Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Yesterday, Tuesday March 2nd, we celebrated this famous author’s, (Theodore Geisel’s), birthday reading with our fourth grade buddies and doing many hands on activities at morning Work Time Centers . In art, we are exploring chalk and oil pastels through the wonderful illustrations of Portland Author, Judy Coffelt . Please...
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We are finishing our graph tests in my math group this week while we are continuing our unit on fractions. This week we are learning how to reduce fractions to lowest terms. We are continuing the unit on colonies in Social Studies. Please check my website for the weekly assignments for this unit. Students...
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Yesterday our class celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Children picked out their favorite Dr. Seuss book and drew a picture of their favorite part. They also wrote about something hidden in their pocket after I read, “There’s A Wocket In My Pocket”. It was fun to see what they drew. This week, we continue work...
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I have been working on 3rd quarter assessments with your children and continue to be amazed at the growth this group has made. It is very exciting!  Our lead story this week is called Bunny Day. It is a fiction story that really focuses on the clock. We are going to be reviewing how...
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We continue with our xylophone extravaganza. Kindergarten and first graders are exploring the instruments with the poems Little Bird and Bow Wow Wow. Second graders are working with a piece in D minor pentatonic. This piece is rather challenging as it introduces them to a difficult mallet technique known as the a cross over....
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This week is flying by! While we are continuing to focus our worktime this week around the story, Hide Clyde, we have also taken a day off to attend a fun and informative assembly about water conservation. We then came back to class and wrote about how we can save water and why water...
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On Monday we celebrated our 100th day in school! We started this special day by joining Ms. Leake and Ms. Swan’s classes on the playground. The children completed activities such as: bouncing the ball 100 times, doing 100 jumping jacks, touching toes 100 times and many more! The children were tired by the end...
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A few days ago many of us moved to new places in the classroom.  This provides us with opportunities to make new friends.  Through out the day, we often work and have conversations with our tablemates.  There is always a little give and take and sharing when solving issues.  As we remembered George Washington’s...
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Last week we celebrated President Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays and the start of world wide Asian Lunar New Years celebrations through many learning experiences. We did math with a variety of coins, literacy through poetry, writing and interactive, hands on activities including taste testing, puppet making, log cabin crafting and Asian bean planting and...
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Homework for the week of February 22nd is as follows: Reading Log Math – multiplication
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I hope that you all received the notice about our drama performance being changed to Wednesday, March 3rd, so that it will not interfere with the PTA meeting on the 4th. This Thursday we are going on a walking field trip to the Cooley Gallery at Reed College. The featured exhibit is Terry Winters:...
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MONDAY: Spelling homophones. TUESDAY: Perimeters at home. WEDNESDAY: Research penguins and write an expository paragraph. THURSDAY: Students work on place value in 3-digit numbers.
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Last week we read different versions of The Three Little Pigs and worked on sequencing– answering “What happened?” and in “What order?” Students drew pictures of the straw house, the stick house, and the brick house. This week we will do a printmaking project based on these three houses. On Monday, Lee worked with...
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****We celebrated “100’s Day” today! Along with two other classes, we got a lot of exercise by working our way through a variety of stations, such as “Do 100 jumping jacks” or “Run 100 yards!” Luckily, we had a beautiful sunny morning to pull off our event. It is hard to believe that we...
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If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the science projects outside our fifth grade classrooms, please take some time to drop by. The science projects are very impressive; also your children did a wonderful job explaining their investigations. Thank you for your support with these projects. We are beginning our...
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There is a lot of excitement in our class. Students have started to write their rough drafts for their speeches. Since the speeches are based on the students’ favorite books, many students have been eagerly sharing their copies of their books. I anticipate that we will start to practice delivering the speeches next week....
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We are starting our colony unit for Social Studies this week. The students helped color the map that we will using. They also each have a Mayflower passenger to research and write a biography. Please see my webpage http://sylviajen.posterous.com for assignments that the students will be doing in this unit. They will have an...
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The weather has been so sunny, yet cold, so recess is happening each day; please remember to have your child bring a warm coat to school each day for the cold wind. This week the class will be learning about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, as well as more famous Black Americans. We will...
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***We had such a wonderful time at our Valentine’s party! The room and tables were colorfully decorated and the treats were plentiful, thanks to all of you. The children were so excited to have their turn in the Valentine’s chair, hold up their heart folder and receive all the beautiful cards and wishes. It...
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The xylophones and metalophones have been ringing out lately in our general music classrooms. Kindergarten and first graders are exploring the instruments with the poems Little Bird and Bow Wow Wow. Second graders are working with a piece in D minor pentatonic. This piece is rather challenging as it introduces them to a difficult...
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Gung Hay Fat Choy! Last Sunday began the Asian Lunar New year of the Tiger! We are exploring the many ways Asian Lunar New year is celebrated across the world! Writing and painting with ink and Japanese horse hair brushes,taste testing a variety of traditional New Years foods and creating lion puppets and little...
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I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable weekend. We had such a delightful Valentine’s celebration. The kids had a lot of fun delivering and reading their cards! A big thank you to everyone who contributed goodies and to our helpers who set-up the room for us. I also want to thank, Violette’s...
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