Weekly Update November 17th, 2010

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, Novemeber 23rd

Early Dismissal NOON

No Extended Care

No School November 24th and 25th

THANKSGIVING BREAK

DECEMBER:

Thursday, December 9th

Winter Performance

Urban Grace Church

Friday, December 17th

Early Dismissal NOON

No Extended Care

Winter Break

HERE'S  WHAT'S  GOING  ON 

IN

BEACONS'  WORLD

      In Reading, both groups are working hard on their higher level thinking skills of writing chapter summaries. Synthesizing information is a challenging portion of our reading curriculum.

Below you will see your Beacon hard at work reading the chapter in small groups and then rereading and finding the answer to the critical thinking chapter questions.

As a part of Seabury's Service Club's winter activity, all Beacons made holiday cards for members of Toby Jones Senior Center. These handmade cards were beautiful and each Beacon made it with a lot of love.

               I'm a Beacon alumnus. Now my brother is a Beacon and next year  my sister will be too!

We LOVE learning new math strategies by playing our Math Games! Here's a tough one that makes us really think hard. We work cooperatively in groups of twos and have to use our math skills to solve the problems.

                                                  Hey, I won! I love math! 

                                        Look at all my hard work! I love math!

                                                   Bailey the Wonderdog

visited our classroom on Wednesday and the Beacons loved how sweet and affectionate she was. Bailey loves to read and students spent their silent reading time reading with Bailey!

                                                       Hey Beacons.
                  I love that book! That's my favorite part!

I did such a good job reading to Bailey that I put her to sleep!

Weekly Update November 10, 2010

Upcoming Events

No School~Thursday, November 11th

Thanksgiving Break:

EARLY DISMISSAL~NOON~ Wednesday, Nov. 24th

No Extended Care

No School~Thursday, Nov. 25th and Friday, Nov.26th

Here's What's Going On

In The Beacons' World:
We need your help! These supplies are desperately needed for an upcoming science project. We need them by Friday,    Nov.19th!
Newspaper
wall paper paste
empty toilet paper rolls
empty paper towel rolls

Thank you so very much!

Reading: These next few weeks are very exciting for our novel groups as we are nearing completion of our classics: Charlotte's Web and Mr. Poppers Penguins. In the Charlotte's Web reading group, Beacons have finished their challenging vocabulary words and are ready to begin chapter 13! The Mr. Popper's Penguins' group is all primed to complete their higher level thinking skills of answering the next set of chapter questions for chapters 14-17. Once completed, they will then start their vocabulary for chapters 18-20. Please ask  your Beacon about the plot of these respective stories. Each group has worked diligently on their critical thinking skills by completing the chapter summaries.All Beacons are excited to see how their novels end.
Writer's Workshop:We've been in the computer lab last Friday, Monday and Tuesday typing up our awesome Newspaper Discovery stories. The Beacons are all working hard with the Writing Process and they are so excited about their stories! The finished product should be completed very soon.
Math:Both groups took their respective unit assessment tests earlier this week and every Beacon did quite well. We are very proud of the success each Beacon is experiencing in Math. Students are learning the importance of reading the directions for each problem and taking their time to work on computation. Rechecking is a key skill in math and students are learning about its importance, especially when taking tests.
The Math Magicians have started Chapter 3 and the Math Magicals are beginning Chapter 5. Both groups are in the accelerated Math Connects 3rd grade book.
Please talk to your Beacon about the exciting new Math game he/she learned this week called "Array Bingo". It is a great way to learn multiplication!

Spelling: Learning Greek and Latin prefixes is an excellent way for a child to improve  his/her word attack skills not to mention enabling the child to improve his/her reading comprehension skills as well. All Beacons did very well on last week's spelling test and I have no doubt that everyone will try their hardest on this week's words as well. Please do review your Beacon's spelling words each night with him/her. Thank you. We greatly appreciate your skills reinforcement at home. As a side note, one mother told me this week that she is so thrilled that her child is learning Greek and Latin prefixes and how valuable they are to learn at this age. She told me, "Why when I was in Second Grade, all I was given to learn to spell were words like "spot", "cat". "Barn" was an extra credit word! I love Seabury!"

