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Monday, Jan 7 2008
January 7, 2008
Dear Families,
Welcome to 2008!
Thank you for everything you do for your students and the ways you support of me and the classroom!
Sorry, that the weekly letter is going out a day late.
Getting back into the groove of things took up every minute of the day.
To let you know about a possible upcoming event.
Both of the other 4/5 classrooms are doing a “school day on Amtrak” and taking a trip to Portland.
The trip begins at 6:15 at the Orca Parking Lot and ends at 5:00pm that same day.
It allows students to study geography and learn about the history of Washington State while doing distance math and also enjoying both the scenery and most likely viewing one film on the return trip.
However,
to sign up I need to let Amtrak know exactly home many people would be going with the class as chaperones.
They require a 1 adult to 6 student ratio—so that means I need to know if you would be interested? I need at least 4 people who would be sure to attend.
I will try for a Wednesday so it won’t interfere with electives –most likely it will be 1/29 or 2/27 or 3/12?
Please email, call or write me a note if you would be available- by this Thursday so when I put in my request for tickets I can give an exact number.
Dave has taken this trip with his classrooms before and it has always been a great success!
W get a super discounted rate of $10 for the train & we will either car pool or bus to the station.
In class this week there are a few changes to the curriculum and even the structure of our day due to a new focus on social studies / government as well as a new teacher who will be doing both in and out of classroom support around writing and reading.
First, you may notice when you enter our classroom –that it is organized differently.
We have a Senate, a House of Representatives, and a Supreme Court section of our classroom.
Your student will be a part of one of these branches of government and they will be working on a report on who they are, what are their issues, and how they got to their position.
Then we will be taking on legislative issues and doing our own debates on them, presenting them as bills, and then testing them as laws.
This is a developing role play- but it should give students the opportunity to learn about the US government.
Our schedule is changing in that while we will still start the day with Environmental & Social Justice Issues from 9:00- 9:40 that will lead into a writing block 9:40- 10:20 and then a short reading block 10:20- 10:45.
In the afternoon our basic schedule will be Read to Self time at 12:00- 12:30.
Then Math from 12:30- 1:40.
Read Aloud Continues after Recess at 1:55- 2:05.
Finally the last hour of the day be Social Studies/ project time.
Of course on Tuesdays and Thursdays we will have electives from 1:35-2:35 and on other days we alter our afternoons for special guests and programs like music.
Also, I know at conferences many of you asked about handwriting practice and spelling I will try to
fit that in on a couple of mornings a week—perhaps Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we will start with that.
This week’s homework is math.
There is no poem to memorize, however I expect all students to turn in a published poem or essay from the perspective of an “invisible” worker.
Today we read a poem about a janitor who felt as though no one really noticed him.
And when he was noticed he was called an English translation of his name.
We talked about who other “invisible workers” are—students came up with a huge list and are now writing.
Well, I have run out of room.
Stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Ms. Grow
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