Again this year the Multnomah County Library has provided school librarians the opportunity to sign up students for their incredible summer reading program. I have enrolled all Lewis students in the program and will distribute gameboards and explain the program before school is out. If you don’t want your child to participate please just return or recycle the materials. The Summer Reading program encourages kids to keep reading over the summer. It consists of a reading game with prize incentives, and a wide array of free events and fun activities for children and families. Research shows that students maintain or improve reading skills during the summer by participating in summer reading programs!

Bugs, bugs, bugs! That will be the focus for the next two weeks of school. Many activities are planned; children will learn about the stages of a butterfly, as they observe them in class; bees, spiders, ladybugs and other bugs will be included, as children learn about the different characteristics of insects and spiders. On Monday, Ms. Julie took the children out to the garden center and the new butterfly garden being created-what fun! Tomorrow at 1:30pm the two kindergarten classes will be performing different theater games for their buddy classes. Please join us in the cafeteria to watch your child perform for an audience; there will not be an evening performance. On Friday, we will be meeting with our buddy class. We will going to Berkeley Park on Monday, June 9 with buddies to celebrate our times together- an ice cream sundae party is being planned; more information will be coming home as the time gets closer.

Students are working hard to get ready for the Talent Show on Friday, May 23rd. All 4 performing groups are scheduled to play. I will be sending home a letter this week with times and more specifics. Please make sure your students are practicing at home daily.

Please send $10 for your child’s yearbook; scholarships are available if this is a problem. Also I need to know by Friday your child’s t-shirt size so that I can order a t-shirt for each fifth grader. We will be visiting Learning Garden Laboratory on May 21 and need at least two parents to walk over with us; please let me know if you are available. Also we will be walking to Reed College on June 9th; we will visit the Cooley Gallery and make collages. If you can go with us on that walking field trip, we’d love to have you. Finally, arrangements are underway for a fifth grade barbecue in the Outdoor Center on the last day of school. We need parents to help with shopping, preparing, and serving lunch that day! Watch for more information from school in the next week…Please continue to monitor those weekly reading charts. All fifth graders should be reading nightly! Charts are due each Friday. Ms. Blakeley would like to thank all the parents and students for their support during her student teaching experience in our room. We appreciate all our parents; thanks for your support last week during Teacher Appreciation Week!

TAG 101: Meeting for Parents of Newly Identified Students

Meet District TAG staff to have your questions answered regarding the identification process, and programs and services available for your child.

When: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 7-8:30 PM

Where: BESC Board Room, Blanchard Education Service Center, 501 N. Dixon St.Portland, OR 97227

Thanks to everyone who helped with Teacher Appreciation week! The lunch was amazing and I even got my car washed:)
This week the second graders have been spending a lot of time working on the nonfiction books. We are starting to organize and write our books, which has been an exciting process. Hopefully next week the class will be able to share their completed books at an author’s tea. We will also keep the books in tubs for the students to read during quiet reading or choice time.
We took a walk with the people from bike safety this week. The class got the opportunity to see where the different crosswalks are around the school and how to use them safely. Since this is bus, bike and walk month, it was a good time to learn more about pedestrian safety.
We are continuing using the 100’s chart in math this week. I have been introducing new games during math time that the students are playing. The games will give them strategies of ways to make 100 through addition and subtraction.

The weekly notes this week brings sad news for students and parents. This is the last week for “Spelling” and “Math” homework. I can hear the cheers out there. Okay - it’s good news!!!
We are continuing our informational writing on bridges which will be turned into our bridge speeches by next week. Remember - Bridges are due this Wednesday. We look forward to seeing the hard work students have done in creating their bridge. If any parents feel their child reallyh can not build a bridge we do have an alterantive - a poster. Ask us for details today!!!
My first week of solo teaching went well and the week went by really fast. Thanks class for letting me teach you. Mrs. Sharp

The gent of “went” has just come home to join other challenging words in the Mystery Box of Spelling and Writing.  We have learned nine difficult words, all of which will be on the first grade year end spelling evaluation.  Our monarch larva-or caterpillars, are rapidly growing.  Is their skin becoming hard?  When will they become a chrysalis, and what is a chrysalis?  We have begun an insect garden on the table outside our door.  Look for new insects to land each day.  When your child’s insect appears, be sure to ask how they made it.  From start to finish, there is a lot of thinking and hard work.

