Peregrine Falcons - Forest Grove Community School

2010-02-27T08:26:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-02-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-02-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-02-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-31T12:21:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-22T08:34:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-10T11:23:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

Peregrine Press
December 14-18

Schedule
Monday: Art, Nutrition Presentation and Final Essay due for Independent Project
Tuesday: Mini Out and About (Teambuilding) and Ind. Project Speeches
Wednesday: Ind. Project Speeches, Art and PE
Thursday: Ind. Project Speeches and Music
Friday: Movie Day

Last Week
Last week was very memorable. We spent a great deal of time working on the Independent Project by writing the rough drafts, editing and working on the visuals. Students were required to self edit their paper, and then also have a peer edit. We also made edible necklaces for chimpanzees living in a refuge in Bend, Oregon. This was a great activity that had the whole class very engaged! That same day we headed to the Senior Center to perform our play and it went great. The class also spent some time visiting with the seniors talking about our school and Forest Grove. Friday we also performed our play for the whole school at the All School Meeting. I was so impressed with how well each and every student did. It was a great team effort and every single person contributed an important part to the success of the play.

This Week
This coming week will mostly be focused on wrapping up the Independent Projects. Monday will be the last day to work on the visual and the main day to work on the speech. I made it very clear to the class last week that the final essay (along with all the rough drafts and brainstorming pages) is due first thing Monday morning. Every single student knows that, so if they don't come with that finished tomorrow morning it will immediately count as late. I don't mean to be harsh, but one very important part of this project is meeting deadlines and I want them all to know how serious I am about this. I am trying to prepare them for life, so they need to take responsibility for getting this done on time.
They will have time in class to finish up their visual and work on their speech. It will only be about 1 hour of time though so they need to keep that in mind. Last Friday we decided our speech schedule and so depending on when your child delivers their speech, that is the day their visual is due. Nothing actually has to be turned in for the speech. They are to use the essay and their visual for the outlines of their speech. If your child does their speech Thursday, they don't have to have their visual turned in until that day, but they will NOT have any more class time to work on that. Please ask your child what day their speech is so that you know what day their visual is due.
I hope all that made sense!

As for Friday, here is the plan. Students voted and the number one choice for a movie is "Elf" with Will Ferrill. It is a fabulous movie but because it is rated PG I want to have everyone's permission before I decide for sure to show that movie. Please let me know if you don't want your child to watch that because we would happily watch "Up" instead. (That is the movie that came in second place.) I would also like to have hot chocolate for the students. If you are interested in purchasing hot chocolate or other treats (maybe cookies or candy canes) please let me know. I can go buy them, but I know many parents are always offering to get things for the class and here is an opportunity to do that:-).

*Thanks for coming to the PTO event last week! It was a great success! If you didn't see it while you were there, we do have a giving tree in the lobby that has tags for gifts that a local family could use for the holidays. You take tag and then buy the gift on that tag and then return it to the school, unwrapped.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday! We will return to school January 4th.

2009-12-06T17:07:00.000-08:00

Peregrine Press
December 7-11

Schedule
Monday: Nutrition Presentation and Art
Tuesday: Out and About
Wednesday: PE and Art
Thursday: Music and Buddy Reading at the ELC
Friday: All School Meeting

Last Week
Last week was mostly devoted to the Independent Project. Students spent 3 days researching in the computer lab, followed by a visit to the City Library on Thursday. Students made great progress on their research and rough drafts. On Tuesday we worked at the location of our new school garden. Students spread leaves and soil to help prepare for raised beds and mulching. It was hard work, but we got a lot accomplished! Music was fun (as always) and we started learning a song to teach us the states and capitals. Fitness Friday was very cold but most students participated the best they could. We followed that up with finding the mean, median, mode and range for the data we collected on laps ran.

This Week
We will start out the week with a special nutrition presentation by a local nutritionist that will come back again next Monday to do another activity with the class. This is to help build awareness of the importance of healthy eating and ways to make better choices about what we put in our bodies. On Tuesday we will start out the day with a service project to help Chimpanzees. We will be making edible necklaces for them! We will then head out to the Senior Center to perform our play "This Land is Whose Land." That will be a great opportunity for us to get a performance under our belts because on Friday at the All School Meeting we will perform it again for the whole school. Please come if you can! The meeting will start at 9:15 and I will go until about 10:30. I don't know the exact time of our performance, but it will happen in that window of time. (This will be at the Grove Room at Central School.)

Thursday we will head to the ELC for buddy reading again. When we went to the library last week students checked out new books to read to their buddies. The rest of the week will be mostly focused on the Independent Project again. Rough drafts will be do on Wednesday of this week. We will spend more time working on editing and revising and then also working on our visual aides. Remember, I am providing class time for the project, but if by Friday your child looks like they are not on track for meeting the final deadlines, I will send home work so they complete their projects over the weekend.

***Celebrations of Learning and Night of Traditions Thursday the 10th!!!

Please join us for Celebrations of Learning starting at 5:00 on Thursday. You will get a chance to check out the things students have been working on for the past few months. This will be followed by a PTO event called the Night of Traditions starting at 6:00. There will be an assortment of activities to do in the different classrooms and we would love for families to join us.
Just like last year, if you can, please bring a treat to share. We had some delicious cookies and things last year-yum yum! And if I am not mistaken, we will provide hot chocolate in the lobby.

2009-11-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-22T16:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T12:05:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-11-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-01T06:24:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-23T14:03:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

October 26-30

Schedule

Monday: Art

Tuesday: Oregon Historical Society (ALL DAY-bring sack lunch!)

Wednesday: Art; PE

Thursday: Nothing special:-) Maybe Music if I can schedule it.

Friday: No School for Teacher In-Service

Last Week

Last week went very quickly! We started out the week by attending the Tom Sawyer play at the Theatre in the Grove which was great. We had three students from our class that were involved with the production so that was really fun to see them all in action. We started literacy circles this week as well. This round will take us through November and will help build fluency and comprehension. Students will meet with their circles 3-4 times per week and read together and complete activities that will enhance their learning. Tuesday we headed out to B Street Farm to learn how to use a compass (orienteering) with Erin, our Out and About teacher. The students all worked hard on learning those skills that can be quite challenging. On Tuesday we also started to research the Tillamook Indians for a project that will help the Friends of Historic Forest Grove. It will be a challenging project but I am excited to see everyone work together to accomplish the task. Thursday we headed back to the ELC for some Buddy Reading. It is such a great opportunity for our class to be good role models for these kids. They also just seem to have so much fun!

This Coming Week

This week will be a little odd. We will not have grade level math due to our full day Out and Abouts to the Historical Society. Each class is going a different day so we have instead made some packets of work for students to complete. I will provide time in class to work on them, but there is a chance that students will need to take these home if they don't finish them. Tuesday we will be gone all day at the Historical Society in Portland. We will take Tri-Met there, do the tour and then have lunch so please have your children pack a sack lunch like they did for the Ft. Clatsop trip. The rest of the week we will mostly focus on literacy circles and the Tillamook Project which includes a play about property rights. (I will send out more info later about that.) There will be no school on Friday due to a staff in-service day. There will also be no Halloween Party. I know this is going to disappoint a few students but there are many reasons for not having one. One, we are getting older, two we don't want to exclude anyone, and three, students have plenty of opportunities to have parties with their friends and we don't need to set aside time at school just for that purpose. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks for your understanding.

*We had another hard week with turning in homework. I again had 9 students not return their homework. A few of them were "first time offenders" but the rest have all forgotten homework already in previous weeks. PLEASE help me and help them by doing whatever it is that you can to be sure they turn this in. I will start taking privileges away at school if they can't hold up their end of this agreement. If your child forgot it for the first time, I am willing to overlook it, they just can't make it a habit:-)

***Also, in case you haven't heard, my husband and I are expecting a baby girl in March! Becky Tengs will be my long term sub that will finish out the year. She is fabulous and all my students from last year know her because she was our student teacher last year. She is very excited and will start coming in to get to know the class this winter. She knows how this school works and is full of amazing ideas and will do a phenomenal job!

