Point Defiance!

Hi Everyone,

We have been learning so much about the Puget Sound and all its amazing wildlife! The students are making field guides and posters to each others about these amazing creatures.

On Tuesday, we went to the Point Defiance Aquarium to get some hands-on experience with many echinoderms and crustaceans. We were able to see Beethoven, the beluga whale do tricks for us. Did you know that a whale makes its noises from its blowhole?? That was a new cool fact that we learned. Here are some photos of our wet, but very fun day.

A visit from Charbonneau

I apologize for not updating this sooner. It has been quite a busy month. On Monday, Mr. Bush came to talk to us about life in the Mandan Indian Village, and how trading happened in the 1800's. The kids were fascinated with learning new sign language, and feeling all the different animal furs that were brought. We are close to ending our Lewis and Clark journey, and will be studying the Puget Sound region soon. Here are some pictures from Monday.

Read Across America Week

Greetings!

This week we celebrated Dr. Suess' birthday with a Suess day on Monday, and a pajama read-in on Friday, complete with Green Eggs and Ham.

We have continued our study on the Sioux tribes, and made winter counts to tell a story only with symbols. Next week we will read many Native American legends as we prepare to write our own.

We are continuing to work on 2 and 3 dimensional figures in math. We should wrap up by the end of next week.

In reading, we started using SRA's. They are short stories at various levels that ask comprehension questions, vocabulary, word patterns, as well as true/false, fact/fiction, etc. We are going to start using them weekly. We will also start on a new Jr. Great story on Monday.

The Seabury Auction is this Saturday!! Our class project looks great. See photos from last post for a picture of it.

Seabury Science Fair is on Thursday, March 12. Sharks were not required to participate. If you did, please bring your project in on Thursday to share with the school.

March already!!

Wow, have things been busy at Seabury. The auction is next Saturday, and we finished our class project today! We are getting very close to report card time as well. Today, we discussed geometry in art, focusing on the Plains Indians and their beadwork. The students made their own designs from pattern blocks, then on paper. In the afternoons, each child has been working on their own project related to Lewis and Clark. Some are making maps, studying the animals, building boats and forts, and dressing up as a Shoshoni. This week and next week we are studying the Sioux tribes and learning about their culture. Each child has created their own Indian name, and are developing their own tribe throughout our study. We have been writing about life on the plains, looking at pictographs to tell a story, and soon practice some sign language signs to talk to each other. We have been reading biographies of Sacagewa and the Journey west with Lewis and Clark.

Museum of Flight

Hello all! We had a wonderful time at the Museum of Flight last Tuesday. Through the use of simulators, the students learned how to control an airplane's pitch, roll and yaw. They all enjoyed the space section, and touring a retired Air Force One Boeing 707. Please remember that this is a short week-No school Thursday or Friday for teacher inservice, and no school Monday for President's Day. Here's a quick rundown of the week!

Writing-With the start of Lewis and Clark, we will be keeping a journal as we travel along the trail.

Math-We are doing a quick review of place value again to 1000 and beyond (did you know 1 trillion has 13 digits!)

Social Studies-Last week we learned the major rivers of the US, this week we are going to pack for our trip (how do you pack for the unknown??) and start our journals. We are reading actual journal entries written by William Clark.

Science-finishing up Newton's three laws of Motion, and ready to put into action how toys on Earth act compared to toys in space.

Happy February

This week we have been working on our space reports and today we started our models to go with our writing. See the above photos. Here's a run down of next week.

Writing: Continue with expository writing. Choosing a topic of choice and adding details.

Math: We are starting fractions this week!

Social Studies: We will finally get started with Lewis and Clark and the midwestern region of the United States.

Science: Musuem of Flight, then we will start experiments playing with toys and comparing how they are used on Earth to how they perform in space!

Last week of January

It is hard to believe that we are coming up on the half way mark to the end of the year! We have many exciting things to study in the upcoming weeks! Sorry I have no photos this week, but be on the look out for next week.

Writing: We are still working on our space research and writing an expository paragraph to go along with it. I hope to be ready to publish by the end of the week. I used a weekly reader last week to help us learn about author's purpose, and how to write an 4 sentence paragraph around one topic.

Reading: Last week, we began using Wordly Wise, and program that helps students build vocabulary. We read a story about space, and used dictionaries to define our vocabulary words (many had more than one meaning). We also played pictionary to act out the words. Next week I will begin our new Junior Great Book series and alternate between the two programs to work on comprehension, vocabulary, author's purpose, and critical thinking with the text.

Math: We are still working on other names for :15 and :45 (quarter after and quarter t0) I will be narrowing down to nearest five minute intervals, and start with measuring temperature.

Social Studies: Westward movement. Introduce Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark as we begin a new journey in Missouri and head out west.

Science: We will be visiting the Musuem of Flight on Tuesday, February 3. I hope that the students will come back with lots of questions to do an experiment around the concept of flight for our group science fair project.