This week, we continue to work with Ms. Gereau on our research project. Students have each chosen their pond animal and are now learning how to write paragraphs with a topic sentence and supporting details.  Each writer, has taken notes and organized facts to use in their project.  Now we are ready to add the nonfiction text features that we studied in the last few weeks.    They begin by drawing a labeled picture of their animals that includes information along with the label.  Did you know that a beaver’s teeth are orange because  that front layer is made of a different, and much stronger, enamel than the white tooth beneath? Or that there are several kinds of water beetles, one of which, can bite?  These are the types of facts writers will share on their labeled picture.

In Math, students have shared various ways to add  a pair of two digit numbers.  Students are easily able to break apart the numbers into tens and ones and then use strategies such as ‘fast nines’ to come up with the correct total. Today we shared the ‘carrying method’.  Students are using green and yellow base ten pieces to aid them as they learn this traditional algorithm.  We talked about how when you were young, you were taught to ‘carry the one’.  We know that the ’1′ is really one group of ten.  For the next two weeks, we will giving students practice adding and subtracting two digit numbers with and without regrouping. Then we move into our next set of work places emphasizing work with big numbers.

Our field trip to Brookside Wetlands is next Tuesday from 9:00-11:45.  Please sign up to volunteer. The more chaperones we have, the more opportunities students have to be involved with the collecting and studying of the pond water/

The students earned 20 compliments! They voted to have a Game and Legos Day. Some of the students will bring a Math or Reading game to play with others. There is a group that is having a Legos Challenge. I am asking those children to keep an inventory of the pieces they are bringing in case some go missing. This event is happening on Thursday from 1:50-2:50. The students are looking forward to this fun event.

 
June 7th is the Volunteer Breakfast. I am sending home the invitation today. This is a great opportunity to thank those of you who have helped in the classroom or volunteered for a field trip. Please join us on Friday, June 7th at 8 o’clock.

We have been busy bees in Room 22. Last week we took our post-test on multi-digit multiplication and this week we completed our fourth grade math work sample. We will also be doing our final in class writing sample this week. Students will be writing a persuasive essay on a topic of their choice. It will be their chance to show what they have learned and what they are capable of writing without adult support.

We are well into our fifth round of Oregon Trail and Wagon Trains have started to really get into the groove of working as part of a team. The second trail decision was made this week: should the wagon party go and attempt to hunt buffalo or should they continue on their way towards the Platte River to get some much-needed water. Groups made many different decisions and they will find out their fates later this week. Students are continuing to write insightful entries in their trail diaries- I really encourage you to stop in and read what your child is writing if you have not done so already.

We are over halfway through reading The Westing Game now and detective teams are starting to piece together their clues to solve the mystery. We are still reading our choice books daily so please make sure your child is coming to school with a chapter book- I have noticed lately that less students are engrossed during choice book time. Thanks! Hope you are still enjoying the sun!

This important unit would have been impossible without your help preparing.  Thank you for all the cutting and folding!

An explanation paper about our trip to the Oregon Zoo went home in the Homework Folder yesterday.  Please read through it, complete and sign it (check the back), and return it by Monday, May 20th.  This trip gives us the opportunity to follow up our experiential math learning about both Penguins and Farms.

One of our recent favorite games is Around the World, an addition practice game.  Please remember first graders are expected to have basic addition and subtraction facts to 10 memorized by the end of the year.  If your family does not include daily practice it is time to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!  Remember it is time to give up finger counting!

Ms. Rhodman’s last day at Lewis will be this Friday, so we thank her for her time and commitment to our students as she completes her student teaching. The class really enjoyed reviewing all the genres of literature that she prepared for her work sample.

We also have finished our animal research papers. The children were very excited about doing those. I think they are going to love our next Science unit which is “Pond Habitat.” It will culminate in our trip to Brookside Wetlands on May 28th. (Those permission slips went home on Tuesday.)

This week in Math we are working on developing strategies for adding and subtracting two digit numbers. We will also be working on counting money and making change as well as multiplying.

On Monday we had guest speaker, Lynn Vandekamp from the Environmental Services of the City of Portland. She was here to teach us all about habitat. She told us at Brookside, there are really five habitats: pond, wetland, creek, upland and forest. We also played a rousing game of Habitat Bingo! And, just to top it off, we got to see skulls of a blue heron, beaver and a coyote, Very informative.

For Math, we are reviewing skip-counting as a strategy for multiplication and division. For Reading, students are doing assessments and reading leveled books. Some read-alouds include books about weather and a book with beautiful photographs by Walter Wick called “A Drop of Water”. After they have finished writing about their favorite movies, next week students will write about their favorite water activities. To prepare for this, students discussed some common water activities like boating, fishing and canoeing, then voted for their favorite one. Then we did the same voting activity discussing and comparing swimming, water sliding, and water tubing.

bpost@pps.net http://room7mrpost.wordpress.com/

For Reading, students are working on their Reading A-Z literacy materials that go with the fictional stories they read last week. For Math, we are finishing up a mini-unit on telling time, then moving on to skip-counting, multiplication and division. We are also starting our new theme unit, “Water, Water Everywhere”, which is about the water cycle and the many ways water is part of our everyday lives. Students were introduced to the basic concepts by playing Water Cycle Bingo during Quiet Time. We are also reading articles about water and students will begin to write about their favorite water activities.

In Mathematics the students are using a variety of strategies to add and subtract larger numbers. Some of the strategies used will be introduced in lessons while others the students will invent some of them. The students will practice the skills that they are learning in structured activities and in Math games. Periodically, I will send home activities that as a family you can do together. Today I am sending home a game called Make 200. This game provides practice with 2- and 3- digit addition and subtraction. Have fun!

