Tuesday, May 31, 2016


Let’s keep talking about Summer. This week’s homework explores the connections between Math and Art.  It is from a great website called youcubed.org, where you can find lots of fun activities (some digital, some “in real life”).  Over the long vacation, you can keep your student thinking mathematically by checking out a few of the activities there.  In the same way, scheduling a little art time can really cement that thinking. I find that once students see how fun it is to explore patterns and designs, they dive deep into creative play with math and art ideas.

To send the kids off into a strong reading habit this week, I am no longer asking for a reading reflection.  Instead I want kids to make a Summer reading plan.  What books do they want to read?  How can they find them at the library? Please keep the plan at home to refer to over the Summer.

In case you did not hear it from the school district, we have shut off all access to drinking water at our school until lead testing can be finished.  The district did send in a couple of cases of bottled water to keep us hydrated, but feel free to send your child with a water bottle (or two), as the weather is going to stay hot.



Upcoming Events
6/8 Obo Addy Legacy Project Drumming Performance 1:30 @ Lewis
HOMEWORK THIS WEEK:   Due Friday 6/23
  • READING: Summer reading plan (keep this at home)
  • Math Art challenge

Summer Reading Plans

Let’s find some books you want to read this summer!  
Here is a website with lots of book lists.
The cool thing about this list is you can check out all of these books at the library.
Here is another list of  lists of books you can explore.
Use the table below to plan which books you want to read

Title
Author






















Monday, May 23, 2016

Let's Talk about Summer


Let’s talk about Summer.  I look forward to it with the same mix of excitement for vacation and sadness about the school year ending that students do.  It is a long break, though, and it can be difficult to keep kids learning, exploring and creating.  In the next couple of weekly notes I will be sharing some handy resources and easy ideas to keep our kids engaged and growing.  

Multnomah County Library has great Summer programming for kids and a fun reading challenge with game boards, t-shirts and prizes. I will be in town for much of the break and plan on meeting up with students at the library from time to time.  If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (@LewisRoom24, if you don’t), I will announce dates and times for us to meet at the Woodstock library to share books we are reading!

Your student’s login to their Google Apps account will stay active over the summer.  I will set them up with a summer diary document that they can add to over the break.  Also, kids love making slideshow presentations on the computer and they can easily create some to document your summer adventures.  Students can access to their accounts from library computers, too!

Homework over the coming weeks will be Math puzzles and ideas that you can easily do all during the Break.  This week Sudoku.

Upcoming Events:
5/25 Field Day
6/8 Obo Addy Legacy Project Drumming Performance 1:30 @ Lewis
HOMEWORK THIS WEEK:   Due Friday 5/27
  • READING: Daily reading and one Reading Journal Response.
  • Math challenge

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Oregon Field Guide Form

Please use the form below to share your discoveries and your thinking about the episode that you watched.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Upcoming Art Residency


Dear families,

It was great to connect with everyone who could make it to Art Night.  Our docents were a little shy but still had great conversations with all of the visitors.  The school looked amazing in a way that captured all of the good work going on here.  It is nice, even for me who spends a lot of time here, to see what other classrooms are up to.  Such creativity and joy.  

I am excited that we have arranged for an art residency to wind up our year.  We will have five sessions with Alex Addy from the Obo Addy Legacy project teach us about Ghanaian culture, music and dance with a focus on drumming.  I was lucky enough to work with the Legacy project at another school where I worked and am really excited for our students to experience this residency.  You can find out more about the residency at Obolegacyproject.org


Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Mark

HOMEWORK THIS WEEK:   Due Friday 5/20
  • READING: Daily reading and one Reading Journal Response.
  • Math challenge

Monday, May 9, 2016

A lot is going on!


There is a lot going on!  Firstly our pea plants have yielded first fruit.  Cailyn and Sophia M’s bushy little plant soaked up all of the rain and hot sun we’ve had recently and gave us some really pretty little pea pods.  They are also pretty tasty.  Other plants have followed and soon we will have a bumper crop.  It is a good thing that this week we will be able to work in the garden with Ms. Kathleen because our beds need some weeding and watering.

Last week we had a number of special events.  All day Thursday we hosted visitors from Sunnyside Environmental School who gave us some thought-provoking hands on wildlife tours.  Our class joined Mr. Post’s class to learn about all kinds of creatures and play games.  We also had a nice lunch out on the lawn. We also had a visit from a Chinook storyteller and a high school band from British Columbia!

This week we are excited for Art Night.   We need docents for the big show. Docents will be guiding visitors through our artwork in short shifts.  Please see the attached sheet for Docent sign-ups and performance schedules.  Return docent sign-ups by Wednesday.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Mark

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Dear families,

To celebrate the end of testing let’s take a big breath and take a break from homework.  Your child may bring home some independent projects but I will not expect anything turned in this week.

Our field trip to the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center was fantastic.  The weather was perfect, the buses were on time and our energy never flagged.  A special thanks to all of the family members who were able to come.  The first part of the tour was in the actual museum where students worked like actual historians choosing an artifact from the displays and then thinking about how that object helps tell the history of Japanese Americans in Oregon.  The second part of the tour was the Waterfront Park and Historical Plaza.  We explored the memorial and saw the bridges going up and down as working boats passed through.  We finished up with a nice lunch and run around at the Saturday Market pavilion.