Monday Veteran's Day | Tuesday Out and About to Pacific University | Wednsesday Art | Thursday Geek Out | Friday Art |
Calendar Highlights
| Volunteer Opportunities Check back later for some fresh volunteer opportunities, or sign up for some of our rag washing and pencil sharpening jobs! Alternatively, if you would like to help out the Merlin classroom and are able to bring in some snacks for the afternoons, those would be much appreciated by the Merlins who do not bring afternoon snack. We have had a couple goldfish carton donations, but are currently out of snack options. |
Our blogger has a camera and knows how to make the posts! The Merlin blog has been refreshed, and will be updated on a somewhat regular basis this year. Check it out here, or by clicking the link that says Merlin Photos at the top of this page.
Yearbook
Buy a yearbook online! We got off to a slow start selling yearbooks this year because we didn’t have the link where you could buy them online, and we didn’t have people buy them at the beginning of the year when students registered for school, a practice we have done in the past. We just got the link! You can go online and buy a yearbook at this link. Yearbooks are $20. If you think you may have bought one already please see Rebecca in the Main Office. You can also purchase a yearbook in the Main office with cash or check. Thank you for supporting the FGCS yearbook.
Empty Bowls
Bring your whole family, have a lovely dinner, and help your community! Every student at FGCS made a bowl this year, with the help of Pacific University's clay studio. We are having a wonderful event called Empty Bowls. November 22nd (the Friday before Thanksgiving break) from 5 pm to 7 pm at the Forest Grove Senior Center. You will be able to purchase a bowl made by students for $5, then you will get to fill it with soup and have dinner. All of the money raised will go to HomePlate Youth an organization going to help feel homeless teenagers in Washington County. It is a great way to give back to our community right before Thanksgiving. I hope to see you there. Attached is a flyer with a little more information. If you have any questions about the event or want to help out email Stephanie at [email protected]
Poetry Night
As a reminder, we are hosting a poetry night on Thursday, November 21st for families here at school. Students will be invited to recite an original poem during one of our two readings (one from 5:30 to 6:30, and one from 6:30 to 7:30). We have created a quick google form to sign up for poetry night. Your child's recitation time will be sent home next week. We look forward to sharing our work with you!
Note from Bree
Kestrels said goodbye to Erin on Friday so she and her family can get ready for their next journey. We will definitely miss having her in the classroom, and we wish her the best in her new endeavor. That being said, please make sure you have Bree's email [email protected]. [5th graders, this will be who you email now with math questions!]
Project
This week, students began learning about ways in which we use and harness different sources of energy. During our out and about to Roger’s Park, students learned about the different types of resources (renewable, non-renewable, and perpetual), learned how one of our favorite renewable resources here in Oregon (trees) spread their seeds around to regrow forests, and measured and calculated how much carbon is stored in a tree. In class, we focused on renewable sources such as solar power, wind turbines and water turbine power, as well as non-renewables such as oil, natural gas, and coal. Students learned about the unintended consequences (*secret words*) that using non-renewable resources has on the environment.
Ask: What is the difference between a renewable resource, a non-renewable resource, and a perpetual resource.
Extend the learning by: quizzing your parents on whether each of these is a renewable, non-renewable or perpetual resource.
Literacy
This week we read more of our nature adventure books with our groups, and had our first group discussions where we talked about our opinions and predictions around the main characters of our books. We also made some observations about setting and practiced writing juicy questions that could not be answered with a simple yes or no. As readers, we are beginning to look for some of the elements that we included in our poetry in our nature adventure books. Elements like metaphor, simile, sensory language and alliteration. In addition to these elements from poetry, we are beginning to look for literary devices like foreshadowing as well. As writers, we began the culminating poem of our unit: spoken word poems. Sarah Kay helped us think about how to choose a topic for a spoken word poem; it needs to be something important to you, but also relatable to others. Teen poet Chris Loos showed us how powerful poems can come from those things about the world that make us most frustrated.
Talk about which of the two spoken word examples you related with more.
Ask, what book are you reading and what is interesting about the main character and setting?
Extend the learning by reading parts of the book at home and talking it over with your student.
5th Grade Math
5th grade mathematicians continued to build their understanding of adding and subtracting fractions. This week, students focused on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Finding a common denominator helps us easily add fractions. There are different tricks for this but this week we practiced finding the easiest common denominator. 5th grade mathematicians also practiced finding and showing equivalent fractions. They learned that finding equivalent fractions can also be a tool to help add and subtract fractions. Soon, mathematicians will learn more efficient ways to find common denominators but these skills are important to build as a foundation.
Ask: How many equivalent fractions can you think of for 1/2? How can you show these on a clock model?
6th Grade Math
In math this week, sixth graders got a blast from the past when we revisited GCFs or Greatest Common Factors, and prime and composite numbers. We uncovered a couple ways to find the GCF of two numbers, through listing each number’s factors, or by splitting the factors in trees. We kept factoring until the bottom of each tree was a circled prime number. We also tied this into fractions briefly. Moving forward, we will be reviewing how GCF helps us to add and subtract fractions from other fractions.
Ask your student to show you a factor tree. See if they can remember the list we made of prime numbers up to 11.
Extend your learning by watching this catchy rap of prime numbers. If you don’t have time, don’t worry, we are going to watch it on Tuesday :)