P.E. Teams - Round 2

We had the Opening Ceremonies for our new P.E. teams today! Each team is embodying an ancient civilization through research, flag creation, and a "battle cry" to use while competing in basketball. Here are some pics...

Welcome 2010!

Typically, the start of a new year brings resolutions, feelings of a fresh start, and struggles to write the new year's date!  Our classroom is following this New Year's trend to the last drop...  :)

 Logistical Resolutions 

•  Promptness -  Students' prompt arrival is a crucial element to starting each day fresh and mentally ready to learn.  School starts at 8:00 am sharp and students are expected to be in their seats by this time.  It typically takes students 5 minutes to unpack and get settled in their seats.  So, please make sure that your child is dropped off by 7:55 am at the latest.  We start Morning Meeting at 8:00 am and any late students disrupt this classroom pattern. 
  
• Attendance -  Consistent attendance is fundamental to your child's access to Imaginative Education and is a requirement of admission to Corbett Charter School.  Students' learning takes place in an interactive, peer-dependent environment at school. Their presence in the classroom is necessary due to Imaginative Education framework. For this reason, make-up work is not possible when students do become ill. Homework for days missed will be 60 minutes of independent reading and a math lesson for each day absent.
  

Fresh Starts
We are starting a variety of new studies in January.  One of the best ways you, as parents, can be involved with your child's education is to ask them questions about their daily learning.  Keep them accountable!  My hope is that you will use this overview of new projects and classroom happenings to touch base with your child daily.  Ask them to re-tell a fascinating fact they learned, what is exciting them about school or new understanding they gained about themselves as readers, writers, scientists and mathematicians.

• Writing - Our new genre study in writing is feature articles from magazines and newspapers.  We will read and discuss elements of feature articles such as engaging topics, angle/purpose of the article and organization through headings.  Students will select a topic of interest to research and practice writing their first feature article.  Their second feature article will be focused on a specific animal in a Gorge ecosystem.
• Columbia Gorge Studies - We have been studying four different ecosystems of the Gorge:  temperate forests, wetlands, rivers/streams, and temperate grasslands.  Students will select one specific ecosystem to study more in depth, create a poster to represent their ecosystem, attach their featured article to their poster and orally present their work to their classmates.
• Ancient Civilizations -  Students will be focusing on the foundations of early civilizations and their impact on our present civilization.  A class focus on Mesopotamia will kick off this unit study.  As a class, we will focus on the geography, people/culture, myths and legends, and inventions of the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians, to name a few.  Later, students will work in small groups, each studying a different ancient civilization, based on their P.E. teams (see below for more information).
• Physical Education - Students selected new team leaders and teams.  It's important for these teams to work together in various ways and learn each other strengths.  So, each team is named after an ancient civilization (Egyptians, Romans, Incas, ect.) and they will briefly research these civilizations in order to compete like them in their new sport model: basketball!
• Reading - Students will be reading historical fiction books in their new book clubs.  The theme...yes, you guessed it....Ancient Civilizations!  :)     Students will also be reading their own independently chosen books and may write their weekly reading letters about either book.  The elemental focus is on practicing how to use supporting passages/quotes from the book to support stated opinions or ideas. 

I hope this provides you with a foundational tool of information to ask your child specific questions about his/her day at school. :)   As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about your child's progress.

~Mrs. Loeung
dloeung@corbettcharter.k12.or.us
503.695.3655