Thank you to Ezra, Jodi, Amy, Ed, and Gloria for volunteering to come with us to Cinderella. The children and myself appreciate your support.

Last Friday we were treated to an investigational visit to the garden.  According to the children, insect traps were prepared to lure insects.  Using a magnifying glass the investigation of different species took place.  The game I Spy an Insect was also played.  With respect, no insects were harmed during our visit.  Ask your child what they remember about the Garden.  Our followup visit will be this Friday.

Dearest Parents,

Next week begins our Farm Math Unit.  It requires the children to use the math they have learned throughout the year in a very fun way.  Before you know it, your child will be a farmer with land, roads, a farm house, barn and silo.  This unit requires much preparation, especially cutting.  I am depending on all of you to help us get started.  Cutting can be done at home and returned.  Some cutting must be done on the paper cutter at school.  Please inquire!  THANK YOU, your child’s grateful teacher.

Our class was very proud of their five displays, all different types of portraits. We worked in the style of Modigliani and Picasso, plus did oil pastels and acrylics. Our Pre-Columbian works, done with glue, foil and shoe polish drew a lot of attention. But our class’ biggest draw seemed to be the painted acrylics of each student blowing a BIG bubble! What fun!

A huge thank you to the children for all their efforts. They worked so hard. Our docents (Enzo, John, Annie, Henry P., Nick, Delia, Mason, Lily, Tristan, Henry C., Tru, Abbey, Garrett, Adaline, Colin, Maile and Logan) couldn’t have been cuter and did a fantastic job representing our class.

Thank you to the teachers for always surprising us each year with their wonderful art lessons. I always encourage student teachers to walk through the halls and take lots of pictures to inspire them as they go out into the world to start their own classrooms. Thanks to Mr. Jamesbarry for doing his own special kind of magic. I’m also grateful to our parent helpers for getting things matted and ready. A special congratulations to Julie Wallace for heading up the Paintbrush Cafe the second year in a row and making it look easy. It isn’t. ;-> And, thank you to all the parent and staff volunteers who helped out.

My final thank you goes to Mr. Lauer for his constant belief in and support of the arts. I have worked on Art Night for 25 years and have been so grateful to keep it going through three principals who shared my enthusiasm. I really believe in the importance of the arts. There are children who may only have success in school with art and that is enough to keep them going. Art can open up a new world to each of us. Thank you for supporting our efforts.

This week in Oregon Trail we are arriving at our first Fort- Fort Kearney- and the pioneers will have the opportunity to buy some much needed supplies. Many wagon trains are reeling after the events of last week. Rather than choosing to buy the water that they needed, every single wagon train chose to fight the armed guards for access to a well and many lives were lost. The diary entries that were written after the fight were filled with remorse and sadness, and it is unlikely that the pioneers will make such a risky decision again.

In literacy, we are continuing our reading of The Westing Game. The class cannot get enough of the book and the student detectives are working hard in their teams to compile clues. Each chapter is filled with more twists and just when groups come up with a theory they find out new information. It is a blast to hear the ideas that students are coming up with!

To bring to a close our persuasive writing unit students are giving a persuasive speech to the class. They are being graded on ideas and content, organization, language, and delivery. It is a great opportunity for students to hone their speaking skills and for the rest of the class to hear and celebrate each others ideas.

As the weather gets nicer and we all want to spend time outside it is common for there to be a bit of a slide in homework completion. Please help me keep students focused and academically successful by maintaining the same standards you have had all year. Thanks!

If you have not yet had an opportunity to stop by the classroom and see the artwork hanging in the halls please do so! The Jackson Pollock pieces will be coming down this week to be replaced by the Book Group projects we have been working on the last few weeks. Students worked hard to create a culminating poster that displays the learning they have done. Please come have a look!

We are still working hard in our big numbers unit in math.  Students have been utilizing strategies to solve these tricky problems. I love hearing their reasoning and listening to them share ideas with their peers.  We have our Cinderella field trip this week and we have been enjoying reading lots of Cinderella stories from different cultures.  We are finishing up our family egg project this week.  We will be starting some art projects related to our read aloud, The BFG. It’s another fun week in Room 12!

We are using what we learned about fractions, decimals, percents, to create a math board game. We are also using math in real-life situations of finance, such as calculating profit and loss in selling a house. This week we are finishing our Vertebrate unit in Science. Our next unit is microworlds. Students will be learning how to use a microscope and view a different perspective of our wonderful world!

We will be starting new novels during Language Arts that are historical fiction dealing with the Revolutionary War. I hope your child brought in a tea cup for our Boston Tea Party this week! We cannot have a tea party without the proper cups! Our latest acts have been the Stamp Act and Quartering Act. Some of the students have lost the use of their chair for a day due to the Quartering Act. There are also rumors that the colonists are using goods other than Britain’s goods. I think that conflicts will be worsening this week!

I sent home notes on the scores that your child made in our first round of the Science, Reading, and Math OAKS state tests. Your child may take a second test this month if he did not Meet in those tests.

Please continue to view my webpage sjen1.blogspot.com for daily homework and long range assignments. I have also posted a few webquests that the students are required to do, such as the Revolutionary War and Dress the Part.  Please make sure your child is reading daily.  He will be doing a poetry reading and a historical book writing assignment at the end of our 4th quarter.

I also want to let you know that our work is not quite finished. Our spring concerts are scheduled for Thursday May 23 at 6:30 PM, followed by an in-school performance for the student body on Friday May 24th at 1:45 PM.

All groups will be meeting for their regular weekly practice times until those performances dates. After the Friday May 24 show, Band and Strings students will turn in their instruments.

The Booming Beats will have one more performance for the end of the year picnic on Friday June 7th at 6:00 PM.
I’ll be posting more information on my new website the closer we get to those performances. http://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com