Upcoming Events:

Outdoor School November 10-13

-First payment for this is due October 27^th.

2009-10-18T15:09:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

October 19-23

Thanks to all the helpers on our trip to Ft. Clatsop!

Schedule:

Monday: Tom Sawyer play at Theatre in the Grove

Tuesday: Out and About to B Street Farm for an Orienteering Course with Erin

Wednesday: Art and PE
Thursday: Art and Buddy Reading at the ELC

Friday: Picture Day and Music

Last Week

We had a very fun filled week! The students compiled all the journal entries and made old, weathered covers for them so they would look a bit more authentic. They also made moccasins using felt and needles which was great fun for me to watch because they were being quite resourceful and determined to figure out how to make them. They followed these activities with their speeches. They shared the character they had become and then read from their journals. I was very impressed with how well they prepared for their speeches. Thursday was our big field trip to Fort Clatsop that went off without a hitch. We had a great time exploring the fort and learning about whales, plants and what life was like at the Fort during the winter of 1805. We wrapped up the week with music at Tom McCall and it was again, a highlight for many of the students.

This Week

We will start out the week with attending the Tom Sawyer production at Theatre in the Grove. We will start our unit on the Tillamook Indians which will be a project to help the Friends of Historic Forest Grove. The students will be in small groups with specific topics to research. The final product will be an informational brochure to be shared with the public. This is a great piggyback to the Lewis and Clark unit. We will head to B Street Farm for an orienteering course led by Erin on Tuesday. Thursday we will head to the ELC for Buddy Reading again which many of the kids are excited about. Friday will be picture day so please be sure to bring the picture form and money this week and I can keep it in the classroom until pictures on Friday. We might have to skip Running Club again this week because our schedule is pretty packed but I will let the students know if I do find a time to schedule it.

Reminders:

If you have not turned in your Outdoor School paperwork please do that ASAP because that was due last Friday. The payment plans are included in this although the first payment is not actually due until October 27^th. You can pay sooner if you would like and make checks out to Forest Grove Community School.

Please help your children to complete and turn in their homework on Fridays. I had 9 students forget this week. This happened a lot last year and I really hope it won't happen again. Remember that some students simply have a homework log they fill in that can be activities they did after school that aren't necessarily academic. They could be sports, instrument practice etc. If you aren't sure if your child has additional homework, you can ask them, or ask me if they don't know. :-)

2009-10-09T13:10:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

October 12-16

Schedule

Monday: Art

Tuesday: No Out and About

Wednesday: Art and PE

Thursday: Fort Clatsop Field Trip-Be here at 7:30 am!!!

Friday: Music, Fitness Friday

Thanks so much for coming to conferences! It was great to check in with everyone and see how supportive all of our FGCS families are!

Last Week

The short week really zoomed by. We worked on our Lewis and Clark Journals, continued our Word Work (spelling) and prepared for conferences. On Tuesday we headed out to B Street Permaculture Farm and helped them with some different jobs. Students helped rake out the soil to prep it for planting, some students weeded and others planted. It was great to see them all get their hands dirty and be smiling through the whole process. That farm is such an important part of our school that I feel truly lucky to be able to take my class there from time to time to see how they can steward a place. At the same time they can learn about how our food grows and how we can care for our environment first hand. Students also made portraits for their character in the Corps of Discovery. They used painted paper that they had made in Art class and they turned out beautifully! Our bulletin board is coming alive now.

This Week

We will spend the first part of the week compiling all the journal entries that they wrote for the Corps of Discovery Project. They will do some "aging" of the journal covers so they will look a little more authentic. Some students want cardboard to use to reinforce their journals but I just don't have enough to go around so if you have thin cereal box cardboard that could be used that would be great. It is not necessary, but I know some of the students will probably come home asking you for it, so I am telling you all that it is optional but it has to come from home. Students will also start practicing for a sort of speech that they will do either Wednesday or Friday depending on timing. Your child will know before hand what day they will do their speech so they are prepared. The speech will be about their character in the Corps and will also include reading at least one of their journal entries in front of the class.

Important Reminders

Tom Sawyer Performance at Theatre in the Grove: October 19^th,: Tickets cost $5 if you could please get that to me asap that would be great.

Outdoor School forms are due Friday the 16^th. The payment plan forms also need to be turned in. I have only gotten 2 of those back from students and I sent them home over a week ago.

No School October 30^th for a In-Service Day

2009-10-05T07:10:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

October 5-9

Schedule

Monday: Art

Tuesday: Out and About to B Street Farm (DRESS WARMLY)

Wednesday: Art; PE

Thursday and Friday: Conferences, please call the office or stop by the office to set up a conference time. (No school those 2 days.)

Last Week

We had a great week! The students have completed three journal entries now, with two more to go. For our Out and About we went to Nana Cardoon's and got to do a variety of super fun activities that I am sure you all heard about. They pressed cider, picked apples, grapes, plums and veggies, snuggled in a yurt and got to see ducks and chickens. All in all it was a great fall harvest experience for everyone. We went to the ELC for the first time and met our new buddies. We will be there on average 2 times per month to read with the preschool age buddies and occasionally do other activities with them as well. We also spent some time this week on geography and learning the states and capitals. There is a great site called Ben's Guide to the US Government that the kids should be familiar with now if you are looking for more practice at home. Friday we had music again as well as Running Club.

This Week

With the short week I am doing things slightly differently. I have learned from experience that sending home homework over the conference weekend usually ends up with nothing getting returned to me on Monday so I am not going to send anything home for homework this week. However, that does not mean that your children can't continue to practice skills. They can do the geography puzzle online at Ben's Guide to the US Government, they can read, they can go to the library etc. There is no shortage of stuff for them to do independently. We will resume the homework folders the following Monday. We will do several art and hands on activities in the next two weeks that will connect to Lewis and Clark. Students will also start reflecting on what they have done so far this year and what goals they have in mind for themselves. For our Out and About Tuesday we will head to B Street Permaculture Farm where students will do miscellaneous jobs to help improve the farm. This is a place that we have stewarded for the past two years and a favorite place for many students. PLEASE DRESS WARMLY!!!!!!

Couple of reminders:

October 15^th we are leaving for Ft. Clatsop at 7:45 so please have your children here at the school at 7:30, I will have my back door open to the classroom.

October 19^th we have a chance to go see the play Tom Sawyer at the Theatre in the Grove at 10:00 am. Tickets are $5 each so if you can please send money in for that that would be greatly appreciated. We are trying to use our Out and About budget for buses and bigger excursions so if you can contribute to the ticket costs that would be great. If you can't right now because we are also asking for Outdoor School money that is fine, we will make sure that every child attends the play. We have 3 students from this class that are a part of the performance so it will be great to go support them.

October 27^th we are heading to the Oregon Historical Society in Portland. We will be taking tri-met and leaving right at 8:50 so please make sure your child is here at 8:35 so we can get ready to leave right on time.

2009-09-26T08:26:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

September 28-October 2

Schedule:

Monday: Art

Tuesday: NO Out and About

Wednesday: Out and About to Nana Cardoon's (Local Garden-cider pressing and garden activities); PE

Thursday: Art; Buddy Reading at the ELC

Friday: Music at Tom McCall; Fitness Friday (Vanessa subbing for me so I can get ready for my wedding the next day!)

