Monday: P.E. | Tuesday: Out and About to Sungold Farms | Wednesday: Art | Thursday: Soccer at Pacific (dress for running on grass) | Friday: Art |
Calendar Highlights
| Sign up to volunteer! Follow this link to volunteer with us.
|
Please send your student to school with a water bottle. It can stay at school all year. With rainy season's arrival, going into the main building to use the drinking fountain is a coat-donning, walking-around-to-the-front-of-the-school ordeal, and they end up missing important content. If this is not something you are able to provide, please reach out; I am more than happy and able to help make it happen :)
Homework this week
I am loving the theme song reflections that you wrote, nice job!
- Reading: same as last week. Read the newsletter Monday, and 20 minutes of reading Tuesday-Thursday.
- Writing: We will be working on typing some more poems this week, as well as completing a very special poem called the Where I'm From Poem. We will have some time in class for these as well. When students finish, they will have the option to practice typing skills on our class Typing Club page.
- Math: expect an 10-20 minute assignment each day.
This week we continued to learn about pests with a fun video on Monday where they had the chance to earn more money for their farms in Merlin Commons. We were also visited by Jamie and her friendly Madagascar hissing cockroaches! She helped us to become pest detectives and we opened several inPESTigation cases. Ultimately, we learned that although pests can be gross and annoying, chemical pesticides and herbicides can have long term consequences that are way more harmful than the "ick" factor.
Merlins also spent time this week, planning and perfecting their visions for their farms, using the Merlins Common 'money' they have earned with our textbook worksheets to purchase plants, supplies, and Farmer Bob outfits. They dove right in and got busy budgeting, planning an agroecosystem, and working through conflict within their team of farm owners.
This week, they may need to apply some previous knowledge to save their farms...
Literacy
In our class read-aloud, "Love that Dog," we joined the main character as he explored the rhyming skills of Robert Frost and Valerie Worth's stunning similes. Merlins did an awesome job of stealing like artists while writing our small poems, and crafted creative similes to help their readers visualize* (secret word) the person or animal they chose. On Friday we had a gallery walk of small poems, where they had some really kind and thoughtful feedback for their peers.
Ask your Merlin which small poem was their favorite to read and why.
5th Grade Math
Fifth graders used cubes this week to practice turning 2-D images into three dimensional models. This helped us understand what volume really means. We also started giving names to some of the rules and tricks that makes multiplication problems easier. Finally, we introduced "concept quests," or challenge problems that students will be able to work on independently throughout the year when they are seeking some extra juicy math!
Ask: what are the three dimensions of a rubix cube? What is its volume?
Talk about the Rule of Zeros, the Rule of 10s and the commutative property. Which is most helpful?
Challenge your mathematician to bring home an example Concept Quest to talk about together.
6th Grade Math
This week in sixth grade math, we reviewed how to say decimals (tenths/hundredths/thousandths), learned how to round decimals, and practiced measuring using the metric system!
Ask your student: What makes the metric system so appealing to mathematicians and scientists?
What is often the most important detail of a math problem/question?
Outdoor School
If you didn't read our newsletter last week, here's what you need to know:
- Letters - If you would like to send a letter to your Level 3 student while at camp, aim to put it in the mail by this Friday. No candy, please :) Address as follows:
17450 Old Pacific Hwy, #7
Rockaway Beach OR 97136
- Monday, September 30th - Luggage and medication drop-off after school, 3:20-5:30. We ask that all families bring luggage to school the night before to make sure we are ready to go! Find the packing list here and look for a reminder coming home Friday.
- Tuesday, October 1st - Normal arrival at school! We will depart shortly after 9:00 - students should not arrive before 8:35 on Tuesday.
- Friday, October 4th - We generally arrive back at school around 1:30-2:00. Reminder- this is a non-school day for FGCS and there will be no bus service. Plan to keep an eye out for day-of arrival updates, and be ready to pick your child up. They will be tired and eager to see you!