Classroom Wishes

Hello families,

There are a few things we could really use in our classroom, and perhaps you have them lying around your house and would be willing to lend or donate them:

-floor lamps (could just be borrowed until after Forest Festival)
-electric kettle
-gift cards to Powells
-2013 Nikki McClure Calendar
-Bean bags or comfy floor seats for silent reading
-Book sets: 4-6 copies of the same book 2-4 grade reading level

Thank you so much for all of your support, and especially to Greg H. for my standing desk!

Best,

Catie

Upcoming Native American Events

Please mark your calendars for these two upcoming Native American events.  Both of these events are connected to our study of the Chinook people and I highly encourage you to try to make it to one of them with your child:

1. Native Heritage Month Celebration at PSU on Friday, Nov. 30th. See the flyer in the previous blog post (Thanks, Susan!)

2. Tribal Cultural Heritage Night at Sauvie Island Academy on Thursday, Dec. 13th (time TBD).  This event is being put on by Jeremy’s friend and former student teacher, Asa Gervich, who teaches at Sauvie Island Academy.  It will involve learning Chinook Wawa, crafts, games, dancing, and more.

Weekly Update-Catie's Class

Math

Last week, we worked on creating efficient strategies for solving 2 and 3 digit addition problems.  We’ll continue looking at strategies for 2 and 3 digit subtraction problems next week.  I will add a post to the blog in the coming days about the variety of strategies that students are bringing to the classroom and the strategies that I am teaching.

Writer’s Workshop

Last week we focused on drafting our Chinook Personal Narratives.  We especially focused on writing Great Beginnings and paragraphing.  Students should finish drafting during the Thanksgiving Break so that we can begin revising and editing their stories when they return.  Right now I am tentatively planning on an Author’s Tea on Friday, Dec. 14th - mark your calendars and I will confirm the date and time soon.

Reader’s Workshop

Last week we continued working on summarizing what we are reading.  The students are getting better at this, but we need to continue practicing.  The key thing with summarizing is not trying to retell the entire book/chapter, but focusing on main ideas.  This is a difficult thing for many third graders to do.  You can support this at home by having them verbally (or occasionally in writing) summarize what they are reading.

Chinook

Last week, there was a fire set near our village....but it was intentional.  The students learned about why native tribes would sometimes set intentional fires in the forest.  We also did a science lab to learn about what fire needs in order to exist.

Salmon

Our salmon are growing quickly.  We are getting a variety of estimates on the amount of time until they will need to be released.  My guess at this point is that they will need to be released next week.  We’ve been given strict orders from Oregon Fish & Wildlife to not release these salmon into a small creek, so we will need to release them into the Willamette.  Right now, let’s plan on a Salmon Release for Friday, Nov. 30th at 3:30 pm on the submarine dock at OMSI.  Students will need to get rides to this event.  Maureen will transfer the salmon to buckets and bring cups so that each child who attends can release some of the salmon into the Willamette River.

Ask Your Third Grader...

I’d love to hear your personal narrative.  Can you read it to me?
Why would the Chinook and other tribes set intentional fires?
What does fire need in order to exist?  How do you know this?  Is fire alive?
What are you thankful for?

Important Things Coming Up...

Nov. 24 - Chief Lelooska Performance 7 pm
Nov. 30 - Salmon Release at OMSI 3:30 pm
Dec. 6 - Potlatch 12:30-3:00 pm
Dec. 7 - Forest Festival 5:00-8:00 pm

Thanks for sending such grateful students to school each day,

Catie

Thanks Susan (Flynn's mom) for this flyer, the event looks great! I am going to try to attend, anyone else? Please comment on the blog if so!

Photos from yet another busy week!

Enjoying and observing nature and seasonal change at their sit spot

The joys and perils of angling

Native Plant Gathering

Oh no! They harvested Snowberry!

Another request-if you have any Paper Towel tubes (not toilet paper) the students are making their clan totems on Tuesday. Please send them with your student! We need 5.

Can you spot the frog? The students sure did! Also, a couple of the students and I were talking about the duckweed on the pond there and what makes that such a good place for it to grow? Please encourage and support your students to do research in things they are interested in! 

Weekly Update-Catie's Class

Math

This week we continued working on place value.  We especially focused on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and using rounding to help us make estimations.  Estimating is challenging for 3rd graders!  They really want an exact answer.  It’s helpful to support this at home by asking them to give a rough estimate.  When you think about, as adults, we do far more estimation than exact calculation - it’s an important skill to have.

Writer’s Workshop

This week we read some personal narratives, learned what personal narratives are, and began working on some graphic organizers to help us organize our stories.  The students will be writing personal narratives from the perspective of their Chinook characters.  The kids are doing a great job of taking their own experiences and adapting them to their characters.  It will be fun to see how these narratives turn out.

Reader’s Workshop

This week we started practicing summarizing our reading and differentiating this from simply retelling the whole story.  We’ll continue with this skill next week. We also practiced empathizing with the characters to make a stronger connection with the story and help our understanding.

Chinook

This week the Chinook villagers went on a plant gathering mission in order to prepare for the winter ahead.  They did a fantastic job and learned a lot about native plants in the process. Thanks to Bonnie and Jamyelese and all of the Feast suppliers.

