Holiday Hosting

Are you interested in hosting one of our classroom pets for the holidays? Our Leopard Gecko (Spotz) needs a home as does our hermit crab. If you are able and interested, please get in touch with me. I will provide complete care instructions for both of the pets.

Classroom Updates

A few bits of news…

Library link-Ms. Marco is having the kids use their timelines to create Power Points while at their library/media special. What a great way to connect the classroom to a special. Thanks Ms. Marco!

Thank you to several parents! (What would we ever do without our wonderful Waukazoo parents?) Thanks for Theda Luna for creating the large map of Europe we are using to identify and label countries, landforms, bodies of water, and more. Thanks to Lori Hotary and Karen Green for accompanying us to DeGraaf Nature Center. Thanks to all the moms for joining us at Moms and Muffins! J Thank you to Juliette's dad, Joep Bijlholt for coming in and talking about life in the Netherlands. Thank you to everyone for helping with the timelines, they are just amazing!

Thank you to Mr. Rodriguez for joining us this fall as he prepares for a career as an educator. We wish him the best of luck as he prepares for his next semester of student teaching!

HOLIDAY PARTY NEWS

Students voted last week on their wishes for a holiday party. They voted for a movie party, with snacks and hot cocoa! (If you signed up at the ice cream social to help with the party I'll be in touch. If you are interesting in helping with the party please let me know.) The party is tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, December 18.

HOLIDAY GIFT GIVING

Students also voted on a charity to adopt in lieu of gifts. It has been an Upper Montessori holiday tradition to adopt a charity rather than exchange gifts in the classroom. I am happy to report that students have chosen to adopt the Harbor Humane Society again this year. We will be setting up a tree in the classroom where students can place their donations for the humane society. These will be delivered the week before Christmas. A few ideas for the humane society include dog or cat food, kitten or puppy food, kitten and puppy powdered milk replacer, non-clumping kitty litter, gas cards, or trash bags. A complete wish list from the Harbor Humane Society will be sent home with the kids this week. Thank you to the kids for their generous spirit in choosing a local and worthwhile organization!

--Mrs. Perrien

Field Trip Pictures

Parents-

I have just finished adding to the Photobucket site all the pictures I took while at DeGraaf Nature Center. There are some wonderful pictures of the kids hard at work sawing wood, baking bread, and carding wool. I think they developed a new level of appreciation for their own chores after learning about the chores often performed by pioneer kids! There are also some great pictures of several of the kids experimenting with pioneer tools. Enjoy!

Reminders

Parents-

I am very excited about the timelines! I have been hearing some wonderful feedback from the children as well as all kinds of facts learned during the timeline creation.

If you have any questions about the timelines, please don’t hesitate to email me during the break. I will be checking in each day. As a reminder, timelines are due on Monday, December 1st. We will be sharing our timelines with the class and with our dads at Dads and Doughnuts (see below).

I would also like to remind you that we are going to DeGraaf Nature Center on Tuesday, December 2 in the morning from 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Dads and Doughnuts—I would like to invite Dads into the classroom on Friday, December 12 in the morning.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

--Mrs. Perrien

Classroom Updates: November 19, 2008

Moms and Muffins—this Friday please join us between 9 and 11 a.m. Stay for one hour or both, whatever works for you. The kids are excited to share their work!

Field Trip—we will be taking a field trip to DeGraaf Nature Center on December 2, 2008 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. We will be participating in the "pioneer living" program and will be working both indoors and outdoors. Please have students dress for this field trip in layers, to accommodate both indoor and outdoor activities. DeGraaf does not allow students to participate if they are not dressed properly. I will be able to take two adults on this field trip, if you are interested in going with us to DeGraaf please call or email. I'll be able to take the first two parents that respond.

Photos—I will be uploading photos this week to the Photobucket page from both Veterans Day and Science Alive.

Excellent Christmas shopping can be found this weekend at Waukazoo's Holiday Bazaar; Saturday, November 22 from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Curriculum—in writing this week we have been working on sequencing and adding details to our essays and stories. We practiced a writing tool called sensory imaging and connected the practice to our science observations on ecosystems. We are also in the planning stages for writing a tall tale; we will be connecting our sensory imaging practice to our tall tale rough drafts. Stay tuned to soon see a rough draft of our tall tale!

 

Classroom Updates: November 11, 2008

Amazing how time flies and things change! We are already well into November and we are as busy as ever! Please keep checking in at the Photobucket site. I will be adding photos this week from our Veteran's Day assembly as well as pictures taken during work time last week. Mrs. Klinger has also dropped in a ton of photos; if you have a child in her room, you might just want to check in and see what she has added.

SCIENCE ALIVE

Next week Science Alive will be at Waukazoo. This is surely one of the most exciting events of the school year! Science Alive will be in our classroom on Monday from 11:00 – 12:00. They will also be with Mrs. LeClair on Monday afternoon and Mrs. Sale and Mrs. Klinger on Wednesday. (Remember that this could change without my prior knowledge.) I will do my best to take lots of great photos!

MOMS AND MUFFINS

Moms, don't forget! You are invited to join us for Moms and Muffins on Friday, November 21^st. Join us for our morning work time from 9-11 a.m. Stay for all or part of the morning, whatever works for you.

SKI CLUB

Mr. Gaul has started posting ski club applications and information about the upcoming ski season using a bulletin board in the main hallway. If you are interested in learning more please ask your son or daughter to grab an information sheet or ski club application.

VOLUNTEERS

Are you interested in helping with our classroom store or classroom economy? Help is needed on Fridays with student paychecks and/or manning the classroom store so that students may shop. (Students don't have to shop on Fridays…that could really be any day, but paychecks do need to be settled on Fridays.) Let me know if you are interested.

SCIENCE

We are beginning our study of the human body by learning about the skeletal system this week. After learning about this body system we will draw the skeletal system onto our bodies! Have you heard about the body tracing we did last week? We will also be studying other body systems and adding them to OUR bodies! Speaking of systems, we also set up miniature ecosystems last week! Students worked in teams to determine the needs of guppies and snails and created small aquarium ecosystems for these creatures. Each team determined the amount of gravel and rocks, plus [live] seaweed needed by their specimens. Teams experimented with the amount of seaweed between tanks to learn what conditions will be best for the creatures. Will too much seaweed be detrimental for the creatures? As a bonus…we have already had lots of guppy babies born; they are now in their own tank!

**WORKPLAN NOTE**

Next week's workplan will actually be a two-week workplan, to cover the short Thanksgiving week. We will use the two days of Thanksgiving week to delve deeply into the Human Body and our study of Europe.

SPEAKING OF EUROPE…

…a project is rapidly approaching. J Students have been researching (in the computer lab) a specific time period in European history. They will bring home their research on Friday, along with a note of explanation, to begin creating their own timeline of European history. They will be sharing their timelines in December to an interested audience. We are even discussing costumes! More information about the timelines will come home later this week.

FINALLY…let me share a bit of exciting family news! My brother and his wife are the proud parents of a new baby boy! Carter was born on October 27^th at two in the afternoon. His birth was eagerly anticipated and we are still celebrating this happy occasion! J

 

Thank you!

I would like to say thank you to Cheri Weisner (Tyler's mom) for coming in today to discuss her job in the medical field; it was a fascinating presentation.

Thank you, Cheri!