Weekly Update 12-2-09

Joy to the World!

Beacons and Navigators sing at

the Festival of Trees

We're Back from Thanksgiving Break!

Here's What's Going On in the Beacons' World:

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Festival of Trees -

Students are to arrive

at school by 7:55 a.m.

The bus leaves at 8:00 a.m.

Please call the office if you

are running late.

Tuesday, Dec. 15th
Lower School Winter Program
at Middle School Building


Friday, Dec. 18, 2009
Winter Break
Noon Dismissal
NO extended care

Monday, January 4th, 2010

1st day of school 2010

Monday, Feb. 1- Field Trip to Pacific Science Center-

Mars Exhibit and Imax Movie !
(2 chaperones needed)

Reading: Students have been working hard building skills to enhance their reading. Each child is working at his/her own level and developing summary skills, comprehension, vocabulary, and word attack skills. We are getting ready to read some myths that correlate with our study of the solar system. We'll be reading about Jupiter/Zeus; Mercury/Hermes; Venus/Aphrodite; Neptune/ Poseidon; Pluto/Hades. We are "exploring" discovering the more obscure names of Uranus and Charon.

Writing: We've been working with parts of speech: mainly nouns, verbs and adjectives. We're also working on identifying complete sentences. Students know the terms "subject" and "predicate" . They are becoming more familiar with asking themselves: "Who or what did what?" in my story in order to more easily identify if a key point is missing in their plot development.

Next week students will begin researching a planet or moon in our solar system. This time, they'll get to type their report on the computer!

Math: We're still working away at multiplication! Students are all working hard at mastering their multiplication tables, it's easy to see they have been practicing at home. Thank you for your support! Homework has focused on fact mastery; but classwork includes a variety of problem solving strategies. Students that have already mastered their facts are working on multiplying with double digits.

Keep practicing at home!!

Science: Our Beacons have been elected to become part of an "International Community" to develop a colony on another planet or moon in our solar system. The students created colonists from other countries and selected jobs that would be be important in a space colony. We have a pilots, an astronomer, a mechanic, a computer guy, an engineer, a security guard, leader/geologist, doctors, and of course, a chef! Next step will be for each student to research a planet or moon and present their findings to the class. They will then vote on the best place to colonize. Eventually, they'll build a model space colony based on their research and designs.

Social Studies: We have completed our study of the continent of Africa. Be sure to check the blog tomorrow when I'll have posted the incredible African animal stenciled t-shirts that the class made! You'll love seeing your Beacon in it.

This week we are packing our bags and holding on to our passport as we fly to the continent of Europe! In keeping with our integrated curriculum, students will be learning about the geography and history of Italy, and those Roman gods and goddesses, along with comparing the geography and history of Greece, and of course their gods and goddesses! This helps enrich both the science and social studies curriculum. Students will be bringing home questions for parents to answer on the ancient Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, so start boning up on them!

How did it get so late so soon?

It's night before it's afternoon!

December is here before it's June.

My goodness how the time has flown.
How did it get so late so soon?

-Dr. Seuss

Looking forward to another exciting week with the Beacons!

-Tamara and Betsy