May 2nd

Timeline Project The timeline project will be presented next week, if you need more time to complete this project please take it. I really want this to be a family activity, but where the students are working independently. I understand busy days and weekends may not allow for adequate time to work on this project. If your child would like to turn in their timeline project anytime this week or next week that is great, no pressure on completing it by Monday. These do not have to be fancy or elaborate, but rather a chance for you to work with your child. Let them show you how much they have grown in their reading, writing, and presenting skills. A great idea would be to have them practice presenting for the rest of your family, to help them get ready to present to the class!

MAP Testing Students will start MAP testing next week. Please look at the calendar to see which days we will be testing. This should not be a stressful test for your child, in fact most of them have a lot of fun getting to answer questions on the computer. DUring that week just please make sure they are at school on time, have a good nights sleep, and eat a great breakfast! Having a conversation with them about taking their time and thinking about the best answers is a good practice skill for any subject they are studying. IF you have any specific questions please let me know. Planetarium

Thank you to all the volunteers who were able to come to the Planetarium. It was a wonderful learning opportunity and something different for the kids to see. They asked meaningful questions and were an excellent audience throughout the presentations! If you would like to volunteer for any other field trips this year, I have put them on the calendar so you can know the dates ahead of time.

Chess Champion from Uganda! Phiona Mutesi is a chess champion from Uganda who came to speak with our students on Thursday! It was such an honor to see someone who is an expert at chess and followed their dreams!





Parent participation and Australia

We are about to start our new continent study of Australia! Next week we will be introducing Australia and learned about all the interesting animals, such as marsupials that only exist in Australia. We also learn that it is the sixth largest continent in the world and that Australia is an island! We welcome ANYONE to come and teach us about Australia! Please feel free to contact us if you are interested! Our students love learning from guest teachers!!
We started our geography unit on Australia this week. Students looked at different maps and pictures to see that Australia is an island. They also learned about the great barrier reef and different thought of different ways to help protect it.

Readers Workshop In readers last week we started our Community Members Unit! We are learning about different ways to that people help in our community. We started with looking at our families and Leschi. We also looked at what police officers, postal workers, and architects do in the community and practiced in learning how to work in a group. We revisited how to read non-fiction books for our community helpers.

Writers Workshop In writer’s last week we wrote about our community member and how they help make our community a better place for everyone. For example, we looked at what police officers do as community helpers and practiced paraphrasing what the do, who they help, and tools that they use in their job. The students are working together in a group to research a specific community member. Students are learning about how to listen to others, participate, and work together. We will be writing more in depth their own learning about the community member they were assigned!

Readers Workshop and Writers Workshop This week in readers and writers workshop we worked on our community helpers project. Students researched their community helpers job, training, equipment need, contribution to our community, and interesting facts. After they finished their research they worked together as a group to create a presentation using Prezi. Each member of the group helped type, read, spell, and find pictures for their presentation. Then they presented to the class. The rest of the class listened carefully for information they learned and something they were still wondering about. It was a wonderful project for the students to learn to work together and learn more about the community around them!

Ms. Ooton's Corner It was so great to see students come back from break energized and ready to learn. This week, the minute the students of room 204 walked through the door, I heard wonderful stories of what everyone had done during their time off and so much excitement for being back at school. This positivity only continued throughout the week. As I worked with students in reading groups, many of them brought challenging books to me that they had been working on independently and were excited to share with the group. I also saw many students challenging themselves to work on word sorts and sight words without any prompting from a teacher. I am so excited to see how students continue to challenge themselves as readers and writers throughout the spring. Ask your student what is one way they are challenging themselves at school - I bet they will have lots to say!

Spring is definitely here and not only did the students of room 204 handle the change in the weather this week but they managed a crazy schedule this week due to MSP testing. Every day, I see our students growing into their soon to be new roles as 1st and 2nd graders. They showed leadership by walking super quietly in the hall so as not to disturb students who were testing, by sharing the work and responsibility when putting together their community member presentations, and by supporting each other's work - that May Day basket pattern was tricky and it was so nice to see students volunteering to help each other to put it together. I look forward to seeing students continue to grow as they make the transition from K to 1st and 1st to 2nd grade.

Star Student!

Last week's star student was William! William worked very hard all week in challenging himself with his sight words. He learned a new game to work on his sight words ( popsicle sticks) and wanted to practice everyday until he mastered the words. He showed a great sense of dedication and hard work. He also was focused and really participated in our classroom discussions. He was a great leader and example to everyone in class, way to go William!!

Gibson, Henry, Brandon, and Kieran ! I have chosen all four of these boys this week because they really displayed all qualities of a star student; respectful, responsible, kind, and safe. While we were working on our community helpers project these boys were also extremely respectful of each other. They listen to each others ideas, complemented each other, helped each other, and really worked together as a team. Way to go Gibson, Henry, Brandon, and Kieran!