Weekly Update September 30, 2009

Upcoming Events:

Curriculum Night: Tomorrow, Thursday,

Oct. 1st from 7 -8p.m.

Field Trip: Friday, Oct. 2nd Greek Festival

Field Trip: Thursday, Oct. 8th

Seattle Art Museum

Families Around the World

Founder's Day Celebration: Friday, October 9th

1:30 Multipurpose Room

Seabury's 20th Anniversary ! WOW!!

Here's What's Going on

in

BEACONS' WORLD !

Writer’s Workshop: Students have had time to develop their ideas this week as they write about topics that they have selected. Aliens are a big hit here in the Beacons’ room. We’ll begin working on the trait of "Word Choice" next week as we continue to write and write and write!

Reading: We have begun reading groups. Some students are reading the novel, Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Some are reading the hilarious, Horrible Harry and the Dungeon, by Suzy Kline; and some are working on building their overall reading skills. You will start seeing some reading homework come home. Most reading homework will be work that the student has not finished in class so it will differ among students. I will give them time to work on reading and answering comprehension questions in class; but often they need to take it home to finish so that the group can be ready for literature circles. Just a reminder- homework should not take more than 20 minutes- and should not be stressful for the student. Please let me know if your Beacon is struggling in any way!

Math: This week we’ve worked with comparing and ordering numbers. Next week we’ll wrap up unit 1 with rounding to the nearest thousand. We’ll also spend some time calculating the values of coins- so giving your child as much experience handling money in the real world is helpful. (I know it’s hard as most of us use debit cards!) Unit 2 will focus on addition properties, adding three digit numbers and estimating sums.

Science: After creating and discovering more about fossils, I’ve discovered we have a serious bunch of geologists! We have kids at recess coming in with containers of “crystals” and “meteorites” and bringing their own tweezers and magnifying glasses to school. So, we are going to spend some time next week learning all about rocks! We’ll do some rock experiments and perhaps even create our own edible rocks soon!

Social Studies: Last Friday, a Beacon father was our guest speaker! He came in and showed us an amazing PowerPoint on South Africa. We all learned so much about his travels through the towns of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria. His photos were exquisite and we all felt as if we were actually there! In case you might be wondering why I have not mentioned the dad by name, it is because school policy does not permit me to mention any student's nor parent's names in the blog. So suffice it to say that I greatly appreciated this dad taking time to share his world travels with the class. He certainly received a great big Beacon "Round of Applause" for being our guest speaker.

Incidentally, students are aware that the Republic of South Africa has three capital cities: Cape Town, the legislative capital, Pretoria is the administrative capital and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. While we have "traveled" to Cape Town and Pretoria" last week, we will not "travel" to Bloemfontein as part of our "virtual field trip" to South Africa. It was fun to see how curious the class was about how a country can have not only one capital, but three!

As we continue our "Safari" to South Africa, we are studying about the "BIG 5". The phrase "Big Five" game was coined by "big-game hunters" and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. The term is still used by most tourist and wildlife guides who discuss African wildlife safaris. These "Big 5" are also among the most dangerous mammals on the planet. They are, in no particular order, the lion; the African elephant; the African buffalo or Cape buffalo, which incidentally, is considered the most dangerous of the "Big 5" reportedly causing the most big game hunter deaths; the leopard; and the rhinoceros (both the black and the white rhinos). The black rhinoceros is an now an endangered species. The white rhinoceros and the leopard are nearing the "threatened" category. The lion and African bush elephant are classified as "vulnerable".The African buffalo are conservation dependent.

We are learning about the habitat of our safari animals. As we color the animals in our Safari Book, we can see how they are camouflaged; but we are really learning about the geography of Africa to which the animals have adapted. While coloring a map of Africa this week, showing the desert/ rain forests/ temperate zones etc. one student exclaimed,"Wow, I never knew there could be so many temperatures in just one country! I hope I packed enough clothes for my trip to Africa!"

