Passion Presentations

 

We celebrated our hard work this week with a series of presentations ranging from practicing skateboarding to creating a recipe book, from a research project on deep sea creatures to creating a fashion magazine. It was a wonderful exploration into our communities interests.

Spanish Field Trip

We went to Woodburn Family Center today. A couple of us played with the babies, a couple more played with the toddlers, while the majority of us read books and did art projects with the preschoolers. Students were challenged to practice their Spanish while engaging with young community members.

Message from Melanie Clark

Dear Parents of Fourth Graders,

On December 10th I did a Powerpoint presentation for 5th grade parents regarding talking with your child about puberty changes.  I thought you might be interested in previewing this, as your child may already be experiencing some of these changes.  

The presentation, and handouts (which include questions about puberty asked by fifth grade students last year), as well as the puberty videos we used with 5th grade students last January have been posted.  (I am hoping to find a more updated video to use in January with our current 5th graders.)  

You can access all of these resources two ways:

1.  Enter the Parent Portal and click the top right corner link called "Counselor's Parent Resources."

2.  Follow this link:  

http://oeslscounseling.blogspot.com/

As always, please feel free to contact me with questions or concerns.  I look forward to seeing you at the parent coffee in January, where I will be sharing information with 3rd-5th grade parents about navigating the roller coaster of emotional changes during the tween years.   I hope you have an enjoyable Winter Break.  

Sincerely,

Melanie Clark 

Melanie Clark, M.S.

Lower School Counselor 

Oregon Episcopal School

6300 SW Nicol Road

Portland, OR 97223

(503) 416-9248 Telephone

Buddies

Today, we made snowflakes with our buddies.

We practiced before hand so we could help and teach our younger friends.

Passion Project Presentation Schedule

Passion Project Presentations are a chance to share what independent project you have been working on for the last two months. The presentation should be more than 2 min but less than 5!
We are all excited to see and hear everyone's hard work over the course of the week.

Tuesday: Solomon, Owen, Porter, Ria, Sophia, Lahna

Wednesday: Gregory, Kaan, Lou, Ari

Thursday: Alex, Julian, Arthur, Linnea

Friday: Tatum, Renee, Anna, Willa

Homework 14-18

Homework

December 14-18

Everynight	Students should read for 20 minutes each night. --write at least 2 notes and 2 thick questions about their reading --record time and pages read in their reading log.
due Tuesday	Science Lab tomorrow….are you ready? Answer these 3 questions about Long Walk to Water. 1. How do you think Nya and Salva’s stories are connected? 2. Salva and Nya have sad stories, why did the author write such a sad book? 3. What are Nya AND Salva’s connections to the title?
due Wednesday	Calculate your family's water footprint. Talk with your parents about your water use.  http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/change-the-course/water-footprint-calculator/ Share this video, about the Colorado. http://www.changethecourse.us/ (These links are also on the class website for easier access) Write a paragraph, typed, about: what surprised you, what interests you, or what your family decided after watching and talking.
due Thursday	Share the MLK quote you choose on Tuesday and the plan you started. Finish your MLK poster plan.
due Friday	Honoring Our Rivers Poem is due Friday. Share the poem you started on Tuesday, review and edit your work. Illustrations can also be added to your poems, if you choose. Finish the paperwork to accompany your poem, name and parent signature.

Update: December 13

December Dates:
December 16: Spanish Field trip in morning to Woodburn Family Center
December 18: 12-1 Class Holiday Party
December 18: 1:30-2:30 St. Nick Chapel
December 19-January 3: Winter Break
A Look Ahead into January:
January 8: Spelling Bee in our classroom.
Week of January 11: Geography Bee
January 15: 4th Grade presents the MLK Assembly
No School: January 18, 22, 29

Dear Parents,
It is a busy time of year and the classroom is no different. We have many fun and exciting events happening this week. We are trying to keep a regular schedule as much as possible but many curricular timelines are slowing down as we prepare for Winter Break.

Reading:
We continue to review Reading Logs and Notes. We are sharing book recommendations and personal strategies for reading deeply. This upcoming week, we will talk more about the kinds of notes we take, why we take notes and how notes differ in different genres.

Writing:
We finished our essay on Dams in our rivers. We will publish those to our blog this week as well as start a poem on a river for a publication put out by an organization called Honoring our Rivers. Find out more here.

Math:
In Math, we started talking about place value past the decimal point. We reviewed concepts of place value. We will continue to look at the concept of a whole, parts, and units.

Water Inquiry:
Students have been exploring the concept of water footprints this fall ever since we started talking about water consumption and use. This week, we hope to finish our water bill and uniform project as well as explore how you calculate your water footprint.

