4th grade families separately if I feel the need for extra support from home in preparation for the test.) In the coming weeks I will also be conducting some reading assessments for students that had specific fluency goals. I will be working on report cards the final weeks of January so it is important that I get a few specific assessments completed.
We will also be participating in a Geography Bee. This is not required of students, but it is pretty fun. The top two students from each class will compete in front of the whole school in a few weeks. The winner of that will take a written test to hopefully pass and go on to the state level of the competition.

**Just a reminder that homework comes home on Monday and is returned on Friday unless otherwise specified (for example if it came from the different math teacher it may be due the next day). Remember that ALL students are to complete at least the log that shares what kinds of things they did during the week.

**Please don't send your children with lots of candy. I am fine with a cookie or fruit snacks after they finish their lunch, but if students try and sneak candy from Christmas in before lunch I will have to ban candy from the classroom.

**Please email me if you ever have any questions or concerns.

**As I continue in my pregnancy it is becoming more and more real that I will not be here for much longer which makes me very sad. (Although I can't be happier about becoming a mom!) Many of these students feel like my kids because I have known so many of them for so long now! I am trying to get everything in order for when I leave but please excuse me if I forget something every now and then. My plan is to work through the first week of March, but you never know when the baby will decide to come!

No School Monday January 18th for Martin Luther King Day
No School Friday January 29th for Report Card Prep