Last Week:

We had a very fun and productive week! We worked on writing and reading assessments that were not necessarily fun for the students, but a necessary part of school. They were wrapped up on Friday so now we can really just focus on fun learning! Tuesday we did some team building at Roger's Park. We played a game called "Chocolate River" that you should ask your kids about. It is a favorite in this class for returning students. When we returned to school we created mini-weather experiments with convection currents and twisters. The rest of the week was more Lewis and Clark journal writing, Word Work to improve spelling, and some weather activities. On Thursday we had a great presentation on managing energy levels. It is called "How's your engine running?" The students experienced different sensory things and gauged if it brought their energy level up or down and put it where it needed to be. I thought it was very beneficial for the whole class. Friday we had our first music class at Tom McCall. It was so much fun! The kids really seemed to be excited about it. They were very respectful and really represented our school well. I was very impressed.

This Week

We will continue our focus on Lewis and Clark, and weather. Students will be writing their second, and hopefully third journal entry for their experience on the Corps of Discovery. We will also have some changes in our schedule. We will not have Out and About on Tuesday because we will be going to a local garden/farm, Nana Cardoon's, on Wednesday instead. The students will get to press apple cider and help with some other projects that need to be done. This will also shift our Wednesday art class to Thursday morning. On Thursday we will also start Buddy Reading at the ELC (Early Learning Community) at Pacific University. We participated in this last year and it was a very positive experience. We join with a class of preschool kids and read to them, write stories with them and occasionally do some art projects. This will happen 2 times a month. Friday Vanessa will be subbing for me because I am getting married on Saturday and I have a lot of prepping to do. The kids will have a great time with her!

Outdoor School Information:

Monday I will be sending home information about Outdoor School. The blue guidebook, the medical information form, and the souvenir form need to be returned to me, by October 16^th. (If you can return them at conferences, that would even be better!) The blue guidebook is just some generic information so please don't write in them because they get shared through the whole region. We will also send home a "what to bring" list which you can keep.

Important Upcoming Events:

October 8 and 9: Goal Setting Conferences (We will have more information coming about signing up.)

October 15^th (Thursday): Field Trip to Fort Clatsop. We need 2 more parent volunteers to let me know if you can come. Also, we have to leave the school at 7:45 on a Mid-Columbia bus so we need all students to the school at 7:30! We will be back in time for a normal dismissal.

October 27^th (Tuesday): Field Trip to Historical Society in Portland. We need 1 or 2 more volunteers for this event so please let me know if you can come. We will be riding tri-met and need to leave right at 8:50 so please have your children here by 8:35. We will return in time for a normal dismissal.

2009-09-20T07:42:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

September 21-25

Schedule

Monday: Art

Tuesday: Out and About (Teambuilding in the Community)

Wednesday: Art; PE, Back to School Night 6:00-7:30

Thursday: Regular Day

Friday: Music at Tom McCall; Fitness Friday

Last Week

We had a very productive week for our first full week! The students researched the person they have become on the "corps" and wrote their first journal entry. They also learned about the Louisiana Purchase through an activity using google earth. They used maps to identify the present day states that the Louisiana Purchase included as well as the route the Corps of Discovery took. For our Out and About we headed to the Tom McCall Forest and did a teambuilding activity to start with. Then they spent an hour doing a variety of sketching activities to mimic the record keeping that Lewis and Clark did with the flora and fauna (plants and animals.)

We also spent a some time learning about different clouds and what they mean. Fitness Friday was successful with the majority of the class really participating well. We met our new Out and About teacher Erin and had a chance to as her some questions and share some ideas for outings this year.

This Week

This coming week we will continue our focus on Lewis and Clark and weather. Our Out and About will be at a park in the community where we will do some teambuilding activities to help build our classroom bond. We will also start a music class at Tom McCall Upper Elementary School on Friday. This means that we will leave the school at 9:00 and walk to Tom McCall for the music class.

Back to School Night: This night will be an opportunity for parents to come to the classroom and learn about how we do things at FGCS. Please leave your lovely children at home because this is really meant to be an information night for the parents. We will have 2 sessions: 6:00-6:45 an 6:45-7:30. You just choose the session you want to come to (you don't need to tell me beforehand) and head to the classroom. We will go over the PLP, Report Cards and our teaching methods. This will not be a time to ask specific questions about your child, we will be able to discuss those personal things at the conferences on October 8^th and 9^th.

Upcoming Events

October 8 and 9^th: Conferences

2009-09-20T07:41:00.001-07:00

Good Morning Everyone,
Here is the newsletter for this week. I forgot my camera cord, so I will get pictures added to the blog later today, or tomorrow. Feel free to check them out later. To get to the blog you can go to the school website fgcschool.org, click on the Classroom Info and then click on Peregrine Falcons. Also, don't forget that pizza money is due on Tuesdays, and please encourage your child to bring a plate from home so we don't have to waste paper plates.
Thanks and I hope everyone had a great weekend!
Veronica

2009-09-12T17:09:00.001-07:00

Hello Peregrine Falcon Families,
Here is the newsletter for this week. Let me know if you can't open it. I hope you all enjoyed the weekend!
Thanks,
Veronica

I just remembered one more thing.
Pizza Wednesday starts this week. Please have your money in by Tuesday. I sent home the forms on Friday, let me know if you have any questions.

2009-06-09T07:41:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

June 8-11

Tuesday: Move-Up Day; Field Day

Wednesday: Bridging Ceremony and CLEAN OUT THE CLASSROOM

Thursday: Last Day of school, dismissal at 1:05

Last Week

We really accomplished a lot last week and had a great deal of fun. Our beach trip on Monday was super fun, although it did go by way too fast! The scinec fair on Tuesday was really interesting and I think it inspired many kids to want to do something like that next year. We worked on the FGGP and Math life a few times, trying to wrap up those activities. For the FGGP, the students worked on videotaping a PSA for how to be a good digital citizen. When it is completed it will be on the FGGP blog for your viewing pleasure. In Math Life the students encountered their unexpected expense/reward. Some students went into debt and others won some money! Thursday was our first annual Fun Run and it went off without a hitch. Gretchen and I could not be more proud of how well our classes did with this event! We do hope to get all donations turned in by Wednesday.

Saturday night was the much anticipated campout that also was a great success. I saw big smiles 99% of the time! Thanks again to all the parents that helped provide food, time and money to this event.

This Week

Well, it is almost over! We will be wrapping up any loose ends, reflecting on the year and saying goodbye to many students that are bridging or moving on to other places. It is a very bittersweet time.

Please help me get the classroom cleaned out by making sure your child brings a large bag on Wednesday. I will be passing back a great deal of work and many projects are quite cumbersome, so those students that normally ride their bikes, might need to get some help getting some of this stuff home.

Also, for the bridging ceremony on Wednesday please be sure that students bring a sack lunch that does not need to be microwaved. We will be eating picnic style at B Street Farm.

Thank you all for your help and support this year! I could not have made it through this year without all your support, both emotional and physical so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I will try and get some slideshows of photos from the year up on the blog in the coming weeks.

2009-05-31T08:43:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

June 1-5

Schedule

Monday: Trip to the Beach! Please make sure that your child will be at the school by 8:35 because we are leaving at 8:45. I will have my classroom back door open at 8:15 if some kids want to come even earlier.

Tuesday: Science Fair 9:30-10:30 (This was an optional activity for Level 2 students.)

Wednesday: PE; Celebrations of Learning 5:00-6:30

Thursday: Fundraising Run! 10:00 at Lincoln Park; Art

Friday: No School, Grading Day

Saturday: Overnight Camping Trip

Last Week

We had a great week last week. Our Out and About to Safeway was a success. Students were well behaved and very respectful when they were hunting through the store for specific food items. They compared the prices of lunch items for healthy foods and non-healthy foods. Later they found the class average for the food item comparisons and found that it was less expensive to buy healthy foods! That afternoon the students that wanted to presented their literacy projects. There were a variety of interesting presentations.