Secret Santa

Inspired by Giving Chapel today, the class decided to give each other gifts. Rather than make gifts for everyone in the class, I suggested a Secret Santa exchange.
The group raised the stakes again and wanted to do something everyday. We compromised with a gift Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Here is our schedule:
Monday: a handmade card or note
Wednesday: a homemade gift
Friday: a homemade gift or a small less than $5 gift

Our goal is not to be extravagant but to spend time and attention on a classmate in this season of light and giving. A change to be thoughtful for our class community. Please email Ms. Chris if you have any questions.

Art Museum

Persuasive Essay Support

As we are finishing up our persuasive essay on dams this week, we have been using these sentence starters more.

Here is the essay structure to help us remember the 5 paragraph essay format.

Introduction: Hook the reader, state your thesis with your three big ideas. Really get your reader interested in your message.

Paragraph 2,3,4: Big Idea Paragraphs. State your Point, then provide Evidence, Explain what it means and how it is connected to your point, and finally Link these ideas all together or link to your next Big Idea.

Conclusion: Restate your thesis and Big ideas in a new and interesting way. BIG PUSH to convince people that your opinion is important and they should listen to you.

Update: December 4

Coming Up:

December 11: Giving Chapel at 8:10am

December 11: Art Field trip from 10:45-2pm

December 16: Spanish Field trip from 8-11

December 18: St Nick Assembly

December 19-January 3: Winter Break

Reading

This last week, we finished our OBOB book club projects, self assessed, and presented our posters. I was impressed by the excitement the class generated over the OBOB books and the creativity in the presentations. The class as a whole dug deeper into their texts when reading with a partner and worked together well over the last 3 weeks.

We also reviewed the reading log we had been using for the last month. On this reading log, we were supposed to collect data on the amount of time and number of pages we have read each day at school and at home. We used this data to compile a graph that showed the number of pages read so we could compare school and home reading habits and make plans/goals moving forward. However, we found that in the months time, from November 2-December 2, many students had less than a dozen entries. Reading logs are a data tool, used to provide evidence of reading, and a point of data to observe reading habits. The focus of these reading logs will shift as student's goals shift away from stamina and may focus on title of books competed or abandoned, or focus on note taking goals, or may focus on reading a wide variety of genres. Students voice will be more present as they learn the habit of recording their reading. Please ask your child about their reading log and remind them to always record the home reading!

Next week, we will begin to dive into nonfiction text reading strategies and skills. Out nonfiction reading will continue to focus on water usage, rivers, and water footprints. Our Non-fiction unit focused on these skills:

• I can explain what informational text teaches me by referring to details and examples from the text.
• I can draw inferences from informational texts by referring to details and examples from the text.
• I can figure out the main idea in informational texts.
• I can explain how the main idea in informational texts is supported by the details in the text.
• I can use my own words to summarize informational texts I have read.

Writing

We have started our 5 paragraph essay about dams. Students have worked hard this week to create thesis statements that go beyond "dams are good" or "dams are bad" and become powerful statements like "I believe dams provide a helpful service to America" and "I believe we need to remove some dams for the good of the environment." Then students found 3 strong reasons to support this statement. Currently, students are finding facts to support these reasons. We will merge all of these pieces into a strong 5 paragraph essay next week. We hope to finish the essay by Friday. Our essay is focusing on these skills:

• Write opinion pieces on topics, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
• Introduce a topic clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer's purpose.
• Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
• Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g., for instance, in order to, in addition).
• Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.

Math

We took our Unit 3 Math Assessment Friday. They will be returned to students Monday with their homework. Please review the test with your child, sign the front page and then return it for my files. We will begin Unit 4 next week. Unit 4 focuses on Decimals and will address these skills:

• Compare two decimals to hundredths by reasoning about their size. 
• Use decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100. For example, rewrite 0.62 as 62/100
• Express a fraction with denominator 10 as an equivalent fraction with denominator 100. For example, express 3/10 as 30/100.

Inquiry

We finished our dam projects this week and presented them on Friday. We had a wealth of creativity and invention, everything from a Minecraft replica of Bonneville Dam shared through a screen video, to a hand-built diorama of a flood zone, to a poster outlining the benefits of hydropower, to a stop motion video showing the relocation of local peoples. These projects were a lot of fun and helped us create our focused thesis statement by providing us some time to play around with different ideas about dams and the pros and cons of daming our rivers.

Next week, we will continue a discussion about the Colorado River and examine other water usage demands upon our waterways. Throughout this we will be reviewing our own water footprints.

