Monday PE Studyhall before and after school | Tuesday In & About: WA County Museum Studyhall before school | Wednesday ART Studyhall before school *OBOB 3:30-4:15 | Thursday Work w/ Level 1 Studyhall before school | Friday ASM and Geo Bee (9:45 District Office) Studyhall before school |
2/5--I had made a mistake earlier--the Geo Bee is this Friday the 5th at 9:45 at the District Office. The Geo Bee is replacing our normally scheduled All School Meeting. I am very sorry for this mistake.
Announcements
I am so excited to formally introduce Kerry Diamon--the Merlin student teacher for the next 9 weeks. The Merlins have grown quite attached to her on the Tuesday's she has volunteered and look forward to having her on daily basis. She's graciously written a letter to introduce herself to the Merlin families.
Hello Merlin Families,
I just wanted to reintroduce myself as the Merlin student teacher and announce that I will now be in the classroom full time until April 9th. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working with the Merlins so far and am really looking forward to these next nine weeks. I have planned an exciting unit on the geography of Colonial America, which will perfectly compliment the colonial simulation activity that we have been working diligently on. I anticipate these lessons will be filled with lots of learning and fun.
I'm currently in the teaching program at Pacific University and will do my second student teaching placement in the Early Learning Community after my time at the Community School ends in April. I earned my Bachelor's degree in Education and History from Pacific University, so I have grown to call Forest Grove and Oregon my second home. I grew up in Kaneohe, Hawaii where I spent many hours having fun on the beach, hiking trails, reading good books, and cooking great food. Thankfully, I still get to do all these things here in Oregon, although I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to how cold the ocean is on this side of the Pacific!
I am really looking forward to continue learning with and from the Merlins. I am so fortunate to spend my time student teaching in such a fantastic school and community.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thank you!
Best,
Kerry Daimon
What a great week for the Merlins! You already know how proud I was of them at Jennings McCall last Tuesday. The short week got better when Carol left a great review for class and a few Merlins wonderfully represented the class the Sustainability Commission on Thursday night.
The Great Kindness Challenge continues this week. We’ll be selecting secret Merlin buddies—where Merlins make one another feel special. And, we’ll spread the kindness by creating some artful projects for other classes and staff.
News of the Week
Literacy
- Writing homework this week is Spelling City.
We’ll continue doing a variety of things this week in literacy. Part of the week will be dedicated to reading content information on Colonial America. We’ll also read more small moment stories and look for what sensory details we need to make a story worthwhile reading. Then, we’ll start some drafting work on the small moment story for our JM resident.
Ask your child to talk about what missing information he/she’ll need to get to work on the small moment story from a JM resident.
Listen to your child explain our visit last Tuesday to JM.
Extend the learning by writing a small moment story as a family.
Project
Groups are starting to figure out how to make their colony prosper. Should they block other colonies from obtaining more land? Should they trade with the Native Americas. Will the weather be productive for farming, hunting and fishing. There’s so much to consider! On Wednesday, the class watched some of the first episode of “Colonial House.” It was a reality show that tried to have people live like Colonial America. It had a lot of great information, but if you want to watch more at home, I recommend previewing the episodes first. Even though it was broadcast on PBS and BBC, I had Carol skip over parts that weren’t appropriate. Kerry’s unit will also help understand the 13 colonies and we’ll get into this week!
Ask your the child the successes and challenges their colony is having so far.
Listen to your child explain how they plan and execute each round of the simulation.
Extend the learning by researching more information about Colonial America.
6th Grade Math
We started new content this past week—looking at place value and decimal numbers—to the thousandth place. We were asked to say numbers correctly, round numbers and look at how the metric system is a tangible application of this skill. Rounding numbers correctly, is probably the hardest skill we had last week. Be sure to look for proficiency checks and review homework, as a way to gauge how well your child understands the material.
Ask your child to correctly say 3.234 (three and two hundred thirty-four thousandths.)
Listen to your child explain how you would round 4.346 to the hundredths place.
Extend the learning by looking at how decimal numbers are used in your lives.
5th Grade Math- This week, we will spend a day or two on adding and subtracting mixed numbers. We will then move into decimal numbers. We will begin with an introduction to finite decimals notation and conversion from finite decimal notation to decimal fractions. Then we will look at changing a whole number to a finite decimal and what happens when we add extra zeros to the right end of a decimal. If we have time this week, we will explore some special fractions as finite decimals and work to memorize them. Part of this week's homework will be practice with the standard algorithm for multiplication.
Please check with your mathematician about fraction unit one reflection/correction packets and retake packets. I have not received everyone's back yet.
ASK YOUR CHILD to explain the definition of a finite decimal and use that and FFEF to show that 4.5 = 4.500.
LISTEN TO YOUR CHILD explain how to solve 60 4/5 - 13 7/8.
EXTEND THE LEARNING Convert this finite decimal into a simplified fraction: 0.0125