"A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Looking forward to another exciting week at Seabury,

Tamara and Betsy

African Masks Part 2

After the clay African masks Part 1 had dried for a week, we were ready to paint them with our glazes. The Beacons have studied African designs in class and they really put their imaginations to work as they created their masterpieces! Now all we need to do is to let the glazed masks be fired in a kiln this weekend and then we'll put the finishing touches on them next Wednesday. Then they'll be all ready for the Curriculum Night on Thursday! I can hardly wait to see how they turn out!

Our African Masks Part 1

Creating our African Masks

The Beacons LOVED my idea of creating African masks. With the help of the one and only Ms. Cathy, who supplied the clay and brought lots of expert ideas, the students learned how to utilize shapes and sizes to bring an African mask to life! I love it when a plan comes together!!

Africa Here We Come!

We're off to Africa

with our passports, first class tickets

and our safari binoculars!

Weekly Update 9/23/09

School Pictures Tomorrow!

Please make sure your Beacon comes to school with his/her picture envelop containing a check or money.

Next Thursday,

October 1st
at 7:00 p.m.


Please plan to attend our annual Curriculum Night next Thursday, October 1, at 7:00 p.m. to hear about the year's curriculum, to view our classroom and to see your child's wonderful work! We look forward to seeing you then.

Field Trip Schedule
for October
and November!!

Please mark your calendars:

Friday, October 2nd...........Greek Festival

Thursday, October 8th........Seattle Art Museum to see

Families Around the World

November:

Friday, November 13th.......Point Defiance Zoo to see

Animals from Around the World

Here's What's Going on

in the

Beacons' World

Writer’s Workshop: We began discussing the trait of “Ideas” this week. We began to brainstorm stories that have an introduction, conflict and resolution. We use phrases borrowed from author Rushton Howard: Wouldn’t it be neat if? What could go horribly wrong? How do we fix it? After completing a brainstorm worksheet, students then transferred their ideas into a story in their writing journals. They have actually asked me not to stop writing time. We also have a serious influx of alien problems on our hands!

Reading:

After listening to students read aloud, we are now in the process of assessing their silent reading comprehension. Students read text at their estimated level and answer comprehension and critical thinking skill questions. These multiple forms of assessment will give us a secure idea of the students’ reading levels, skills, and individual challenges. Reading groups will be formed soon with a heavy emphasis on literature studies and strategic reading skills.

We began one of my favorite read-alouds, The Twits, by Roald Dahl. Be sure your child isn’t sneaking any worms into your spaghetti tonight!

Math:

This week has been spent working with gaining a rock solid understanding of place value to 10,000. Students that were still a bit wavering on this skill have really proved that they get it. We’ve also been working on strategies for problem solving. Next week students will work on comparing, ordering and rounding bigger numbers as well as trying their hand at some Continental Math League problems.

Science:

We looked at the continents and noticed how they are shaped like jigsaw puzzle pieces- so we introduced plate tectonics and made our own puzzles of the ancient super continent of Pangaea. Be sure to come to curriculum night (October 1) and see these and the models of the earth’s crust that they’ve made.

To celebrate the autumnal equinox, we measured our shadows- and we’ll do it again close to the winter solstice, vernal equinox and the summer solstice- and compare the results. Measuring the shadows was so fun that the kids measured pretty much everything in the playground. Somehow, we’ve even got a Star Wars action figure’s shadow measured (3 inches- FYI)! :)

Social Studies:

We are off and flying high with our virtual field trip to Africa. Some students were wondering when we would arrive at the airport this morning! We've boarded our flight with our first class ticket and our passports. It is a 25 hour and 5 minute flight. Students enjoyed the "in flight" movie on Africa that I had e-mailed all the parents earlier this week. We made our African Safari binoculars and you can view all of the great photos in the next posting. More on our Safari as the journey full of adventure progresses!

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them ~ S. Horwitz

Looking forward to another exciting week at Seabury,

Betsy and Tamara