Week in Review September 15, 2010

Upcoming Events:

This Friday, September 17th

Evening Field Trip to the Woodland Park Zoo


Picture Day
This Friday, September 17th

Curriculum Night
Thursday evening, September 23rd
time to be announced

Hunger Walk
Sunday, October 3rd
1 pm Registration
2pm Walk Starts
Fort Steilacoom Park

This is an optional family activity,

 not a school field trip

October:

No School-Teacher Inservice 

Thursday, Oct. 14th

Friday, Oct. 15th

Here's What's Happening in

the Beacons' World

Reading: Our Beacons are very excited about their new reading groups. Students are reading either  Charlotte's Web  or Mr. Popper's Penguins. Both of these classics are in keeping with our integrated curriculum of the study of animals in science, the continents in Social Studies, reading comprehension and listening comprehension, not to mention the vocabulary and critical thinking questions. Lots of great discussions are going on in our reading groups.

Math: Last Wednesday students were divided into two groups: the "Math Magicians" and the "Math Magicals". Both groups independently came up with their respective names  and the names so closely resemble each other that Mrs. Price and I will have to be on our toes to call each group their correct names! Whew! Both groups are in an accelerated math program and are working very hard. We are proud of our Math Magicians and Math Magicals!

Writing: Many Beacons have completed the "Peer Editing" phase on their first writing paper. Some are all ready for the final phase, that of "Publishing".
      This past week we also worked on dialog by writing a conversation between "Koko" the gorilla and "All Ball", her beloved tail-less kitten. We worked on commas and quotation marks. After their final dialog editing, students made finger puppets of Koko and Ball and presented their "conversation" to the class. They really outdid themselves!

Science: Students continued their study of animal vertebrates this week by learning the 5 subgroups of vertebrae.(check with your Beacon to see if  he/she can tell you that they are: mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles). Students learned the subgroups and categorized certain animals by their respective characteristics. Our Beacons were very excited to share their ideas!

Social Studies: Last week, in preparation of  the themes for Charlotte's Web and Mr. Popper's Penguins that of animal intelligence, empathy, emotion and communication, we watched the National Geographic documentary of "Koko" . If you haven't seen it, you simply must! Students learned sign language and how animals "talk" with words without "saying" words. In literature, animals "talk" in the language in which the book is written. I was very impressed at the empathy your Beacon expressed towards Koko and her precious best friend, the tail-less All Ball. Joy and sadness, happiness and friendship, life and death, many of the universal themes of literature were found in watching this marvelous animal. Very profound. If you haven't heard from your Beacon about Koko, please ask and you'll be guaranteed a mouthful!

Koko's Kitten

Technology: Friday marked our first "Computer Lab" experience. Students were introduced to computer protocol. I had them pull up the Koko website which is kid friendly. We learned about "thumbnail" photos and how to navigate side bars. One item that was on the Koko video which the students were stunned about were the paintings that Koko and her surrogate "brother" Michael created. I've included one below. Beacons selected a "postcard" of their favorite painting and I'll be e-mailing those to them from the secure website. So be looking forward to receiving those. Please feel free to visit this website with your child or at your leisure. http://www.koko.org/

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language."  Martin Buber

Looking forward to another great week with your Beacon,

Betsy and Tiffany

Weekly Update Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Upcoming Events

 September 17th, School Picture Day

Friday,September 17th 

Seattle Woodland Park Zoo

6:00p.m.-10:00 pm

Here's what's new

  in the

Beacons' World !

It's been a very exciting, educational and busy first week of the new school year. The first three days of school last week were filled in part with learning the perfunctory "rules" of the school. Starting first thing last Wednesday morning, we had a special all school Gathering. Mrs. Wollum explained all the important "Playground Safety Rules" and students were taken outside and shown precisely how to use the equipment and how to stay safe. Your Beacon was an attentive listener. We were especially proud of our Beacons as school was dismissed this week for they all remembered the safety procedures for car "pick up". After the long Labor Day weekend, the Beacons arrived at school yesterday well rested and ready to work! All the Beacons are settling into the routine of the new school year by working hard and having a smile on their face.