Wednesday we spent some time on the Forest Grove Grid Project blogging about the photos that had recently been taken by all the groups and responding to discussion questions. I was happy to see so many students remembering what it means to be a good digital citizen. They were respectful to each other and wrote thoughtful comments and responses. We then had presenters come and share more information on Leave No Trace (an outdoor education program). Laura and I felt very proud when the students were asked lots of different questions about how to respect nature and they knew all the right answers. It proved that these students really are great stewards! That same day we also spent time with our ELC buddies. We played parachute games like "popcorn" and "cat and mouse." It was a bittersweet day because it was our last time with our buddies. Our students really made great connections with their buddies and I saw tremendous growth in their patience, kindness and mentoring abilities. Not to mention that over the course of this experience they worked on reading fluency, note taking, typing, clay arts, map making and just all around fun!

Thursday morning was spent at B Street Permaculture Farm where the students took some great photos to add the to Forest Grove Grid Project. It was a beautiful day to be outside and it was one of those days that as Becky would say "puts a rainbow in my heart." This class is so well bonded together that is sometimes seems unreal. How did I get so lucky?!! That afternoon we spent time working on Math Life activities connected to the Safeway Out and About. Students also got the chance to write checks which is always fun to do when you are a kid!

Friday we spent more time in the computer lab blogging on the B Street Photos and had our final routine of spelling tests, goal reflections and weekly summaries. Whew! What a week!

This Week

Are you ready for this week??? It is going to be jam packed. We will start out with our beach trip. Please remember that we are leaving at 8:45 sharp. We will be returning at 2:30 so dismissal time will be normal. Tuesday we will be attending the Science Fair that was set up by some students in Gretchen's class. It will be held in the middle school portables and parents are welcome to come to this event. It will be similar to the World Fair in set up but the participation of students was optional and I am not sure that any students in our class are participating. There should be some fun things to see though. Wednesday we will spend some time getting ready for our final Celebrations of Learning to be held at the school from 5:00-6:30. I will be gone that night because I have class at PSU but Becky will be hosting for our class so please come and check out all the great things she has done with our class this spring. She has been amazing!

Thursday is another big day with our first annual Fundraising Run! It will be held at Lincoln Park starting at 10:00 at Pavilion One. We could use another volunteer to help out if anyone is interested. Your job would be simple, I promise. Also, if you would like to participate in the run itself that would be great. You don't need a sponsor sheet, but any donations are welcome! The run will last for 30 minutes.

Finally, no school Friday, but the big campout is Saturday! Please email me if you have any questions. Hopefully you all got the permission forms back with a map and a bright notecard that specified what I need you to bring (if you can). I am heading out to my parent's place today to start getting stuff ready! Thank you so much for all your help and support with this. I have never planned anything like this before, not to mention planning a beach trip, a fun run and a bridging ceremony all at the same time! I have learned some valuable lessons through all of this.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Out and About to Seaside

Science Fair 9:30-10:30 at the Level 3 Portables

Celebrations of Learning 5:00-6:30

Fun Run at Lincoln Park 10:00 am

Art

No School

(Report Card Prep)

Overnight Camping Trip Drop off

Overnight Camping Trip Pick up

Field Day

Bridging Ceremony and School Photos

Last Day of School Dismissal 1:05

2009-05-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Peregrine Press

May 26-29

Schedule

Tuesday: Out and About to Safeway (Healthy Eating on a Budget)

Wednesday: Leave No Trace Presentation;ELC; PE

Thursday: Photography at B Street Farm

Friday: Art

***I am waiting for a few more permission forms for the beach and the camping trip. My plan is to get final info out to everyone this week. Many parents have offered to help with whatever is needed and what I am trying to do right now is determine what is still needed. Thanks so much to everyone that is helping with this!

Last Week

We just completed our last full week of school for the year! Our Out and About to Lincoln Park involved a great deal of math and exercise. We started out by calculating our average stride/gait length. Once each student figured that out by using a measuring stick, taking 10 steps and doing some math calculations we were ready to head out to Lincoln Park. When we arrived we all walked around the "Fun Run" Track and counted our steps. This was then used later in conjunction with the average stride length to calculate the distance around the track. It was quite complicated but many of the students began to get a grasp on it. Once we had all walked around the track once, we had Running Club for 30 minutes to see what we could run in that amount of time because the Fun Run will be 30 minutes long.

Becky introduced a literacy program called the Daily 4. It focuses on the different components of literacy including reading to self, reading to someone, writing and word work. I was really surprised and pleased at how receptive the students were to the program because it is so close to the end of the year. I could see it really being a great component of my literacy program for next year as well.

We spent some time looking at food costs and health in preparation for our Out and About to Safeway. Becky created a really fun "Price is Right" game to play to introduce food item costs.

The Forest Grove Grid Project consisted of some photographing through town on Thursday and then all the pictures were uploaded on Friday. The students wrote their weekly summaries on the blog instead of on paper for the week and many chose to do their goal reflections on the blog as well. If you haven't yet seen the site, ask your child to show you. There are some really fun blog posts.

On Friday we also went to spend time with our ELC buddies. They recently started learning about insects so we joined them in creating insects out of clay, buttons and pipe cleaners. It was another great day with our buddies.

This Week

The activities this week will continue to be focused on the Forest Grove Grid Project and Math Life. Our Out and About to Safeway will focus on purchasing food on a budget that is healthy. Tuesday afternoon students that want to, will share their literacy projects. (Everyone was supposed to have completed a project, but it is not required that they present anything in front of the class.) Wednesday we will have a special presentation on a program called Leave No Trace that Laura introduced us to earlier in the year. Wednesday will also be our last day with our Buddies at the ELC which is very sad, but I do hope to continue that again next year. We will head out to B Street Farm on Thursday to get pictures for the FGGP. Friday will be our LAST HOMEWORK AND SPELLING WEEK.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

No School

(Memorial Day)

Out and About to Safeway

Healthy Shopping on a Budget

Leave No Trace Presentation

ELC Buddies

Photography at B Street Farm

Last Homework Due

Art

Out and About to Seaside

Science Fair 9:30-10:30 at the Level 3 Portables

Celebrations of Learning 5:00-6:30

Fun Run at Lincoln Park 10:00 am

Art

No School

(Report Card Prep)

Overnight Camping Trip Drop off

Overnight Camping Trip Pick up

Field Day

Bridging Ceremony and School Photos

Last Day of School Dismissal 1:05

2009-05-17T08:35:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

May 18-22

Schedule

Monday: High School Student Presentation

Tuesday: Out and About to Lincoln Park, includes Running Club (getting ready for the Fun Run)

Wednesday: ELC Buddies; PE

Thursday: Art

Friday: Homework Due; Literacy Projects Due (they have been working on these at school)

Book Fair is happening all week long. It is buy one get one free.

Last Week

It was great to have a full week of school for a change. We had a different type of Running Club where we ran for less time, but then did some circuit training. The "Game of Life" aka "Math Life" was introduced with a very warm welcome. The students drew jobs out of a hat that ranged from a Les Schwab tech to a Maggie's Bun Barista. The students created their "characters" and then also drew the aerial view and front view of their place of employment. They used google maps to do the mapping part and then we turned one whole wall in the classroom into the city of Forest Grove. Students glued their buildings and people onto the map of Forest Grove. It looks great! The class then had a great discussion about how to decide what kind of place to live and where that place would be. We discussed the different types of transportation that would make most sense depending on where you chose to live relative to your job. They searched online for different rental properties and started to look at how to budget money accordingly. It has been really fun to connect the math life components like gross and net income, hourly wage and rental budget with mapping.

For Out and About the students went on a great photography scavenger hunt. They worked in groups and walked through town taking photos of different things like: something fluffy, something that represents anger, diagonal lines, friendship etc. It was very impressive to see such artistic pictures.

