Last Monday in May 2010

Last Monday in May

by
John T. Bird

We pause to remember those who died

With so much courage, so much pride

They'll never come back, yet their memories endure

To remind us of freedom: fragile, pure

We're worthy of their sacrifice if we pause each day

Not only on the last Monday in May

My brother John wrote this poem and received an award and the honor of having the White House publish it on their White House Commission of Remembrance webpage.

John's poem is also syndicated each year on Memorial Day in papers across America. The inspiration for this poem is our dad, John C. Bird, a Dartmouth College graduate and lawyer, who, at the age of 23, rose to the rank of captain of his ship in the Pacific during World War II. He's a living member of the "Greatest Generation".

The Friday before Memorial Day the Beacons were given an awe inspiring presentation by their classmate, A.W., who had his grandfather's medals of honor from World War II. It was very poignant. I wish you all could have been there to see A.W. in his cub scout uniform sharing his grandfather's story of glory and honor. It really set the tone for this important federal holiday. So on Monday, and everyday, we will give pause to remember those who gave their lives for us and for the precious freedom we treasure each day.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Happy Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day!! Here's my mom. She's my special friend!

Here's my Grandmother and she's my special friend too!

We shared our African masks and science posters on outer space with

our Special Friends and Grandparents

We showed off our Idioms which were "Out of this World!"

We shared our research papers with

our parents, special friends and Grandparents

We gave our Grandparents and Special Friends

a tulip as a thank you for sharing the morning with us

We made a cover from Time for Kids magazine

and wrote an exciting news article

that was all about the exciting things

we will accomplish in our future years

I was wonderful to see this year's and even last year's special grandparents.

Here are last year's Beacon, J.L.'s, grandparents!

We shared many fun stories and happy memories!

Yep, he's my special friend!

Weekly Update May 12, 2010

Working on the Murals with

Artist in Residence Mr. Maricio





Experiments with Wedges as Simple Machines

We Went on a Haiku Hike and Wrote Some Great Poems

What a Great Week
We've Had With the Beacons!

Reading /Writing: We are reading up a storm with independent books. We are also loving the classic read-aloud Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.

Poetry is the theme of the month. We dove right in by taking a Haiku Hike thus incorporating our integrated curriculum with Social Studies and Language Arts. Look forward to seeing students' poems on Grandparents/Special Friends day this Friday! As you read these poems, look for a "Kigo", a seasonal word or phrase in each poem. I thought this may be a challenging concept for second graders to get, but they showed their understanding right away. What an amazing group of poets!

We have just begun to integrate reading and poetry with Sharon Creech's book, Love That Dog. This book is written in journal format from a boy named Jack to his teacher. We watch as Jack, who starts out hating poetry, "Boys don't write poems, only girls do- he claims", learns to appreciate and write some of his own poems. The book features poems by Walter Dean Myers, William Carlos William, Robert Frost and many more.

Here are some poems written by the Beacons

based on William Carlos Williams' The Red Wheelbarrow:

So much depends upon

Seabury School

Glazed with mosaics

Rich in Friends-AW

So much depends upon

A white soccer ball

Covered with many grass stains

Next to the players- LB

So much depends upon

An enormous tree

With lime green leaves

And chestnut brown bark

In a school playground- AL

So much depends upon

A little village

With yellow slanted houses

High up in the mountains- PSG

So much depends upon

The sharp rock

And the tree - MT

So much depends upon

A giant whale

Torpedo through the water

Looking for food- AK

So much depends upon

The President of the USA

In a black suit

Writing papers- GB

So much depends upon a

Red wheelbarrow with

A flat wheel

So Jane could not work - NE

So much depends upon

My Mom

Short and sort of tall

Working hard- SB

So much depends upon

A house

Yellow and purple stars

In my neighborhood- RJ

So much depends upon

An airplane

4X 4 engines

Jetting through the sky- MJ

We are working on making our poem book and these are all included in your Beacon's poetry book.