Science:You saw the A.P.B. above in red as to what supplies we need for a culminating science project. We want to thank you in advance for your assistance. All Beacons are working away in the computer lab on their animal research paper power point. We are very excited, as are they, with their progress!

Social Studies:Last week we began leaning about Ferdinand Magellan. We will continue learning about this courageous explorer and how  he was able to be the first to circumnavigate the globe. 

As we take time to pause from our hectic lives to reflect on tomorrow's federal holiday of Veterans Day, we thought you'd enjoy reading this poem: 



In thankful ways we embrace this day

And often think of loved ones away

Those serving us proud are often gone

But their spirit remains, closely drawn

Our Nation should praise each special one

For all we have is through what they’ve done 

©2003Roger J. Robicheau

Looking forward to another exciting week with your Beacon,

Betsy and Tiffany

Weekly Update: November 3, 2010

UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 7th~Daylight Savings Time Ends~

Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour!

No School~ Thursday, November 11th~Veterans' Day

 

Thanksgiving Break:

EARLY DISMISSAL~NOON~ Wednesday, Nov. 24th

No Extended Care

No School~Thursday, Nov. 25th and Friday, Nov.26th

HERE'S  WHAT'S  GOING  ON  IN

THE  BEACONS'  WORLD:

Language Arts: After the long Halloween Break, students were asked to write in their journals about their weekend experiences. Then, Beacons made "tail feathers" for the turkey on our classroom door for what they are thankful and grateful. Please come in and "read" our door for you will greatly enjoy what your Beacon had to say. 

Reading: Both the Charlotte's Web group and the Mr. Popper's Penguin group are making extraordinary headway through their respective classics. Those Beacons in the Charlotte's Web group have completed Chapter 11 and are headed to Chapter 12! Mr. Popper's Penguin's Beacons have just completed their vocabulary and are ready to go onto Chapter 14! All Beacons have greatly improved in their summary writing skills and we are very proud of their progress.

Writers' Workshop: On Monday, all Beacons went to the Computer Lab to start work on their Newspaper story! The Beacons are improving their keyboarding skills as they type in their personalized word document on the school's shared server. It is exciting to see how happy they are working. 
Math:The exciting news is that both math groups will complete their respective chapters this week! By Friday the Math Magicians will have completed Chapter 2 and the Math Magicals will have completed chapter 4. They will be tested next week, so be sure to look for the Study Guide that will be coming home on Monday.  Both groups are in our accelerated math curriculum of the 3rd grade Math Connects program. Great work for both groups!!

Spelling:This week the spelling list is comprised of both Greek and Latin prefixes. The spelling sheet has both the prefix with its meaning and then a sentence using the prefix in a word. For instance "cycle" means circle or round and "bi" means two. Therefore, a bicycle has two circles or wheels.

Science:On Tuesday, in science we had the Point Defiance Zoo specialists come to us. It was an "in school field trip". The zoo education specialist brought in a real screech owl and then played the sound of the screech owl on the computer. The real screech owl responded back with a screech! She said that she had never see that happen before. The kids have also begun work on their PowerPoint presentation on their animals.  Be sure to look for the invitation to see their finished work soon.
Social Studies:Since we had the Beacons' Halloween party  last Wednesday afternoon and then conference days Thursday and Friday, we didn't have Social Studies this past week. However, today we had a great discussion on yesterday's election. It is very impressive to hear how much your Beacon had gleaned from discussions at home.

Gratitude is the memory of the heart. ~Jean Baptiste Massieu, translated from French

Here's to another great week with your Beacon!

Betsy and Tiffany

      Tuesday was an especially exciting "in class field trip" when the Point Defiance Education Center came to visit.
    In the photos below, the zoo educator hands out film canisters to the students. The film canisters are filled with dried beans, coins etc.which, when shaken, make a unique sound.
    Students had to listen intently to each others' "shaking sound" and then form groups which they thought were making exactly the same sound. The students were mesmerized when the screech owl responded to the computer screech owl's "call".