Next Week

This coming week we will continue our two major projects: Math Life and the Forest Grove Grid Project. The students will head back into town to take more photographs and then upload them to share. Becky is working hard on trying to find a different avenue for sharing photos. For Math Life students will focus on expense budgeting and begin to look at groceries and health in preparation for an activity at Safeway the following week. They will review gross and net income and start working on calculating percentages by figuring out the distribution of their income on the different expenses.

We will combine Running Club with the Out and About because we need to measure the distance around Lincoln Park in preparation for the Fun Run. We will also figure out where to put signs, refreshments and cones.

Upcoming Events:

June 4^th: Fun Run (I still need a couple more parent volunteers to help with this event. Your job would be to simply stand en-route and help mark student laps, or help pass out refreshments.)

June 6^th: Overnight Camping Trip (Thanks to everyone that has volunteered to help. I feel so lucky to have such great, supportive families! I will be sending another letter probably in a week that will confirm what I need people to bring. I am still waiting to get those yellow forms back from everyone so I can figure out what items I will still need to get. I know many people have offered to bring certain things, but I want to look through everything that I get, and then send out updated information. I will also include a map at that point. I hope this makes senseJ)

I have decided to include a calendar for this last month of school. If things change I will try and highlight those changes.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Book Fair

Out and About to Lincoln Park

& Running Club

Book Fair

ELC Buddies

Book Fair

Art

Book Fair

Homework Due

Literacy Projects Due

No School

(Memorial Day)

Out and About to Safeway

Healthy Shopping on a Budget

Leave No Trace Presentation

ELC Buddies

Last Homework Due

Art

Out and About to Seaside

Science Fair 9:30-10:30 at the Level 3 Portables

Celebrations of Learning 5:00-6:30

Fun Run at Lincoln Park 10:00 am

Art

No School

(Report Card Prep)

Overnight Camping Trip Drop off

Overnight Camping Trip Pick up

Field Day

Bridging Ceremony and School Photos

Last Day of School Dismissal 1:05

2009-05-10T09:26:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

May 11-15

Schedule

Monday: Math State Test; Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About Photography Through Forest Grove; All School Photo and All School Meeting; Math State Test

Wednesday: ELC Buddies; P.E.

Thursday: Art (painting murals in the hallway)

Friday: Homework Due

Last Week

Last week was packed full of fun, minus the swine flu scare! Due to the 2 missed days, we had a great deal of work to accomplish in a very short amount of time. The two main activities were the pill bug experiments and the Forest Grove Grid Project. The students conducted their own experiments on the pill bugs and were responsible for doing a complete scientific report explaining the whole scientific method. This took them through asking a question, doing research, writing a hypothesis, designing and executing the experiment, creating a table to record data, analyzing the data and drawing conclusions. All in all, it was a very complex activity but almost every single student seemed engaged and excited to do their experiments. Some of the pictures above, show the different experiments that were conducted. Some students created mazes to test intelligence, some tested food preferences, and some tested habitat preferences (among others).

Becky did a great activity on safe internet/web activity in preparation for the "ning" that she has created for the class. I will be emailing a letter to you from Becky, that all of you need to please read carefully because it explains how your students will be able to access the "ning" and all the security measures that are in place. The students also wrote up proposals for what they would like to photograph in Forest Grove in the upcoming weeks.

The not so fun activity that we also did this week was the Reading State Test. The students did great!

This Week

The main activities for this coming week will be the Forest Grove Grid Project, Math State Testing and Math Life. We will be doing the Math State Test Monday and Tuesday so please be sure to send your children prepared with good rest and healthy snacks. Tuesday our Out and About will be to head out into Forest Grove with our digital cameras to take photographs that will be posted on the "ning." The students will be taking the photographs, not the teachers. Tuesday will also be the All School Photo at Ash St. Field (we did this last year too) and an All School Meeting. Because those two things will cut into our Out and About time, we will probably head out another morning to continue taking photographs. We will attempt to finally head out on the Treasure Hunt we planned a few weeks ago with our ELC Buddies on Wednesday.

Finally, we will start a unit titled Math Life. We did this last year and it was a hit with the class. The main objectives for this unit are personal budgeting and a great deal of math calculations like multiplying decimals when computing interest rates and learning concepts like gross vs. net income. Each student will pull a "job" out of a hat that will tell them their hourly wage, they will later pull out a "family" that they will need to support. There will be days that they encounter a "financial struggle" such as a flat tire, or a dentist appointment. Through all of this they are building up this "character" and dealing with all the real life math that a person really encounters. They will have to find somewhere to live by looking in newspaper ads and they will have to create a personal budget that will cover their expenses and grocery bills.

Upcoming Events

May 25^th No School, Memorial Day

June 1^st Out and About to Seaside

June 4^th Fundraising Run 10:00 at Lincoln Park

***I need parent volunteers to help with the Fun Run so please let me know if you can help.***

June 5^th No School (report card prep day)

June 6^th Overnight Camping Trip

June 11^thLast Day of School

**Overnight camping trip update**

So, I have received a great deal of emails about parents willing to help out with the camping trip. I am very excited to hear that! I will send home a paper copy of the updated plan for the trip this week. For all of you parents that have offered up tents, I want all the tents we can get. I plan to let the children choose who they want in their tents (obviously only same gender in a tent) and if parents don't want to actually sleep in a tent with their child, the extra tents will come in handy.

2009-05-03T11:41:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

May 4-8

Schedule

Monday: Reading State Test

Tuesday: Out and About to Dark Room at Pacific University (Learn about Photography for the Forest Grove Grid Project)

Wednesday: Reading State Test; PE

Thursday: Eco-Theatre Performance; Art

Last Week

We had another very eventful week! Running Club was a bit more “strict” but we had much better running results. We finished up our yo-yo unit with the spin wars where three students tied as Master Spinners: J.R., Michael and Ivan.

Our Out and About to B-Street Permaculture Farm was a huge success! I loved seeing all of the students so engaged in the different activities. Students were creating paths, trimming branches, spreading bark chips and mulch and picking thistles for rabbit and chicken feed. I didn’t hear anyone complaining, they all just did what they could to help. We had a great discussion about permaculture when we returned to school as a follow up. I was so inspired to hear students share how they could see the cycle of interactions. One student put it so perfectly: we pick the weeds, we feed them to the rabbits or chickens, they go to the bathroom, we use that as compost that we put in our garden and it helps our veggies grow! We then get to eat the delicious veggies!

We did some measurement math as part of our Forest Grove Grid Project and also met with our little buddies at the ELC.

Thursday and Friday we dove into the scientific method with an experiment on pill bugs. We conducted an experiment and practiced writing up a scientific report.

This Week

This coming week is going to be packed full of fun! For Out and About the students will get to go inside an actual dark room at Pacific University, to learn about photography as part of the Forest Grove Grid Project. The students will be conducting their own scientific experiments with pill bugs as a scientific inquiry project. This project will be intense and may require some homework. We will have time at school to conduct the experiment but the write up might require some extra time at home either during the week or over next weekend. The class will be taking the State Reading Test on Monday and Wednesday so please encourage lots of good sleep and a healthy breakfast and lunch. Thursday we will head back over to Pacific University to watch a short Eco-Theatre Performance put on by Pacific Students. We will be postponing or canceling Running Club this week depending on how we move through the other activities. We are canceling ELC also, but will resume the following week.

Upcoming Dates

Math State Test May 11^th and 12^th

All School Meeting and Photo: May 12^th

FGCS Fund-Run: June 4^th (More information will be coming soon.)

Out and About to the Beach: June 1^st (I am looking for a few more parent volunteers.)

Optional Overnight Camping Trip to my parent’s nursery/farm in Gaston: June 6^th (I will need at least 4 parents that can sleep over as well but they need to pass a background check. If you have already volunteered at school then you should already be approved. I will also need some help coordinating meals. I am thinking students will come in the early afternoon after lunch. We would have to plan a dinner and the following breakfast, and of course an evening treat!