But wait, there's much, much more, going on in our classroom!!

We are completing equivalent fractions in math, creating simple machines with wedges in science, learning about Asia in Social Studies, and studying current events through our Time for Kid's series...Whew!

Please don't forget about Grandparents'/Special Friend's Day THIS Friday!

Looking forward to another exciting week with your Beacon!

Betsy and Tamara

May and June's Upcoming Events!

Mark You Calendars

for our

Upcoming Events

May 3-13 Artist-in-Residence on campus, LS

Month of May: Artist-in-Residence at MS

May 3 Drama Club continues-LS

May 4 Superstars and Sharks to the Puyallup Fair School

May 4-5 Art Club continues-LS

May 5 Cinco de Mayo

May 5 Hip Hop Club meets at LS

May 6 Chess Club continues-LS

MAY 7 FIRST FRIDAY COFFEE AT LS-7:30AM

May 8 Seabury at Tacoma Mall Camp Fair (see Katherine to help)

May 9 Mother's Day

May 13-15 Spring Scholastic Book Fair-MPR at LS

May 13 Sharks field trip to Tillicum Village

May 14 Grandparents/ Special Friend Day, 9-10:00am, LS only

May 15 Benefit Fashion Show at Maxwell's

May 19 Bear Cubs field trip

May 20 Seabury at Tacoma Farmer's Market

May 21 Drama Club performance at Gathering-LS

May 22 Babysitting Class at MS-contact

office@seabury.orgfor more info

May 25 Spring Musical performance for LS at Knutzen Theatre

May 27 Grandparents/Special Friend Day at MS, 11am-1pm

May 28 NO SCHOOL-childcare will be provided

May 29 Seabury DIBOTs go to Globals in Knoxville, TN

May 31 NO SCHOOL-MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVED-no childcare

June 4 All School Beach Day at Dash Point State Park

June 9 Field Day at LS-volunteers needed

June 11 Last day of school both campuses School is over at NOON

NO Extended Care-PBC end of year party

Weekly Update 4/29/10

Fun With Wheels and Axles!

We haven't even studied pullies yet- but these boys designed one-complete with a counter weight!

Can we move the books without breaking the string?


Let's add some "wheels". Whoah! It's faster than we thought!



Carefully designing a rickshaw using wheels, axles and levers.

Check out the crank I made! See how it spins on its axis?

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

Reading: As a class, we just fininshed Sid Fleischman 's Newberry Award winning book, "The Whipping Boy. The class laughed uproariously as we read about an unlikely friendship between Prince Brat and his royal whipping boy, Jemmy. Great discussions about trust, forgiveness and the nature of frienship emerged. Of course, we loved hearing about how the scurvy ruffians, Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater, ended up covered in rats! Check out the great illustrations in our room.

Students are still spending some classtime independently reading books at their current reading level.

Writing: Research projects are currently being typed up. It is so excting watching their progress at everything from sentence construction, spelling, organization and technology. Look forward to seeing these displayed at Grandparents/Special Friends day on Friday, May 14!

Math: We're wrapping up our unit on measurement. Volume was a bit tricky for some folks, but they've all got it down now! We'll do a quick review on time. Everyone-even kids working on different chapters- will all start the chapter on Fractions together. Everyone will be challenged at their own levels as we work through this important skill.

Science: What would life be like without wheels? We brainstormed some possiblities and then listed all the wheels we could think of. Students then had a chance to experiment with wheels, designing their own "rickshaws" that could give rides to pennies, and created cranks that demonstrated the way an axis works. (of course, they pretented to use them as fishing poles- gotta love it!)

Social Studies: Our study of Japan is in full swing. We've been learning about and creating the work of the Japanese woodblock master, Hokusai. Mrs. Ritchie shared some of her pictures from her year in Japan -favorites included the students she taught and their matching track suits!

Don't reinvent the wheel, just realign it- Anthony J. D'Angelo