Art Mural Project

The First Phase of the Art Mural Project is completed! Corbett Grade School and Corbett Charter School students created a replication of the Lower Columbia River Gorge in their own school hallway. Each of the approximately 400 students painted a plant, animal, or point of interest true to the magnificent place where they go to school – the gorge. The students raised money during their annual jog-a-thon, sponsored by the PTA, to hire artists to plan a three year project to represent the gorge from Troutdale to Biggs. The artists painted the background that frames a painting from each and every student. The area for this year's portion of the mural spans 140 feet of hallway. The students are representing the knowledge they have learned in their placed based education of the magnificent story of the gorge. You may view a student-painted Multnomah Falls, a Pacific Salmon, a River Otter or a Bird of Prey as you walk down the hallway. This project was highlighted on Channel 12 KPTV during the Sunday evening broadcast. Check out the video link and pictures of our students hard at work to create this amazing re-creation of the gorge!

The movie link:  http://www.kptv.com/video/23505668/index.html

Students creating their individual contributions to add to the mural....

The professional artists painting the mural backdrop....

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to display the final product!

Up-Coming Events

Thursday, May 14
Rowena Field Trip
8:00 am – 3:00 pm


Wednesday, May 19
Beginning Band Concert
7:00 – 8:00 pm
Multipurpose Building


Wednesday, May 26
Funky Monkeys Concert
1:20 – 2:20 pm
Grade School Gym


Friday, May 28
School Day


Monday, May 31
Memorial Day – no school


Tuesday, June 1
Portfolio Night*


Wednesday, June 2
Portfolio Night*


Thursday, June 3
Zoo Field Trip
8:00 am – 3:00 pm


Friday, June 4
Last Day of School*

*more detailed information to follow

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...