2009-04-26T08:23:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

April 27-May 1

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to B-Street Farm

Wednesday: ELC Buddies; PE

Thursday: Art

Last Week

We had another great week! Monday started out with Running Club that didn't have great participation I think partially due to the heat. The 5^th graders completed the State Science Test with great results. Monday afternoon Becky introduced different map projections and had the students draw the globe as best they could on beach balls. Then they had to pop the ball and try and cut it in a way to make the ball flat like a map would be. They got so frustrated! It really made it more tangible for them to understand how difficult it is to get an accurate map projection.

Tuesday we headed up to the Tom McCall Forest to do some planting for a SOLV event. We planted some Oregon Grape, raspberry and thimbleberry. I was pleased to see how well everyone worked together. Tuesday afternoon Becky taught a really fascinating lesson on continent population vs wealth. If your children have not already talked about it you should ask them to explain what the activity was demonstrating. There was great class discussion that occurred during this activity and I was very pleased to see how insightful the class was.

Wednesday the class took a small quiz on the concepts they have learned through the yo-yo unit. They explained the difference between kinetic and potential energy, flywheels, pendulums and the scientific method. They also finished working on a writing sample they started on Monday about their weekend. The main focus was writing a strong introduction and conclusion. The time we spent with our ELC buddies was focused on writing stories. The little buddies told their big buddies an imaginative story that tied into the nature walk we took last week. The big buddies wrote down the stories in their journals and then on Thursday they typed up the stories so they can be given to their little buddies at our next visit.

Thursday we wrapped up the week with some catch up work time and practice for the spin wars. The students took a quiz on our most recent read aloud titled Chasing Vermeer. They were expected to identify the story elements and then also evaluate some deeper questions about what they would do in a difficult situation they could be faced with.

Next Week

This coming week we will continue to work with interpreting and making maps as part of Becky's "Forest Grove Grid Project." We will also wrap up the yo-yo unit by participating in "spin wars" where the students will have to get their yo-yo to sleep as long as possible. They will be required to go through the scientific method to create some baseline data before they begin the competition.

For Out and About on Tuesday we will head out to B Street Permaculture Farm to help with some sustainability projects so the students need to come prepared to do some outdoor work! The weather looks like it will be raining off and of so please make sure your kids have coats and proper shoes on before they leave home. Thanks!

Upcoming Events

State Reading Test for all Level 2 happens the week of May 4^th..

State Math Test for all Level 2 happens the week of May 11^th.

2009-04-19T14:03:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

April 20-23

Schedule

Monday: 5^th Grade State Science Test; Running Club

Tuesday: 5^th Grade State Science Test; Out and About to Tom McCall Forest (SOLV Clean-Up)

Wednesday: Buddy Activity at the ELC; PE (no longer at Pacific)

Thursday: Art

Friday: No School Teacher In-Service Day

Last Week

We had such a fun week! Monday started out with decorating Safeway paper bags with messages for Earth Day which were then delivered to Safeway on our Out and About on Tuesday. The students presented the bags to the manager at the store and then we took a brief tour through the store to see what kinds of things Safeway does that is helping our Earth. The students were able to identify several "green" practices including selling organic produce, cloth shopping bags and energy efficient light bulbs. Once we were finished at Safeway we headed over to Roger's Park to participate in a teambuilding and egg protecting activity. The students worked in groups to create contraptions that would protect an egg from cracking when dropped from a high location. The teams worked very well together in creating their egg saver and then shared a brief commercial to advertise the greatness of the contraption. Every team did such a great job that not a single egg cracked. We even had to do a second round where I threw the eggs in their contraptions onto the concrete sidewalk and they still didn't crack! The students were very supportive of each other and had a really fun time.

We finished our independent project speeches with some very fun video presentations. I was very pleased with the work these students accomplished through the independent projects. They all should have brought home a scoring rubric for their speech and essay. If they earned a "proficient" rating that means they met the requirements. If they were "developing" they were very close to meeting the requirements. Several students even went above and beyond my expectations.

The yo-yo unit was introduced Tuesday afternoon with an activity that helped them work more with the scientific method. They dropped rocks, pebbles and paper from the same height to see which ones would hit the ground first. They then were given a little bit of time to start experimenting with the yo-yos.

Wednesday the students continued practice with the scientific method and were introduced to pendulums. They also went on a nature walk with their buddies from the ELC. They helped their buddies identify signs of spring and we could not have had a more beautiful day. Trees and flowers were blossoming all over Pacific's campus and they all had a great time. The last day for PE at Pacific was Wednesday afternoon and they all got to participate in a Field Day with really fun activities and games. I think overall the program was a success. We have lots of students that can't wait to have Rick for PE again though!

Thursday the students learned about kinetic and potential energy by working with flywheels (made with buttons and string) and their yo-yos. These concepts are tricky but I think they are starting to make some sense of it. We also practiced the state testing in the computer lab to get a feel for how that will work in the coming month.

Friday the students started the mapping unit that Becky will be teaching for her work sample. It is titled "The Forest Grove Grid Project." They explored Google Earth and then created wordles to describe our town. Ask your kids what wordles are-they loved it! You can go to www.wordle.net to see them.

This Week

This coming week we will continue the yo-yo unit and the really get into "The Forest Grove Grid Project." The students will have running club on Monday but we will do that in the morning because it looks like it will be a very warm day. We will help clean up the Tom McCall Forest for part of a SOLV clean up. Wednesday we will return to the ELC and write stories with our little buddies. The 5^th graders will be taking the State Science Test this week as well. There is no school Friday for a teacher in-service day.

**Becky has been teaching the 5^th grade math and several other activities each day and she is doing very well. The students have made her feel very welcome and enjoy her sense of humor.

** Please remind your 5^th grade students to get lots of rest Sunday night and eat a good healthy breakfast Monday morning. We want them to feel prepared and ready for the science test

2009-04-12T18:44:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

April 13-17

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to Safeway (deliver Earth Day bags)

Wednesday: ELC Buddies and PE at Pacific

Thursday: Art; Practice State Testing

First of all I want to say a giant thank you to everyone for coming to Student-Led Conferences. We had a great turnout and the students were very engaged in sharing their work with their parents. They have a great deal to be proud of.

Last Week

For such a short week we sure accomplished a lot! The majority of the class presented their Independent Project Speeches. I was very pleased with the presenters and the audience. Great questions were asked, and sincere compliments were given. This was a great opportunity for me to see just how caring this class really is. They were so supportive of each other during all the speeches!

On Tuesday we walked over to Pacific to do some water color painting of nature in a spot on campus that has beautiful flowers and tree blossoms. The students painted some beautiful works! We also participated in Running Club, which was a bit disappointing this week. I rarely saw students running and many complained about the heat (funny that it was not even 70 degrees). I really need them to step up and start running again because we will be coordinating a fundraising run for the end of the year and I need them in good form. They know that they do not need to run the whole time, but they need to be really pushing themselves.

We checked out books from the City Library to read to our Buddies and I think that went really well. They are really starting to bond!

This Week

This week we will wrap up the last of the independent project speeches. We will then be moving into a short yo-yo unit to teach more of the scientific method and physics. It should be a fun unit because all of the students will get a yo-yo to use in class.

In preparation for Earth Day we will be decorating Safeway paper bags with messages for caring for our Earth. Then, for Out and About we will be delivering them to Safeway.

We will meet with our ELC buddies again and will hopefully get nice enough weather to take them on a nature walk to help identify signs of spring.

Later in the week we will be heading to the computer lab to practice all the state testing. The following week the 5^th graders will take the State Science Test.

Becky will also start her unit that is titled "The Forest Grove Grid Project" that will incorporate photography, local mapping and possibly a treasure map. It is a very cool unit that I think the students will really enjoy! We will start with some Google Earth activities that will be sure to please. (The class seemed really excited about Google Earth when we did the world fair unit.)