Our last chess club meetings will be the week of May 22nd.
Kindergarten - 2nd grade will meet Thursday, May 22nd in the morning. Then, Friday, May 23rd Kindergarten - 5th grade will meet together in the cafeteria from 3:00-4:00 for an end of the year chess celebration! Please plan to attend!!!
It has been a great year and we are so proud of all of you!

Thank you to all the wonderful Lewis families for your appreciation last week and everyday! The teachers and staff here are so lucky. We enjoyed delicious treats, lunch, coffee, chair yoga and a chair wash. You are the best. My amazing week even ended with a surprise birthday celebration Friday afternoon. Thank you. I am looking forward to a trip to Powell’s Book Store. I will make very good use of your generous gift certificate. Thank you!
After looking at and reading frog and pond books from our school library, students came to the conclusion that the tadpoles I had found were actually going to become salamanders and not frogs. Amazing! They have frilly external gills and have grown front legs before their back legs. I checked another pond and did find some frog tadpoles. We are now comparing the two, as they become adults.
This week, each student has picked one of his or her narrative stories to publish. We are adding details to pictures and words, editing word wall spelling words, checking punctuation and learning about covers and title pages. We are also going to begin investigating seeds.

***Lewis parents are the greatest! Staff members were royally spoiled during Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you for all the treats and surprises. Believe me, we felt completely appreciated!
***The class LOVED our “Kitchen Chemistry” unit with our Reed intern, Tiffany Cook. We did an experiment to see how many drops of water could fit on a penny. The students were surprised to see that upwards of 30 drops would fit! We also had “Gak Galore” experiments as well as the class favorite…making sugar crystals, otherwise known as rock candy.
***In Math, we will be working on a new game called “Capture 5.” It’s a fun learning activity played on the hundreds chart. Watch for a copy to be coming home soon!

For Mother’s Day, our students all painted birdhouses, colored cards, and made gift bags. For Cinco de Mayo, we did a ring-toss game with Mr. Lee and practiced counting to five in Spanish: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco.  Some of the students have been practicing counting and adding skills by playing Bonkers and Yatzee. During our gardening class, Julia showed us how some of the vegetables are beginning to sprout, then we helped dig some dirt out of the butterfly garden.  Since the weather will be warmer, we’ll fill the sensory tub with water outside of our classroom. This week we will be learning about making the right choices in certain situations. We will also familiarize ourselves with common signs we see in public for things like restrooms, crosswalks, traffic lights, poison, exit, and so on.

Wow! The bridges look fantastic! If you haven’t had a chance to see them, stop by and take a peek. They will be displayed outside our classroom until the end of the week. In class, children have been presenting their speeches on their bridges. It is great to see how many children are remembering to use eye contact when speaking to the whole group. Please make sure to join us for Portland Museum Night on Wednesday evening from 6-7. Children will share all of the work they’ve done over the past seven weeks of our Portland Unit. On Thursday, Gregory MacNaughton from the Reed College Cooley Gallery will visit our class to prepare us for next Monday’s fieldtrip to the gallery to see an exhibit by Beat Generation artist Jess Collins. We will spend the morning in the gallery viewing art and then will have a chance to make some art at Reed. Last, we will eat lunch at Reed and then return to school in the afternoon. If you would like to join us, please let me know this week. Laura Ruffner’s last day with us is this Friday. She has done a terrific job, and we will miss her!

May themes for room 5 feature the color BROWN and
seed shapes. There is brown on the classroom
door, which is the visual cue to let the students know they
have arrived at room 5.
We will be making seeds out of small paper bags. These
will be our circle shapes. They will be used with the May
poem which is:
Brown, brown, the world goes round.
Put the seed into the ground.
Then you’ll see, the seed has power,
For it grows into a flower.

We were excited on Monday afternoon to have special guest speakers Major Hamel and Lt. Colonel Bishop from the Oregon National Guard give a presentation on Lewis and Clark. Students also had the opportunity to try on period costume pieces, examine animal pelts, and use a sextant. Be sure to ask your children why pirate captains wore eye patches!

