Monday PE *Studyhall before and after school | Tuesday *Studyhall before school | Wednesday NO SCHOOL | Thursday ELC Art? *Studyhall before school | Friday Art *Studyhall before school |
- 11/11 No School-- Veteran’s Day
- 11/18 Picture Retake Day
- 11/18 First Oregon Battle of the Books Club meeting 3:30-4:15.
- 11/19 Coffee House Poetry Night
- Session 1 6:00-6:40 Session 2à 7:00-7:40
- 11/20 Poetry Anthology Portfolio Due
Volunteer Needs
- 11/17 All day trip to Magnis Tree Farm
News of the Week
Student Goals & Reflections
Most weeks we will do weekly reflections. These are a chance for students to reflect on their goals and
provide a document for families to review too. On Friday, I finally handed out the notes
from the Goal-Setting Conferences. Please keep this copy (it should be in the Red Communication Folder) in a place that can be easily accessed—so that when your child shows you the weekly reflection you can refer to what focus areas were selected.
Social/ Emotional Learning
Last weekend when I went for a run, a truck ran Erin and I off the road. We were scared and a little angry. Much to our surprise, the driver came back and apologized! I used this story for us to talk about fixing our mistakes when we hurt or wrong another person. We looked at how harmful gossip can be. And, it helped us having a starting to place to talk about what our jobs are as students. It included everything from asking questions, doing your best, to making sure everyone is included.
Systems: Nature and Design
Our visit to Nana Cardoons was a perfect contrast to the presentation on pesticides. Charlene and
Richard work very hard to farm their property in a way that follows system thinking and following
principles found in nature. We compared pests to beneficial bugs, learned why growing 5 types of
squash is better than growing 1 and we closely examined the benefits of compost and
vermiculture (using worms to break down waste.) Back in the classroom, we conducted an
experiment to see how decomposers actually work by using yeast to break down sugar. And, we
did an activity called “Reverse Engineering” where we dissected plants and flowers to learn how
plants overcome challenges. Then, we used those ideas to create or improve current products.
Ask, what ways does Nana Cardoons use principles found in nature?
Listen to how your child explain the reverse engineering lab or the decomposition lab.
Extend the learning by researching inventions inspired using biomimicry.
Literacy
- Starting THIS week and continuing until Thanksgiving, students are to dedicate writing homework time to editing and revising their poetry.
Last week we furthered our spoken word lesson by watching two more spoken word poets
share incredible poems. One was a TED talk of a 9-year-old girl speaking about writer’s block!
The metaphors these poets used were incredible! And we ended our poetry study on light note by
writing Limericks! Now comes the hard work of improving our poetry. On Monday students will get the
assignment regarding the Poetry Anthology—which is building a portfolio of poems. The anthology is
due Friday the 20th! Please review the assignment with your child. They’ll need your support and
probably your revision help too! Kids will be asked to submit poems to Google Classroom—this
way my inbox doesn’t fill up with amazing poetry!
This week I started to read aloud a book called Peak, a new nature adventure. The class is pretty
captivated by the story, so be sure to ask them about it. Reading this book aloud, helps teach the
reading skill of the week. Last week students were to read their book looking for passages that
exemplified the nature-adventure genre. And, we’ll continue to look at this skill this week too.
Ask, what makes your book a nature-adventure story?
Listen to you child talk about his/her hopes and fears for completing the poetry anthology.
Extend the learning by reading favorite poems or writing poems together as a family. Or, read
a nature adventure story as a family.
6th Grade Math
Our 2nd block ended with topics covering how to simplify algebraic expressions and how the
distributive property can apply to algebra. We spent a day reviewing all the skills covered in
this unit and on Friday we broke into partner groups to do our math challenge. The challenge
asked kids to prove when expressions were equivalent. It was rewarding to see and hear
the majority of students using phrases like “distributive” and “commutative” for their defenses.
On Monday, we’ll have a math discussion around the challenge problems and start the test.
Kids will be asked to complete part of the test as homework.
Ask, your child to show you the proficiency checks from this block and go over any
misconceptions.
Listen to your child explain if/why these two expressions are equivalent:
2x + 6y – 9 and 2(x+3y) – 9
Extend the learning by writing expressions that apply to your life.
5th Grade Math
This week, 5th grade mathematicians will wrap up their unit on multiplication and volume. We will look at grouping symbols in equations, spend some more time with volume of rectangular and irregular prisms, and spend a couple days looking at division with remainders. By now, students have learned a variety of strategies for multiplication and division. On Friday we will spend time reviewing the unit's skills and concepts, and the unit post test will be on Monday. We will be heading into fractions next.
Ask your child to solve 2 x 4 + 20 x 5 + 3 = 214- Place parenthesis where they need to be in order to make this equation true.
Listen to your 5th grader describe what volume and surface area are and how to calculate them.
Extend. Solve this together: On Friday afternoon, Rachel realizes that she has put off her reading for far too long and that she needs to finish her book by Monday. The book is 265 pages long. She is on page 127. How many pages will she need to read each night to finish the book before school on Monday?