*Thank you to those of you that donated pencils, we are still low though.

2009-04-05T14:51:00.001-07:00

Peregrine Press

April 6-10

Schedule

Monday: Library Visit; Independent Project Speeches

Tuesday: Out and About-Water Color Painting in Nature; and Running Club; Independent Project Speeches

Wednesday: PE at Pacific; Independent Project Speeches

Thursday: No School-Student Led Conferences

Friday: No School-Conferences

Last Week

We had a great first week back after Spring Break! The students spent much of their time this week typing their final essays and finishing their posters/visuals for their speeches starting next week. I was very pleased with how well the class stayed on task during these work sessions. It is so great to see them all working on something they are truly interested in. It makes learning so much more fun!

The class also finished the second round of literacy circles. I will spend time this weekend reviewing the packets they turned in. The packets had activities that focused on story elements, parts of grammar and vocabulary development (including synonyms and antonyms).

On Tuesday we had an In and About focused on drama and teambuilding. The students participated in really fun activities that included charade type activities, telephone with gestures instead of words, and an observation game.

Wednesday we returned to the Early Learning Community to read and play with our buddies. The class did a great job of being patient with their little buddies that do have a shorter attention span than they are used to. They started out reading to them and then they had time to play as well. In the future we will be planning some ongoing projects to do with our buddies to finish out the school year.

We started to brainstorm a list of all the things we did this year at school in preparation of Student Led Conferences.

This Week

We will be cramming quite a bit in this week. Monday we will start our speeches and will also go to the library to check out books to read to our buddies at the ELC. Please remind your child to bring their library card. Tuesday we will head out to Pacific University to do some nature water color paintings. We will then have running club. In the afternoon, students will continue speeches. Wednesday we will have Buddy Reading at the ELC, PE at Pacific, speeches and prep time for Student Led Conferences.

Upcoming Events

April 15^th Last Day for PE at Pacific

No School April 24

2009-03-29T10:16:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-03-13T14:37:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-03-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-03-01T10:15:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-02-22T15:07:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-02-15T13:41:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-08T13:13:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-02-08T13:08:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-01T07:54:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-01-24T18:52:00.001-08:00

Peregrine Press

January 27-30

Schedule

Tuesday: Out and About: Teambuilding and Leave No Trace;

Arrival of our Korean Exchange Student

Wednesday: PE

Thursday: Art

Friday: Running Club

**Two highlights from last week….we watched the inauguration with Gretchen's class and were the audience for the High School's presentation of "Tres Osos" or "The Three Bears."

Last Week

The main focus for the three day week was to finish up the consumerism unit. Each student created their own final product that summarized some aspect of the consumerism unit. Students created posters, comic strips, brochures and poems. They are so creative! We had a guest speaker from the Chamber of Commerce speak to us about how the Chamber works, and what it does for our community. We held our classroom Spelling Bee and our Champion was Tyler! He will compete against the finalists from the other classes for the school championship this coming week. On Friday we met our new Korean Exchange student named Beth. She will be with us for one month to experience American Schooling. Gretchen and Charlie are also hosting exchange students from Korea. The sister of one of our high school students teaches English in Korea and these are some of her students. They will be living with her while they attend school here. I am so excited for this opportunity!

Next Week

Students that would like to, will present their consumerism projects. We will also spend a great deal of time brainstorming and starting our sloppy copies for the Treasure Books. The Treasure Books will be a great opportunity to work through the writing process in preparation for the writing test. Towards the end of the week we will start our World Fair Unit that will be focusing on the geography and cultures of the world.

**If anyone still owes money for Outdoor School please turn that money in to the office by next week.

**Report cards will be sent out mid-week. They are slightly different from last year so please let me know if you have any questions.

Upcoming Events:

February 10: 4^th Grade State Writing Test

2009-01-20T07:29:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-01-11T11:32:00.001-08:00

Peregrine Press

January 12-16

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About, Exploring Forest Grove Businesses and Resources

Wednesday: P.E.

Thursday: Art

Friday: Geography Bee at the Library

Last Week

Well, for missing a whole extra week of school the students did a phenomenal job of getting right back into the routine. We continued our literacy circles, with two groups finishing their books, and the rest of the groups to finish this week. The reindeer tales were completed mid week and will be on display in the downstairs hall for anyone that is interested in coming in to see them. Each student turned in a brainstorming, rough draft and final draft so that I can assess just how well they understand the writing process and how to edit. I did not assist them in editing this assignment because I wanted to see what they were all capable of. They did a fantastic job! They are creative and well written with the use of literary devices.

Our Out and About to Goodwill was really interesting and fun. The students first went on a tour and learned many personal stories of people that Goodwill has helped over the years. The students finished the trip with a scavenger hunt to find specific household items and record their prices. A few days later we shopped online in the computer lab to try and find similar items and compare prices. The students impressed me with their ability to see many pros and cons to both shopping online and shopping at Goodwill.

We started the preliminary round of the Geography Bee and will finish the last 3 rounds this week. On Friday the top 2 students from our class will compete against 8 other students from our school, who will then be named our Geography Bee Champion. The champion from our school will then complete a written test to hopefully qualify for the regional bee.

Friday morning we had a guest speaker from Metro come and talk to the class about toxic chemicals found in the home. They learned how to read the different levels of toxicity on a label. The students summed up the presentation perfectly by saying that the best way to deal with toxic chemicals is to "not buy any." There are many ways to clean your house without using toxic chemicals and as consumers it is our job to make educated decisions about what we purchase.

Our party on Friday was a success! Thank you to those parents that donated goodies. Also, a big thank you to those that donated to the soldier care packages. I sent them out this weekend.

*We are starting to run low on pencils and erasers if anyone can please donate, that would be appreciated. Some of those pencil sharpeners that have a built in container to hold the shavings would be great too.

This Week

For our consumerism unit this week we will be focusing on Price vs. Cost. Students will learn about manufacturing, and the different types of work environments that exist for factory workers. They will also be looking at advertising techniques and will be doing an activity using some of those techniques.

Our Out and About will involve learning about the local businesses and resources that we have here in Forest Grove and how we as consumers can support them.

The school geography bee will be held in the Rogers Room at the Library on Friday at 11:15. You are invited.

Homework Update: I am going to send homework out this week but it may look different than previously. I only heard back from a few parents so I am going to try something new this week and talk with your children about homework they could do that they feel they would truly benefit from. We will talk about it being their responsibility. I am only sending homework home with the children that have requested it. (Or the parents requested it.) I would still like everyone to turn in a weekly update though, of things they worked on at home that are connected to goals that they have.

Upcoming Events

No School Monday the 19^th for Presidents Day

No School Friday the 23^rd for Report Card Prep

No School Monday the 26^th for Report Card Prep

Tuesday January 27^th arrival of our Korean Foreign Exchange Student

2008-12-15T09:13:00.001-08:00

Peregrine Press

December 15-19

Schedule

Tuesday: P.E.

Wednesday: Art

Thursday Out and About to Goodwill

Friday: Holiday Celebration

Last Week:

We had another great week! Our Out and About took us near B Street Farm where the students worked in groups to create "natural sculptures." They recently studied the work of an artist named Andy Goldsworthy that created these natural art forms using only the materials that were in the natural place. Our class created beautiful sculptures using fallen limbs, ivy, morning glory and other plant life. I again was very impressed with the teamwork and cooperation that took place in the different groups.

On Wednesday we spent some time learning about how to write a friendly letter. We then used those skills to write letters to our soldiers and to children in the hospital. We used old cards, fabric and other miscellaneous materials to create cards as well. This fit nicely with our study of consumerism, and the kids were able to see that you can create beautiful work without buying new materials.

