Week of April 27th

Upcoming Events:

May 12th - Field Trip to Washington State History Museum

May 13th - Pajama Day and pancake snack

The Beacons have had a great week.  Here are some of the highlights!

We had a great Earth Day.  The students wore their hats and walked around the neighborhood picking up trash. 

Those are some fabulous looking newspaper hats!

The students began reading A Horse's Tale.  This fabulous book looks back through 100 years of Washington state history and geography.  We visited Ritzville, WA in the 1890s this week. The kids compared the 1890s with 2011, creating a Venn diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences.  We will travel to many other places and times in the week to come.

In Writers' Workshop, our poetry unit continues for National Poetry month.  The children have written haikus, tankas, free verse, and cinquains this week.  The expectation is that students will complete a poem each day.  Once they finish, they can write another poem of their choice.  We have some very prolific writers of poetry! 

In math, the students are moving into decimals.  They are looking at the place value after a decimal point, converting fractions and decimals, and applying this work to money.  The kids are very excited about decimals, and are making some good connections with the place value. 

In Science, we have been hard at work on ecosystems.  On one of our sunny days, we went outside and dug in the dirt to see what lives in the ecosystem in our garden.  There were many kids who were excited about the words and other insects they found.  We also saw roots of plants and discussed why each of these things was important to that ecosystem.  We also created terrariums with a partner.  We began with 2 inches of soil, added 3 inches of water, then added a plant to the jar.  We have begun dropping seeds into the jar.  The students are making observations every few days about the water level, what happens to the seeds, and how the plant is growing.  The goal is to watch as the water level drops, what happens to the seeds and plants.  Hopefully we will see how this ecosystem needs certain things to survive and what those are. 

In Social Studies, the students are learning about the history of Washington state.  We read some information, worked on highlighting properly the important facts, and are now answering questions about what we read.  Soon the students will be gathering facts and writing questions for our Jeopardy game. 

Only 6 weeks left of school! 

Week of April 20th

The children did a great job showing off their organs and bones at Gathering on Friday. Congratulations on a job well done to all the Beacons.

We are beginning our last book of the year on Thursday.  A Horse's Tale edited by Nancy Luenn will take the children through 100 years of adventure in Washington state.  This ties nicely with our Social Studies unit on Washington and Puget Sound.  The children will be comparing and contrasting different decades from the book. 

If you haven't heard about our poetry writing, please ask your Beacon!  The kids are very excited about writing different types of poems.  Even the most reluctant writers are finding great success with this.  In the last week, we have written color poems, poems about rules, a nonsense rhyming poem, shape poems, and couplets.  We will be putting all of the poems together in a booklet once April is finished and will have a publishers' picnic at the end of the year to share all of our great work.  Be sure to check out the pictures and poems below. 

In math, our fraction unit is coming to a close.  We will be testing on Friday.  The students are having great discussions when coming up with strategies for comparing and ordering fractions, as well as finding equivalent fractions.

In Science, we are beginning our study of ecosystems.  After a discussion about what an ecosystem is and how it works, the students will be creating their own ecosystem.  They will  need to create a food web and be able to discuss how the ecosystem works.

In Social Studies, we have begun looking at the history of Washington state.  The students are reading information booklets and learning how to highlight the important information (without highlighting the entire sentence or paragraph).  They are preparing topics for our Jeopardy game. 

The students will be wearing some lovely newspaper hats for Earth Day on Friday.  We will also be picking up trash around the school and neighborhood on Friday afternoon.  The Beacons are excellent stewards of the Earth.

We made inkblot pictures with paint, then wrote a couplet poem that went with our pictures.  What do you see?  This is what we see, written in couplet form. 

I have a paper body.

It has a brain and something dotty.

It has a tongue. 

And something dumb.

 I see nothing,

And I see something.

I know you are confused,

But I asked to be excused.

 I found this but I don't know what it is.

I see the name and now I surely know it's his.

It is very colorful.

It is very wonderful.

 I was watching the gliders,

When some galactic fighters

Zoomed through the sky!!!

Fly! Fly! Fly!

 I saw some colorful rain.

Then they went into the drain.

But then the rain changed.

It was so strange.

 I see something.

But I know it's nothing.

I know it's puffy.

I don't think it's a toughie.

 I'm sorry this picture is really nothing. 

Although I think it's something.

I really don't know what it is.

A mishmash, a hodgepodge, some sort of paintish fizz. 

 Smiley faces always looking at you.

And then it says boo. 

It says it's sorry.

Then it goes on a safari.

 The boxer fights for his sight.

The boxer fights for his right.

The boxer is going to kick.

It is going to be quick!

 The gate is made out of a wall,

It will not fall,

It has ferns,

And it turns.

 I see lots of colors in front of me.

A lot of colors I see.

I see yellow.

And it is mellow.

 I see a butterfly in front of me.

I see it's with a honeybee!

A butterfly is on a flower.

It's so dirty it needs a shower!

 Some wrestlers went to confess who is best,

They are wearing the same clothes and are really dressed.

They are really hairy on their chests,

They love the word crest.

I see the joker.

He is playing poker.

He's wearing brass

In a class.

Have a wonderful week!

Week of April 13

Welcome back from Spring Break!  The kids all returned enthused and rested for the last 9 weeks of school. 


In language arts, the children are finishing up their second trimester books this week.  They are having to connect some pieces all throughout the book.  We have discussed foreshadowing, so the children are now thinking of at least 2 instances of foreshadowing in their book.  It has been quite impressive to see the kids thinking hard about this. 


In math, we have begun a chapter on fractions.  We will explore fractions of a whole, fractions of a set, and equivalent fractions over the next week.  The children have made fraction sticks to help understand these concepts and we will be playing some fraction games in the next week. 


In writing, we are finishing up our hard backed books.  The students have all finished typing their stories, and are now illustrating and putting them together.  We will be working on the covers, including the summary, author information and comments in the next week.  Since April is National Poetry month, we will be writing a variety of poems this month.


In science we are finishing up the human body and beginning the study of ecosystems.  There are many fun and interesting topics on the agenda for ecosystems, including the recreation of different biomes.  More details to come about this!


Social Studies has us looking at Washington State.  We will do lots of exploring of the geography, history and current economy throughout our study.  The students will be writing and creating a Washington version of Jepoardy on the computer.  They are very excited about researching this and making the game. 

Have a wonderful week!