Outdoor School Wrap-Up

As the weekend comes to a close, the parents of Outdoor School students are inevitably still discovering the lingering effects.... mud-caked boots, a household filled with singing, and a child forever changed by this amazing experience. I feel honored to have witnessed the inspiring student transformations firsthand: students battled their homesickness to embrace the support of their cabin leaders and friends, others, who started out hesitant during field study time, began to voluntarily answer questions and participate, and most went from social uncertainty to initiating friendships with students from other schools. These are just a few accomplishments of your children and I am incredibly proud of them! I hope you, as parents, continue to discover the transformations in your child as the up-coming weeks unfold. For now, take a peek at a few pics of this incredible journey known as Outdoor School...

Art Mural and Outdoor School

Art Mural Update

The Gorge Art Mural is underway! The professional artists arrived this week and started painting the sky and clouds. In the following weeks, the mountains and forests will begin to emerge and our hallway will feel like the Columbia River Gorge. Our class will be starting our part of the mural this week. The entire class will be focusing on sketching, drawing and painting birds of prey and aquatic wildlife to add to the mural. The funky monkeys will be creating the salmon. We will be painting on Monday, 4/19 and Wednesday, 4/21 from 8:30 - 9:30, 10:45 - 11:25 (funky monkeys only), and 2:00 - 3:00 pm. We will be working with oil-based paint that does not come out of clothing. So, I suggest students bring an old paint shirt to put over their own clothing during the painting process. I also suggest wearing older clothing on Monday and Wednesday, just in case paint drips somewhere other than the paint shirt. I especially want to thank Amy Guillen and Kristi Parsley for volunteering their time for this project. I couldn't pull this project off without them!


Outdoor School Update
Outdoor School is right around the corner! I will be the supervising teacher the school week of April 26 - 29 and will be taking the Charter School 6th graders to Outdoor School. If your child is not attending Outdoor School, he/she will be integrated into either Mrs. Sims' or Mrs. Kelly's class that week. They will "do school" as normal, just with a different teacher and with a slightly different schedule. It will be an exercise in flexibility for all involved!

Outdoor School parents - please be looking for information coming home this week regarding specific logistics for your child.

Art Volunteers Needed

We are starting phase one of the PTA funded school-wide art project in April! This is a multi-year project which recreates the scenery found in the Lower Columbia River Gorge. It will span the length of the school building hallways. Our class will be contributing the birds of prey and salmon to this school-wide project. We are eager to start, but we need some artistic volunteers to help make this project go as smoothly as possible! :)

In order to complete phase one, we need at least two adult volunteers to help our classroom. Volunteer responsibilities and commitments include:

Friday, April 9th: attend an informational and training meeting from 10:30 – 12:30 am

Week of April 19th - 22nd: contribute 4 - 6 hours in the classroom assisting with technique and materials

*Volunteers may be needed for additional times not listed above.


Please let me know if you are willing and able
to help with this project!


Thanks!

February Book Orders

It's time for another book order! If you choose to participate, please place your Scholastic Book Club orders online or via the traditional order form by Monday, March 1. To order online, go to the Web address below and enter our class’s personalized user name and password. Remember, placing your online credit card order is completely safe and secure, as well as convenient.

www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class User Name: mrsloeungsclass
Password: bookorders

To order via the traditional order form, please submit the completed order form and check (no cash please) in a ziplock baggy or envelope with your child's name on the front. Thank you for continuing to help our classroom earn free books for our classroom library! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

January Overview

Here's a quick look at our classroom's active and productive January....

Writing - We are wrapping up our genre study of feature articles and moving on to the State Writing Tests next week.  The students learned about feature article components and strategies such as angles, leads, the body of an article, text features, and conclusion strategies. Each published genre piece, and the supporting writing process, is place in an individual student portfolio to take home at the end of the year.  It is a great way to see students' writing progress throughout the year!  Here's a peek at a few published feature articles...

Ancient Civilizations - We've been discussing various aspects the Mesopotamian civilization and culture over the past few weeks.  Students have retold the Mesopotamian story in their own classroom 12-page book titled Mesopotamia - The Land Between Two Rivers. 

  

  

 Making  typical food in Mesopotamia and playing the Royal Game of Ur

  

Designing personal cylinder seals

Building a Mesopotamian city complex

Gorge Studies - Each student selected a specific ecosystem to study in further depth, gathering information about specific plants, animals, and unique ecosystem characteristics.  Students are finishing the visual representation of their ecosystem with 5 specific plants and 5 specific animals.  Next, we will begin the labeling process and the written piece to accompany their visual representation creations...

   

  

Classroom Buddies -  Our buddies in Mrs. Dunton's class are starting a comprehensive Learning in Depth project that the students will study until they graduate from High School.  We visited our buddy class to help them along in their studies.  Take a look....

Tyson learned the Royal Game of Ur during our Mesopotamian unit and his buddy's topic is....you guessed, Games!  A picture just can't capture the magic happening as Tyson and Caleb played one of the oldest games in known civilization... 

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