The focus for the consumerism unit this week was "How Green is Our Clothing." We talked about different methods for growing cotton, and the impact of pesticides on different species. This sparked a great discussion about the challenges people face with trying to decide what to buy. Many kids feel that organic food is too expensive so their families can't afford it, but then they feel bad that they are hurting the environment.

We continued our work with literacy circles. I have seen some great leadership come out of this experience! We also reflected on our goals (we have been doing that every Friday). A new thing that I am hoping to incorporate every Friday is a weekly summary. As a class we brainstorm all of the things we did during the week and then each student is responsible for writing a summary about one or two of the topics. I feel that summarizing is a skill that students need some more practice with. I also have noticed that many students are mixing up plurals and contractions. During morning meeting we reviewed the differences between them, as well as when to us "a" and when to use "an" when dealing with a singular noun that starts with a vowel or consonant.

This Week:

I have no idea what to expect this week with the weather so we will just have to be flexible and prepared for anything. If we do have some regular days of school we will be working on our reindeer tales, literacy circles (creative writing activity) and consumerism. Our trip to Goodwill will only happen if it is safe to do so. If it is too cold to walk we may try to take the bus, or we might try and reschedule for January.

**I am not sending homework this week, or over Christmas break.

**We are out of erasers so if anyone feels like donating either the eraser tops or the big pink erasers we would really appreciate it. Thanks.

**I will be boxing up the soldier care packages mid-week so any more donations of treats, or money for shipping would be wonderful!

2008-12-08T07:06:00.001-08:00

Peregrine Press

December 8-12

Schedule:

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to Ash Street Field for an Art connection

Wednesday: P.E.

Thursday: Art

Last Week:

Thank you so much for coming to the Celebrations of Learning! There was a great turn out and I have to say that the hot chocolate and cocoa made the night perfect. I loved watching the students and families interacting in a social setting where everyone was so happy. That night really showed me just how great our community is! I love being a part of it all.

We kicked off our consumerism unit with a study of potato chips. The students learned about how long it takes, and how many different materials are required to create a bag of potato chips. This process includes "inputs" and "outputs" that your children should be able to explain to you. We then visited Waste Management where we were able to see how much waste Forest Grove creates. We learned that 20 loads of semi-trucks take waste to the landfill in McMinnville every day, just from the Forest Grove site. The trucks can't weigh more than 92,000 pounds (including the weight of the truck itself). That is so much waste! I think one of the most favorite parts of the Out and About was when we all got on the giant scale and found that we weigh over 2,000 pounds as a class. On the way back to school we picked up litter off of the sidewalks to try and help clean up our town.

On Wednesday we watched the video title "The Story of Stuff" that I encourage you all to watch. You can google it and watch it on your computer. This showed the students the process all goods go through from extraction to production to waste, with a few other steps in between. This helped the students to see that we consume in a linear cycle that is polluting our earth and is not sustainable. Thursday the students were assigned a group and a task with very little direction from me that was to simulate the steps in creating any "good or product". They could earn reward tokens or penalty tokens depending on the actions they took. (Those actions either polluted the environment or helped conserve materials.) This was not only a great activity for the kids to see how every single thing that they do effects someone or something, this was also a great teambuilding activity. I saw students working really well together to accomplish the task.

At Running Club I was really impressed with how many more kids were running. They also are demonstrating a higher level of success and independence with working on mean, median, mode and range.

We started literacy circles this week as well. I know many of the students are not really excited about the books they are reading, but I am hoping they will get past that because literacy circles are a great opportunity for students to improve their reading fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension. It is also a great opportunity for students to be leaders and learn to compromise.

***On Thursday every student should have brought home a list of things that the soldiers would appreciate in their care packages. I encourage you if you can, to provide even just one thing off of the list. My goal is to have those done by this Friday so that they can be sent off in time to arrive before Christmas.

This Week:

We will continue or study of consumerism with a focus on how "green" our clothes are. In order to do a really cool activity though I need a soil sample from everyone and the soil needs to be dried out. I sent home homework last week for everyone that explained this, but only 2 students bought back the soil. Please send in a snack bag of soil as soon as possible.

We are going to start writing letters and Christmas cards to kids in the hospital to hopefully bring some cheer to their holidays. Literacy circles will continue as well. Towards the end of the week my goal is to start a writing activity where the students will get to use their imaginations to write reindeer tales. Last year we wrote Turkey Tales about how a turkey may or may not have escaped Thanksgiving Dinner and the students really seemed to enjoy that.

***Outdoor School money reminder: The payments are due on the 5^th of each month so if you have not paid for December please get that to Donna in the office ASAP. Thanks!

Upcoming Events

Monday December 15^th: Buddy Lunch and All School Meeting

Thursday December 18th: Out and About to Goodwill

Friday December 19th: Holiday Celebration (I would like to show a Christmas movie as part of the fun. If you object to a PG movie please let me know so that I can make an appropriate decision about the movie. I would also like to do hot chocolate and candy canes if anyone would like to donate either of those items. I encourage people to bring a mug so that we don't have to waste any paper cups.)

2008-12-01T07:18:00.000-08:00

Peregrine Press

December 1-5

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to Waste Management

Wednesday: PE; Celebrations of Learning 5-6:30

Thursday: Art

Last Week:

Those 2 days were jam packed. We had another buddy lunch and All School Meeting on Monday. We also spent a great deal of time working on the class newsletter. Each student contributed to the newsletter and several student editors typed it all up and designed the layout. That newsletter will be completed on Monday and will hopefully be sent out by Tuesday. Tuesday Laura led us in a great teambuilding activity where students created "monsters." Your children can probably explain it J. Tuesday afternoon we worked with literary devices (writing enhancers) such as alliteration and personification to write poems about Thanksgiving or November.

This Week:

Celebrations of Learning

Wednesday, December 3rd

-At FGCS

-5:00-6:30

-Bring a mug and a treat if you can. We will provide hot chocolate and coffee.

For our celebrations of learning I would encourage anyone that can, to please bring in a treat to be shared. It would be great if we could share some of the food that the students included in their heritage projects. This night will be an opportunity for students to share their heritage projects, their Outdoor School projects and also kick start our service projects. The class has voted on two main service projects for the winter. The first is to adopt a local family to provide gifts for. This will be through the Family Resource Center. The second is to assemble care packages for soldiers overseas. We have several students in our class this year that have family members serving overseas and we really want to show our support. So, this Wednesday, at the Celebrations of Learning I would love to kick start these projects and get the details out to everyone.

For the months of December and January our main theme will be Consumerism. For this unit students will be learning about product life cycles, persuasive ad techniques, reducing consumption and many other aspects of consumerism. Our Out and About to Waste Management will be a great way to get the class thinking about how much we "consume" and waste.

Upcoming Events

December 9^th: Out and About to Ash Street Field

December 19^th: Classroom Holiday Celebration

2008-11-29T08:21:00.001-08:00

Peregrine Press

December 1-5

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to Waste Management

Wednesday: PE; Celebrations of Learning 5-6:30

Thursday: Art

Last Week:

This Week:

Celebrations of Learning

Wednesday, December 3rd

-At FGCS

-5:00-6:30

-Bring a mug and a treat if you can. We will provide hot chocolate and coffee.

Upcoming Events

December 9^th: Out and About to Ash Street Field

December 19^th: Classroom Holiday Celebration

2008-11-29T08:10:00.001-08:00

Peregrine Press

December 1-5

Schedule

Monday: Running Club

Tuesday: Out and About to Waste Management

Wednesday: PE; Celebrations of Learning 5-6:30

Thursday: Art

Last Week:

This Week:

Celebrations of Learning

Wednesday, December 3rd

-At FGCS

-5:00-6:30

-Bring a mug and a treat if you can. We will provide hot chocolate and coffee.

Upcoming Events

December 9^th: Out and About to Ash Street Field

December 19^th: Classroom Holiday Celebration

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