This and That

Hello All,
Just a couple things...
1.  The Book Fair is upon us.  If you send money (check or cash) to school with your child and ONLY want it to be used for BOOKS (not posters, pencils, erasers, etc) then just mark "books only" on the check or note.  Wednesday night the Book Fair is open from 5:30-7:30, if you'd like to attend.

2.  Through much discussion and consideration, we will teach "straight grades" next year.  This is the best option out of many considered.  There will be two teachers per grade level.

3.  Our class has moved into a writing poetry unit.  We've focused on looking at things in a fresh new way, choosing topics that matter to us, and using line breaks to help hear the music/rhythm of our words.  Ask your child what they have written about so far.

4.  The Sea Dog game is this Friday!  We sold out our 200 tickets!!!  It should feel just like home at the stadium.  If you have not yet purchased tickets, I'd try the box office.

5.  During math time we have been working on using the number grid more efficiently.  Finding numbers, knowing the patterns of numbers and being able to use it for adding/subtracting.  If the problem is 54 + 32...students should be starting at 54, moving down 3x (10, 20, 30), then to the right 2 (31, 32). 

Bacteria Experiment

The class looks at slides of different shapes & colors of bacteria.

Our petri dishes with some growth!

This past week, our class was introduced to the Scientific Method. 
Mr. Keleher came in and helped the class design and implement a REAL experiment!
The question was "How CLEAN is our classroom?"
We listed our materials and made a hypothesis as to which part of the room we thought to be dirtiest. Mr. Keleher swabbed 5 areas of the classroom (to test the hypothesis).
(doorknob, teacher's table, chalkboard, soap dispenser, pencil)
...and as an important aside, the class wanted to feel the inside of a petri dish...this was the 6th dish...
Ask your child for the results of the experiment!  What?  Did you think I was going to give it away?
Thank you to Mr. Keleher!

Stuffies

1.  Due to the snow day, we'll have our Stuffy Day on Monday.
The stuffy should fit in your child's backpack.

2.  We are still getting more press on Uncle Jim's Blog.
Please check it out.

3.  You may have heard, we've started to talk about writing a non-fiction piece.
The class opted to do a little research. (Instead of going with something they already knew a lot about.)
So, we are reading, checking the library, and searching the web (with a wonderful parent volunteer).
Please ask your child what they are researching and see if you can help sift through any information or ask them what they already know...

We ROCKED the houuuse!

Jammin' in room 4.  Uncle Jim...in the flesh!

Look, we match!

Uncle Jim and Carter Isaac performing...amazing young man.

Uncle Jim arrived Thursday afternoon for a little pre-game show.  He visited OUR class!  (scream!)  We felt very special.  He sang a couple songs and answered some really thoughtful questions.  The kids were amazed by his fold up guitar and his ability to make a song out of anything, even our class!  We were even a little late to the buses, due to our own personal autograph signing session.  What an amazing way to deliver a powerful/much needed message.

Here is Uncle Jim's BLOG entry about visiting Maine.

and...Wear PAJAMAs on Tuesday, March 29.  Our spirit week will commence.

UNCLE JIM performs THIS Friday

Check THIS out!
Uncle Jim will be at WCS at 10am...March 25.

Is it a Just Right Book?

Many of us have talked at conference time about finding out if books you have at home are just right for you child.  You might try...

Please feel free to access this scholastic site, type in the title, click on the correct book, then look under GRL (Guided Reading Level).  You child should know what letter or band of letters they are working.  Or, you could shoot me an email to confirm.


Portland Public Schools has a database that's organized by titles or level.  You might like to go to the public or school library on a mission with titles in hand...(these are organized by Reading Recovery Level)

Here's how it works...different reading programs have different ways of tagging books. (same idea)

Reading Recovery     GRL
8                                   E
10                                 F
12                                 G
14                                 H
16                                  I
18                                  J

Questions?  Please ask.  

Chicken Little

We were enjoying the fresh air blow in the open windows.  The posters on the wall were fluttering, flapping, noising.  Gust after gust we looked to see that everything was still attached to the wall.
We were reading another version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  Then, FOOF!  One good gust sped through the class and the class' eyes left the purposeful illustrations and strayed upward.  When 38 eyes are looking up, it causes you too, to look up.  As the dust was settling, that's when I saw it.  The missing ceiling tiles.  We quickly moved to the other side of the class to finish the story and processed the event.
After reentering the class after delivering our class to their transportation home, I noticed more specifically, 2 tiles had fallen...one to the left and one to the right of my chair.  Did they even hit me?  I'm not sure.  I AM sure that no one was hurt.  Phew! 
So go tell Ducky Lucky and Goosey Loosey...The sky IS falling.
A work order has been placed and I hope this matter to be remedied quickly.

(I'm sure this was a colorful story coming home today...)
They may have another point of view.  It will be nice to hear the differences. 
(maybe a nice writing topic)