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