Friday April 18

Today we completed many projects including independent literacy work, student designed weather projects, and decorating Earth Day grocery bags.  It was a very focused, yet independent day and the students seemed very invested in their work.
I took a few pictures of their working time and a video (hope it works) so you could see what it was like.  I was very impressed...looked like a room full of third graders...
Report cards went home today.  Enjoy the weekend with your family- the weather looks great!

Thursday April 17...The Oregon Garden...and rain....and pictures

We had a great time today enjoying the trees, locating frogs, decoding animal tracks and becoming COMPLETELY SOAKED!!!!  That is no exaggeration!   Even though it was wet, we still had fun and enjoyed the beautiful drive down HWY 213.  A special thanks to all of the parents who helped out this time- we really couldn't do this without you!
Here are some pictures...see you tomorrow!

(sorry there is not more...my iPhone battery ran out at lunch!  :))

Wednesday April 16

We are reaching the end of our weather unit, and an important part of any learning is synthesis, design, and dissemination.  Yesterday, the students organized and created weather books from the multitude of projects we worked on together during our study.  Today, they were asked to create a project that explained something they learned about weather.  It could be anything their imagination could think up- but it had to teach something and have writing involved.  Here are pictures of day one!

Hopefully we can share our projects on Monday afternoon to other classes of students here at Duniway!  (the students voted on how they wanted to share their information/learning).

Happy learning!  See you tomorrow for the FIELD TRIP!

Tuesday April 15

Hi everyone!

I will be at a professional appointment this afternoon, but I wanted to show you what the young meteorologists were doing today...
We are drawing our study of weather to a close, so we are compiling and creating our own weather books using the class projects and individual writing projects we have completed.  The books must be organized by weather topic and have a Table of Contents.
Just a few pictures of our hard work!
Have a nice day!

Monday April 14

Thanks again to all of the parents who can drive to the Oregon Gardens.  Your contribution makes the field trip possible.  If we had to reserve a school bus to drive us to our location, the cost would be close to $600- for ONE bus.  This would make the field trip cost $23 per student on top of all other fees.  As you can see, your help is vital to our ability to travel on field trips.  We will have two more trips this year, so I will email the dates soon in order to give you time to make arrangements to volunteer.

Today we discussed a book about a family working for the chance to move into a better home, wrote facts about thunder and lightening, worked together to learn more about fractions by dividing up pretend candy bars, then learned more about the difference between climate and weather...whew...
Thanks to Layton for keeping a weather journal, which is a perfect example of how meteorologists determine the climate of an environment.

Enjoy the sun and I'll see you tomorrow!

Thursday April 10

Hi everyone!

Today we worked on independent reading and writing projects.  Some of these projects included learning more about Tornado Alley.  We also worked on finishing our writing samples. 

Later, we learned a new game called "3 Spins to Win" so we can have fun adding different quantities of money together. 

After lunch, we heard about Paul from Wayside School and had more independent reading and writing time. 

Then we learned more about how storms form from Bill Nye Science guy.  Finally, we created a 3-D paper tornado model!  Whew...it was a busy busy day and we worked right up until the last minute of the day!

Tomorrow I will be dedicating time to evaluating your child's strengths and areas that need growth.  They have each come so far this year, and it is a precious time to contemplate the individual needs of each child.  For that reason, report card planning days are so very important - quiet time to reflect and plan about student learning.

The weather looks to be lovely this weekend- enjoy the time with your family!

Wednesday April 9

Hi everyone! 
Happy Birthday to Matthew yesterday!


This week we have been concentrating on assessments to inform the report card writing day this Friday.  We have also been learning more about storms; how they form and their impact on people.  Today we learned more about hurricanes, including some of the more disastrous ones that have impacted the United States.

We have enjoyed Mrs. Beach as our guest teacher on Friday and Tuesday afternoon.  She brought a really fun art project yesterday, and I think she is looking forward to the times she can come back and see us!
Bring homework tomorrow please!

Ideas from the children today:
"Mrs. Beach brought us a new game called "Mountain Climber".  Cassidy
"It was fun to play with Evalyn at recess." Norah
"It was nice to play with Parker when we were outside." Alex
"I had alot of fun playing LEGO friends with Olivia during choice time today." Roxana
"During math I enjoyed playing Race to $2.00 with Drew- the quarter won both times!" Beckett
"I liked playing Stack the States with Beckett and Drew because even though we had to guess alot, we still had fun." Anders
"Cooper and Parker played Hawaii Dream Vacation with me during math.  They both played fair, and Cooper even gave me the correct money when I put too much in.  It was very friendly." Miles
"It was fun to spend some time making friends with Beckett!" Drew

Please remember to read the Duniway update each week for more information about events happening at school- see you all tomorrow!

(PS- sorry about there being a few days since our last update because I've been out at professional events/meetings.)