This week, students are working on finishing up their work samples in science, writing, and math. In science, we are finishing up our unit on electricity, and we have all learned quite a lot! For writing, students are working on their persuasive pieces, writing from the point of view of a pioneer. We are working on problem solving skills and explaining our thinking in math. You have probably seen some of your child’s problem solving work in their homework this week.

We are having a lot of fun learning about the Oregon Trail. We started our simulation. Each student has an identity and a special job. Ask your child which job they have. We have made covered wagons and our people. We have packed the wagons with all the essentials. We had Lewis & Clark guest speakers on Monday. They were very informative.

Please put the Oregon Trail Gallery on your calendar. It will be on Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 6:30pm. Tickets came home Monday for the Oregon Trail Gallery. Please pass out to your invited guests. If you need more tickets, let us know. It would be great to know how many guests are coming, so we can plan refreshments accordingly. Thanks!

This week’s homework is cursive X (due 5/16), a book report (due 5/16), and the Oregon Trail projects are due on Monday, May 19th. If any student needs help with their Oregon Trail Challenge Project, we will be available on Wednesday, May 14th from 3-4 to help our students. If anyone needs extra assistance, let us know and we will make a time with you. We have been passing out materials to students (last week) and we will pass out more, if needed.

Today and Wednesday Kindergarten classes will be playing soccer. If the weather allows we will be playing outside. Please make sure your student is wearing appropriate shoes.
All 1-5 grade classes will play “Capture the Flag” on Monday and outdoor soccer Wednesday.
The annual Field Day is scheduled for Friday, June 6th . The alternate date is Monday, June 9th .

This past weekend I went bowling, bike riding and walked a few miles around the dog park in a vain attempt to work off some of the absolutely delectable desserts many parents showered our staff with last Friday! Everyday last week was made so special by all the wonderful ways you made us feel appreciated, we appreciate you, THANK YOU!
Last week we published the first issue of, “The Room 6 Newspaper.” It was an inspirational experience in writing informational text and proof reading, fun too! We also finished a collection of our poems and created some beautiful carp wind socks in honor of the Japanese celebration of children on May 5th. We also did a mini unit on ladybugs and last Friday we harvested the two types of radishes we had planted with our Americorp volunteer Teacher Julia. We sampled the radishes with sea salt and graphed the taste test together. I am happy to report that most of the class loved them! This week we continue to record changes our meal worms and new visitors, the milkweed bugs and praying mantis, are making in their life cycles. On Thursday we will enjoy a play by the kindergartners and Friday all the students and staff will be photographed together:) Please stop by and pick up some books to have your child read to you at home if you are able and keep reading to them please!

Last week, teacher appreciation week, was incredible! I felt so special and appreciative of all the wonderful happenings each day. I want to thank the PTA and all of the parents and family members of Lewis School; it is such a joy to work in such a fantastic school- thank you, thank you!!
Spring weather is finally arriving and flowers and plants are the focus of this weeks activities. Children will be learning about different plants and seeds through literature, math, science and art. There are four new high frequency words that are now on the word rings: they, this, we and on. Children are using them in their every day writing through journaling, science activities and work job center times. In Art, students will learn about warm and cool colors. Drama continues this week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; children will perform theater games at an assembly, which will be held on Thursday, May 22, in the afternoon and I will let everyone know the time when it becomes available. On Friday, the entire Lewis School students and teachers will have their picture taken together at 10:30 am. Please have your child bring in their homework flower as soon as possible so we can hang it up on our bulletin board in the classroom; this is the last formal homework assignment of the year; however please continue reading each night with your child.

Well Art Night was a big success!  We spent much of last week putting together the photo slide shows, adding music, and doing final edits in iMovie. Thanks to Mr. Lauer for letting us borrow a nice, big computer monitor to present our slide shows.  As with the rest of the school, our class had a good turnout for Art Night– six students came with their families. This week we continue our Home Living unit with stories and activities about shoes, glasses, bullies, table manners and more. Now that the weather is warming up, we plan to do more activities outside, like using the sensory tub and perhaps taking a walk to Berkley Park. We will do more gardening, and hopefully help work on the Butterfly Garden near our room. Some of our students have also been exploring new computer programs for cause-and-effect, counting, and letter recognition.