TAG News Tag plans will be sent home tomorrow for your review. If you have questions or would like to discuss any changes, please meet with your child’s teacher. Otherwise, please sign and return them to your teacher. Thanks.
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Congratulations to Michael Wehrli and all of our students for their fine performance of the adaptation of the children’s story- The Adventures of the Baily School Kids. This has been a two year drama residency. The students demonstrated greater confidence because of their previous drama experience. The students have finished their narrative writing assignment....
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Thank you for sending in so many leaves last week. We compared and sorted them. Then we read Leaf Man by Lois Elhert and made our own leaf animals. I hope you got a chance to see these fragile works of art. This activity could be recreated at home if you choose. Simply press...
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Last Wednesday’s trip to the farmers’ market was fantastic. Children had an opportunity to dance to music performed by local musicians, ask questions they had about the market, and buy items. I was so impressed by how polite all of the children were when making transactions with market vendors. Thanks to Serena, Daniel, Heather,...
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Our class is continuing to explore the changes that autumn brings. They are becoming quite good at being scientists and recording their data. I have filed their Sunflower Observation Journals to be shared with you at conferences. We are starting to focus on handwriting, helping children to understand why the correct way is important....
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As we wrap up our Fall unit, students will review what they have learned about the weather, leaves, apples, pumpkins and all other things Autumn. We have been watering and taking care of our bean sprouts and they are growing quickly. Some of our students are learning how to add 3 and 4 digit...
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The Election Race has begun! The rest of this week is focused on completing our candidates! So far the candidates are turning out great! The class voted for a all-female race for 5th grade representative. Many of the posters created by the campaign teams are up in the hallway. Next Monday we will present...
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We have completed our unit of math focused on 3-D geometry, and we are starting a new book on 2-D geometry entitled “Sunken Ships and Grid Patterns”. This is a fun one involving time for students to work on the computer. They’re learning to use positive and negative coordinates to name locations on a...
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Every Wednesday afternoon, room 5 has a communication group with Mr. Lee Klinski, our Speech/Language Communication Specialist. This semester our theme focus for this group is yellow submarine. We use a single theme to teach many concepts and skills and it is important for us to remain with the same theme for an extended...
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***Today we went on an exciting field trip to Whitaker Pond in N.E. Portland. It is located just north of Columbia Blvd. on 47th Ave. The children got to take a close peek at the organisms and wildlife that exist in this natural pond habitat. While half of the class took a nature walk...
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The week began with exploration of story characters in, ‘There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat”, making words using know word chunk, “am” and we are learning three new seasonal poems to add to our poetry books and help in our “Word Fairy” word wall word studies during Worktime Centers. Readers are...
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We continue this week learning more about trees for our Kindergarten Science Unit by discovering creatures that live in trees and what foods and other useful items come from trees. The letter/sound Hh is the focus this week and children will be practicing Hh in writing, reading, and creating. Work job centers include handwriting,...
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***What a glorious autumn day! Minutes ago we returned from our walking field trip to Reed College to view the works of artist Peter Kreider. We were thoroughly prepared by Gregory MacNaughton during his excellent presentation last week. He showed us slides of other contemporary artists who take an idea of everyday objects and...
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TAG News Reminder: Thurs, Oct 25 TAG Parent Evening Meeting – 7-8:30 PM BESC, Board Room – 501 N Dixon St Portland, OR 97227 Featured Speaker: Jeff Sosne, Psychologist, The Children’s Program “Beyond Intelligence: Other Factors Important to Success” Parking: Guest Parking – Front Entrance and L1 level (off Interstate) Directions to BESC: See...
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Vote! Vote! Vote! This week is the beginning of elections for the 5th grade classroom. There are three candidates from the 5th grade classroom that are running for a “school representative”. Each group is creating a Flat Stanley candidate. They will then present their candidates to the two 4th grade classrooms for a vote....
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Last Thursday, our class was very fortunate and went to the outdoor center in between rain showers. We observed four native plants that are growing there. Students learned to identify Western Red Cedar, Salal, Sword Fern and Huckleberry. We found them each in our outdoor center and even tasted huckleberries. Thank you to Julia...
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In general music this week all grades are playing instruments!. For Kindergartners and 1st Graders we are getting to know our mallets with some simple, but fun mallet games. They are also learning how to strike the xylophone to get the best sound. Were using some simple but fun poems to help with timing,...
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We finally were able to go on our field trip to the Eastside Esplanade. Thank you Sue Korpela, Kevin cunningham, and Sharon Blajev for stepping up to chaperone on such short notice. You made it possible for our students to have a truely memorable field trip. The next important event in our students’ lives...
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Our babies have arrived and we are very excited! After a week of anticipation while our aquarium was being prepared, Lindsey Arnold, the head of Reed College’s Outreach Science program, delivered about 100 salmon eggs to our classroom. We will be watching over them as they hatch and become fry that will be released...
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I hope your child has shared many stories with you about our trip to Tryon Creek State Park. We were so lucky to have such beautiful weather squeezed between two very rainy days. The sun came out and when the wind blew, it looked like it was snowing golden flakes. We used our senses...
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Our first field trip was a great success! We lucked out on the weather– no rain on our walking trip to Learning Garden Labs. We learned about the life-cycle of pumpkins, and how to harvest them. Under a large chestnut tree, we observed the chestnuts and their spiky, protective coverings. We drank healthy tea...
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Routines are very important to the students in room 5. The more consistent the classroom routines, the less stress for the students. This makes it easier to learn. Consistent routines also give the students an opportunity to predict what will come next. We have daily routines, weekly routines and monthly routines. The monthly routines...
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