Math: We have had a week of math assessments. We will be completing our math assessments at the end of this week and then we will begin our 2 math groups. Both groups will be working at an accelerated math level. Also this week, students have had a wonderful time learning interactive and educational math games. Please ask your Beacon about the two new ones they've learned since school began.

Reading:  Our Reading assessments are continuing as well. We will begin our Reading groups on Monday. We have also spent time this week reading poems about school.

Language Arts: This week we started writing poems and learning that not all poems have to rhyme. (This was a shocking revelation to some students!) Beacons also wrote a fantasy story about their summers. In addition, each Beacon has  written a recipe cards for success! Throughout this past week we have reviewed nouns and verbs, worked on our Daily Oral Language editing skills, written in our journals and have had a vocabulary word of the day everyday since school began last Wednesday. "Embark","novice","bolt", "cease","procrastinate" and "apprentice" are just a few of the vocabulary words your Beacon would love to share with you.

Science: These Beacons sure love learning about animals! We have launched into the study of vertebrates this week and everyone is very excited!

Social Studies: We have begun our first trimester's unit of study on Explorers by learning about the 7 continents and the 7 oceans. We are also leaning how to spell them correctly. Be sure to ask your Beacon about the "ant" that carried a rubber tree plant across "Ant"arctica! Students are making maps of the land masses and bodies of water. Look our world, here we come!

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."

~John Dewey

We're off to a great start

to an amazing school year!

Looking forward to another exciting week with your Beacon,
Betsy and Tiffany

Beacons' Homework Policy

I  LOVE  HOMEWORK!!

We want to take this opportunity to explain our homework policy to help avoid any confusion and to make our expectations clear.


Homework should never take more than 20 minutes per subject per night. Most homework assignments will take between 5-10 minutes. Many will be started in class so we will know if there are questions on the assignment. In addition, our goal is that students not have more than two 20 minute homework assignments per night. Our policy is to keep homework minimal and meaningful.


Here's why:


Most recent studies have shown that homework that is overly elaborate and/or repetitive is detrimental, and in many cases squashes, the student’s love of learning and interest in the subject matter. This is especially true for gifted students. Specifically, studies have shown that any gains in achievement that homework may facilitate are undone if the student spends more than 1 hour per night on homework. Therefore, we assign two subjects per night for 20 minutes each. Thus, a maximum total of 40 minutes per night, Monday-Thursday. We rarely, if ever, give homework over the weekend.


The exception to weekend homework would be any long-term, ongoing projects, such as Science projects, book reports etc. which may or may not be included in the weekend or nightly assignments.


If your child is struggling or has confusion with a particular assignment, please let us know! Students often do not volunteer that they had trouble with the homework assignment. Therefore, if the assignment comes back completed and looking good, with no note from you, we can only assume all was well. If your Beacon is having difficulty with an assignment, please just draw a line on the homework paper after 20 minutes and initial it. There is no need to feel that the assignment "has to be completed no matter how long it takes." That is why drawing the 20 minute line and initialing it helps keep the communication between home and school strong and helps us help your child even more.


Our expectation is that your child consistently turn in his or her homework which is completed to the best of his or her ability within the honest effort of the 20 minute time frame. If your family has activities coming up on a particular night that you believe will preclude homework, then we need to hear it directly from you, the parent, preferably sooner rather than later. If something unexpected comes up and your child doesn't get a chance to do his or her homework, please send us an email or write us a note. Either way, we need to hear it from you.


One of our goals is to help build "Beacon Responsibility". Turning in the homework on time is an excellent life skill and a wonderful way in which a 2nd grader can develop responsibility.


We hope that this clears up any questions you might have about what homework will be like this year. If you have further questions, please let us know.


Here's to another great week in Beacons' World!


Betsy and Tiffany

1st Day of School, Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Welcome to our Beacons' classroom!