Passion Project

Our first session of Passion Projects is wrapping up. We hope to share our projects the last week before Winter Break. Students should be prepared to present their work over the last couple months. This will also be part of our homework next week.

Spelling Bee and GeoBee Update

Many details are still to come but I wanted to update you all about the Spelling and GeoBee that will be starting in January.

Spelling
It looks like we will be doing the spelling bee the week we return from break. There will be a classroom competition, date to be determined. One person from each class with quality for school competitions, all runners up from each class will compete with me in a tie-breaker round to create a fourth spot (four classes in MS which is why 4 from each grade).

Final round will be sometime late January.  TBD

Geo Bee 
It looks like will do this after the first week in January, date to be determined. The final will be the first week in February or last week in January.  

Resources

Scripps Spelling Words...all 450 words. (Students should focus on the 100 4th grade words first. A handout is available from Ms. Chris. When the 100 4th grade words are mastered, students can move on to the school wide 450 words)

Mr. Ari recommend's the book, Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman (I have a copy if you would like to borrow). At it’s core, this book explores the difference between Maladaptive and Adaptive Competition. Maldaptive: “I have to win, every time!” If the mindset is it’s a forgone conclusion then I can be dismissive of opponents and of the rules – “If you just understood my greatness you would just give me the award” (not respecting the competition itself). Adaptive: I understand that it takes a long time to be good at something, “I may win today, lose tomorrow, but I can't take the win for granted, I will push myself harder, be inspired by others.” 

Update: November 20

Coming Up:

November 24: Grandparents and Special Friend's Day

Reading
Last week, students worked as partners to read an OBOB book. These partners practiced their skills as intense readers to follow characters into action. Partners helped each other dig deeper into the book, make connections, judge characters intents, and share perspectives of the events throughout the book. Then students began to create an Amazon review page that included multiple different aspects of he book. These projects are mostly finished in class and will be shared after Thanksgiving Break.

Writing
Our Realistic Fiction Stories are published on our portfolio blog with a short paragraph of reflection over the process of writing.
Students also wrote a short poem/song about the concept of peace. This poem was published over the week.
Next, we will start our opinion/persuasive essay taking a stance about dams and river usage. This week, we will just begin the planning period and then start writing after Thanksgiving. We will be focusing on the 5 point essay structure and supporting our ideas with facts. We have practiced this with our literary essays and letters to Ms. Chris.

Math
Last week, we explored the concept of multiples and factors in multiplication and then made fact families to show to connection between multiplication and division. We continue to give a 3 min test every week and record our data on a graph to monitor our practice. While our focus is not on speed but rather the different ways and methods of solving multiplication and division problems, we also recognize that fact fluency will help with confidence and problem solving more complex problems.

Social Studies

Students are starting to look outside Oregon and into Western USA, specifically at droughts, bottled water and water rights. We are gaining a broader understanding of the multiple water issues that surround us these days as well as the multiple perspectives on the problems and benefits of each. Students are finishing up a model of a hydroelectric dam that supports their case for or against daming rivers. 
After Thanksgiving, students will be using this experience to help build a persuasive essay about taking down or building more dams.

Passion Projects
This week, we are having some hard conversations about Passion Projects. An eagerness for partners and larger broad topics have lead us away from our brainstorming pages and into uncharted territory of disjointed project ideas. I believe we have some more clarity and students have started working on their more focused project the last two weeks. Students will be presenting their passion project work the week before Winter Break.

Top of the Chart

We made it! We will keep working on doing it again. 

Homework: extra explanations!

These two water related data collection points are student generated after a discussion on water on Friday. We contine to look at daming pros and cons but have also started looking at water droughts in California and Oregon which is making us wonder what we are using water for and how much water we are using here at OES and at home.

WaterBill

As a class, we are hoping to just see the water usage data from families water bills. We want to continue to discuss variables that would lead to differences in water usages as well as compare the class average to nationwide averages.

Uniform Tallies

Shirts	Pants/Skirts/Skorts	Sweaters/Sweatshirts/Jackets

As a class, we are hoping to how many clothes we use just for school and calculate how much water that requires to manufactor and possibly launder.

A letter to Ms. Chris ----- due Monday November 16

This is to help you see how to format your letter and remember all the parts.

DATE

Dear Ms. Chris,

The name of the book you are reading and a short summary

Parts of the book you are enjoying and maybe some places the author has surprised you.

Tell me how you and your partner are working together. You might answer some of these questions: Are you following your agreements? Doing your reading everynight and bringing in thick questions? Are you stopping when agreed? How are your discussions? Are you helping each other dig deeper into the book?

Your Student OR From OR Sincerely,

NAME