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