Salmon

Our salmon are now in the alevin stage, which means that they have hatched, but they still carry around their egg sac on their bellies.  This egg sac provides all the nutrients they need at this point.  Gradually these egg sacs will shrink and disappear.  Once their gone, our salmon will need to be released so that they can find their own food.  Right now we’re estimating that they will need to be released around the time we return from Thanksgiving break.  I’ll keep you updated.

Chief Lelooska

The tickets should be arriving this week.  I will e-mail you on the day I send them home so that you can check your child’s backpack.  I will give them out along with the order form you filled out.  Remember to mark your calendar for Saturday, Nov. 24th at 7 pm if you ordered tickets!

Ask Your Third Grader...

What is a personal narrative?

What is your personal narrative going to be about?

Tell me about the plant gathering your tribe did?

What did you learn about native plants this week?

Tell me about your experience “angling” at Columbia Children’s Arboretum?

Important Things Coming Up...

Nov. 12 - Veteran's Day Observed (No School)

Nov. 19-20 - Parent-Teacher Conferences (No School)

Nov. 21-23 Thanksgiving Break (No School)

Nov. 24 - Chief Lelooska Performance (7 pm)

Thanks for sending such persistent  and supportive students to school each day, (ask about the challenges of angling!)

Catie

Weekly Update-Catie's Class

November 2, 2012

I am at a powerful conference on Ahimsa (active nonviolence) and Sustainable Happiness. I am reconnecting with incredible educators from a fellowship I participated in two years ago, and interacting with scholars from around the world. I am both rejuvenated and overwhelmed with all of the information/ideas I am bringing back with me to Portland. It also confirms my belief in the education we are providing students at Sunnyside. We are so lucky.

Math

This week we returned to good ole’ Base 10 math.  We are continuing to focus on the importance of place value so that the kids become comfortable decomposing number (taking them apart) and composing numbers (putting them together).  An example of decomposing a number is this:

347 = 300 + 40 + 7 or 3 hundreds, 4 tens and 7 ones

It’s important that students understand that there are only 10 digits in base ten math (0-9) - all of our numbers are simply a combination of these 10 digits.  We’ll continue to work on this concept in the coming weeks.

Writer’s Workshop

Thank you all for coming to our Author’s Tea on Thursday.  The kids are feeling really proud of their work as writers and it really gives them a boost to have an audience to read to.  Next week we’ll begin exploring personal narratives (also known as memoirs).

Reader’s Workshop

This week we began a new read aloud called Island of the Blue Dolphins, by  Scott O’Dell. This novel is about a native tribe off the coast of California and one girls struggle to survive and take care of herself.  We focused on asking questions about our reading this week, as well as writing a concise summary.  

Chinook

This week the students finished creating our characters and their longhouses.

Salmon

Our salmon eggs have hatched!  We’ll get to see them grow and change over the next couple of weeks.  Right now we’re estimating that they will be ready to release right before Thanksgiving.  I’ll keep you updated.  The students also completed posters this week about salmon lifecycles, different kinds of salmon, the connections of salmon to the forest, the obstacles salmon face, salmon habitat, and salmon anatomy. You will get to see these great pieces during the Forest Festival

Parent-Teacher Conferences
 

I will send out an updated schedule via e-mail as soon as everyone has signed up for a time. Thanks for trying a new way of signing up, it seems to be working well.

Chief Lelooska

The tickets should be arriving this week.  I will e-mail you on the day I send them home so that you can check your child’s backpack.  I will give them out along with the order form you filled out.  Remember to mark your calendar for Saturday, Nov. 24th at 7 pm if you ordered tickets!  I will see you there!

El Dia de Los Muertos

Wow. I am blown away by this classes ability to create such a safe and supportive environment. My apologies for keeping the students until 3:10 on Thursday afternoon, we were having a sharing circle where everyone who wanted to shared a memory about people and pets who are no longer with us, and it was powerful. Interrupting the flow would have been wrong.

Field Study

In light of the predictable Portland weather, Jeremy, Jens and I are organizing a group of parents who can stay at school after drop off on Monday and/or Tuesday to create “sit-upons” for the students on our field studies. These will be made out of tarps, and their creation involves cutting 2’ x 2’ squares of tarp (which we have) and duct tape sealing the edges. This provides a dry surface for students to sit on while on our field study. Ideally, we’d like 50 to start off, one for each student at the field study (and can be shared among classes), with the end goal being one for each student in third grade. Please e-mail me to let me know if you have duct tape to donate or would like to participate. The more folks, the less work for all.

Ask Your Third Grader...

What do the salmon look like after hatching?
How do you know when salmon are ready to be released?
Which salmon poster did you work on?  What does your poster teach?
What was it like reading your writing to an audience at the Author’s Tea?
How was the musical singing audition?

Important Dates Coming Up...

Nov. 7 - Columbia Children's Arboretum Field Study
Nov. 9 - Teacher Planning Day (No School)
Nov. 12 - Veteran's Day Observed (No School)
Nov. 19-20 - Parent-Teacher Conferences (No School)
Nov. 21-23 Thanksgiving Break (No School)
Nov. 24 - Chief Lelooska Performance (7 pm)

Thanks for sending such supportive students to school each day,

Catie

Photos from another busy week!

Weekly update to come later. Right now, trying to catch my flight to a nonviolence and sustainable happiness teaching conference. Have a lovely weekend!

Finishing the Salmon Boards

Musical singing auditions (look at all those brave singers!)

Author's Tea

Our Dia de Los Muertos Altar