Weekly Update October 14, 2009

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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Teacher In-service:

No School-

OCT. 23-24

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Parent Teacher Conferences:

No School-

October 29-30

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Here's What's New in Beacons' World

Writers' Workshop: In order to celebrate more creative word choice, we got into the Halloween spirit and created “Word Graveyards.” Gone are boring tired old words like: fun, good, big, nice, slow, fast etc…. Now we’ll be using much more interesting synonyms.

Reading: Shilo students are working on chapters 7-8 in class. Horrible Harry and the Dungeon students are working on chapert 5. Students in skill groups are working on building sight word vocabulary, fluency and short vowel mastery.

Math: We’ve completed Unit 1 and have broken into two math groups. One group, with guidance from us, is accelerating at their own pace through Unit 2; and the other group will work on Unit 2 as a group. Unit 2 will focus on addition properties, adding three digit numbers and estimating sums.

We also spent some time this week building number and money sense as each student was given $1,000 to shop with! (Hope that doesn’t bolster their birthday and holiday lists too much!)

Science: This week we explored how "convection currents" in the earth's mantle affect the movement of the lithographic plates. We got to look at the heat waves emitted from a candle and we did an exciting experiment that tested the affect hot and cold have on food dye in water. From our observations, we were able to tell that heat creates currents in the water similar to the way currents move through earth's mantle.

Social Studies: JAMBO! Jambo means "hello" in Swahili.We have been learning Swahili in class and have created our own Swahili dictionary! We have also traveled to the wild Savanna which is a "dryland" ecosystem dominated by tropical grassland with scattered trees or bushes. We are studying the herbivores which live in the Savannah (also spelled Savanna). The herbivores we are studying are as follows: deer, zebra, African elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, antelopes, gnus, impalas and gazelles. The lakes and rivers of the Savannah herbivores that we are studying are the hippopotamuses and the rhinoceroses. In addition, students are thrilled at the latest item in their Social Studies suitcase which will help them prepare for our next African stop, the Sahara Desert!

“Words are the voice of the heart”- Confucius

Looking forward to another exciting week at Seabury,

Tamara and Betsy

Seattle Art Museum Field Trip October 8, 2009

Yeah! It's our field trip day to the

Seattle Art Museum to see the

Families of Man art show!Yippee!

Eating snacks before we had our tour.

I'm so glad I'm a Beacon!!

Ms. Janet, our art instructor,

talked to us about

how art

tells a story.

This Chinese scroll

tells the story of

cooking holiday food.

Hey, they have a display of African Art

on their wall!

We know a lot about the continent of

Africa!

Working hard at making our own

special holiday story scrolls.

My favorite holiday

is MY birthday!

Look at ours!

Thank you chaperones! You ROCK!

Weekly Update October 7, 2009

Upcoming Events:

Field trip tomorrow, Thursday, October 8th, to the Seattle Art Museum. The bus leaves PROMPTLY at 8:30. Disposable sack lunches are required. We would like to encourage that students wear their Seabury t-shirts or Seabury sweat shirts tomorrow. Thanks ever so much.

*** Help! We’ve had a lot of tardiness lately. School starts promptly at 8:15. It helps your Beacon when they have time to unpack their bag, put their things where they need to go and get settled before instruction begins. Thanks for your efforts! Believe me when I say that the specialists who meet with the Beacons at 8:15 really appreciate promptness as well!! Thank you for your support.

Here’s What’s Going on in

the Beacons' World!

Writer’s Workshop: We’ve been working with the trait of Word Choice this week. Students are working on using more descriptive and precise words in their writing.

Reading: Student reading groups are coming along. We’ve had some interesting discussions about perceptions, animal rights and justice. Students are also developing multiple reading skills and strategies in their groups.

Math: This week we’ve worked on rounding to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand. We've also spent some time determining the values of coins. Unit 2 will focus on addition properties, adding three digit numbers and estimating sums.

Science: Our budding geologists were hard at work discovering the properties of different rocks. They got to measure, weigh, describe, and test the hardness and buoyancy of different types of rocks. We also learned about the three main types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic and examined some examples of each. The students then got to do some similar observations of rocks of their choice. They found a perfect example of a sedimentary rock in the garden. Some students swear they’ve found ice crystals, gold and perhaps meteorites. We’ll see!

Social Studies: When students learn about Africa, which, when I last checked, is still a continent and not a country, they are learning much more than just the 5 geographical regions of Africa, the second largest continent in the world. They are learning math skills as we learn the Compass Rose, longitude and latitude.We discuss the x axis and y axis and navigational tools and instruments of the bygone era. We question with higher level learning questions why they think that with the early explorers sailing along the African coast and trading with various African peoples, that the continent remained unexplored until the mid-nineteenth century. I know I don't need to remind you that during the mid 1800's the United States was engaged in our Civil War and the Samurais of Japan were in their glory. I wonder why? It gives one pause for thought.

Africa is also a part of our Science curriculum. Students have learned about the 1967 scientific discover of a fragment of a human jawbone which was discovered in the eastern African country of Kenya. I definitely want to stress that it was Mrs. Mary Leakey, NOT her husband, who made the discovery. This bone fragment is estimated to be over 5 million years old. It is considered significant for it is the oldest human fragment ever found. This lends itself perfectly to our current focus of rocks and fossils in science and to discussions of the scientific method. Just how do they test for the age of a human jawbone?

When we made our African masks, students were learning how to incorporate geometric design into art. We discussed the rectangles for the eyes, triangles for the noses and a rhombus for the mouth. We discussed artistic symbolism, the different color palate and what constitutes contrasting colors. For the class as a whole, students are unaware that their safari writing and work sheets with writing are an integral part of the Language Arts curriculum. For example, utilizing different adjectives to describe the animals we are "seeing" on our safari are great fun, yet full of knowledge. Learning about the 5 geographic regions of Africa and Africa's unique environment contributes to learning about great diversity. The rich African culture has touched the rest of the world with the stories, music, and traditions carried by African slaves to the Americas. Both jazz and gospel music grew from the deeply instilled African culture. So, there is a whole lot of skill level and critical thinking learning going on as we continue our travels through Africa.

“I love Africa in general;North Africa and West Africa, they are both great countries.”~–Paris Hilton

Looking forward to another exciting week at Seabury,

Tamara and Betsy

The Greek Festival Fieldtrip, Friday, October 2, 2009

And Away We Go!

We're off to the Greek Festival

in our own Seabury School Bus.

Are we there yet?

Lots and lots and lots
of information
on the history

of the Greek Church.


































Let the eating begin!
Yummy Balaclava!





Thank you

dear chaperones!

Singing along to the Greek Songs.

Some voices were nearly

ready for prime time,

after a little

more practice at home!

I don't know if I can eat another bite.

It was SO good!

Lots of

happy faces!

Boy oh boy, I can hardly wait to come back here again!