Feliz Navidad! Our focus this week as been on the Spanish/Mexican celebration of Las Posadas! We made pinatas this week with the help and planning of Erin, Lily’s mom. She also helped us today create beautiful poinsettas! This is a very busy week for us, needless to say. Tomorrow we will be baking gingerbread...
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Miss Katie is ending her teaching practicum with our class this week. The children and I are sad to see her leave us. She will start her second teaching practicum at Beach Elementary in January. Miss Katie’s Author Unit on Patricia Polacco was a great success. The children and I wish her the best...
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Winter break starts this Friday, and I want to wish you all a joyous holiday. The holidays is a great time to snuggle up with your children and share a good book or play an interesting board game. Playing card games is a fun way to practice math skills. The only homework for students...
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Our gingerbread characters have come to life and are running through the most amazing adventures.  Bett’s gingerbread girl innocently drank a sleeping potion from the Fox and slept for one hundred years waiting for a gingerbread prince to awaken her with a kiss. During Winter Break please remember to read daily with your child,...
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The year is coming to a close, and third graders are finishing up several units and projects as well. We had our final art session with Lisa Kagan last week and are putting finishing touches on our pieces. We have finished our character studies and our fall focus on fiction in reading. In January...
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Monday: Using varibles and looking for patterns. Tuesday: Writing expressions with variables Wednesday: Solving simple equations. Thursday: Working expressions with two variables.
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Last week we learned more about why it snows, the nature of snowflakes, and read about Bentley’s snowflakes. Some students traced projected images of his snowflake photos. We also read about some animals that hibernate and why they do so. Students have also been adding more elements to our Winter Wonderland mural, including photos...
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***We look forward to Fridays when our school counselor, Jenelle Winter comes for a lesson. Lately, we have been discussing the difference between large and small problems, which coincides nicely with the solving of problems we already do in our classroom. Ask your child about Mrs. Winter’s latest magic trick. ***A big thank you...
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The last week of 2010 brings two field trips, an in-school performance, and a buddy celebration (along with homework, but I’ll try to sneak that one in!). We released our salmon on Monday. Please visit mrmarchyok.wordpress.com for a slide show. Thursday is our theater experience at the Imago Theater. Please be in room 20...
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I can hardly believe that this is our last week of school before Winter Break! December is flying by and this week will be filled with fun learning lessons in which students will participate. Monday was the last day that students spent time in the learning garden with Miss Julia until Spring. During Monday’s...
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We hope you had an enjoyable weekend and we are glad to have our students back! This week we will be finishing our last Work Time Center focus for December. We’ve been reading a fiction book titled “Bear Snores On”. New adjectives are being introduced to the students in this unit, which are being...
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We started off this week with a field trip to the Willamette River to release our salmon. We are continuing our study of electricity. This week we are learning about circuit breakers and fuses and electrical safety. Our social studies unit of maps continues with Step 4 of the Fantasy Island project. Please note...
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We released our salmon into the Willamette River on Monday. I’ve really enjoyed having them in the classroom and watching them go through the process of hatching from the eggs and into 1 1/2 inch fish that will hopefully return to our area sometime in the next few years. Last week we read a...
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This week we are continuing to study the many celebrations around the world that have light and family at their core on these rather dark days of December. Last week we learned about Las Posadas, the Mexican winter celebration. We read the big book, Magda’s Tortillas and followed it up with sharing our own...
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I hope everyone is feeling a bit better these days!  We have been practicing the Vampire Sneeze (sneezing into the crook of one’s arm), discussing the importance of using a tissue, and reminding each other to wash our hands the way Nurse Sabrina taught us.  Regarding Worktime Centers, the children have been doing a...
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We started the week discussing the European holiday, St. Nicholas Day. St. Nicholas rides his horse and puts treats in children’s shoes. We left our shoes outside to see if he would visit us, and sure enough he did! Some kids reported seeing his horse outside our window. What fun! This week as we...
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Field trips! Field trips! They are coming next week. Our fourth and fifth graders will be releasing our salmon (alvin) in the Willamette River this Monday, December 13th. We will be grouping up with other classes, and we will take different public transportation from 9:30a.m. to 10:30a.m. Our young salmon survived having water that...
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We hope you all had a restful and fun three day weekend! This week we are starting our last work time center focus for December. We are reading a fiction book called “Bear Snores On”. New adjectives will be introduced to the students in this unit, which will be incorporated into the work time...
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December brings celebrations to many families.  Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights began on the first and continues for eight days. St. Nicholas’s arrival on the sixth was celebrated by Liam’s family. In Sweden, St. Lucia will wear a wreath of greenery and candles to brighten the dark days of winter.  Many of us are...
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Hello families! I am having a lot of fun teaching your children! They are bright, creative and caring students who continue to impress me. I want to encourage them to keep working hard on their assignments. On Monday we learned the Oreo Cookie Scoring Guide that is now up in the classroom! We are...
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MONDAY: Sheet D Find the pattern. TUESDAY: Using patterns to solve word problems. WEDNESDAY: DAILY CUMULATIVE REVIEW Patterns and other problems. THURSDAY: Using a number-letter code.
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Last week we began doing some activities related to the beginning of the winter season and the holidays. Students each shared with the class what they did for Thanksgiving, and we reviewed photos of our walking trip to Safeway. Students finished glazing their clay ornaments, and those are now on display in the glass...
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