Tillamook Forest Trip:
We will have enough volunteers for our trip to the Tillamook Forest this Thursday! Thank you family volunteers! The bus will be leaving at 9:00 and returning to school at 2:15. (We will park at the Tillamook Forest Center.) We will be learning about the layers of the forest, nurse logs, fungi, and the living plants and creatures of the forest. The majority of the day we will be exploring outside. Please help your child to dress in plenty of warm layers, long pants, and shoes that are comfortable for hiking. Warm coats will be required for this trip!
Costume and Candy Reminder:
FGCS sent out an email to families about refraining from wearing costumes and sending candy in lunches to school. If you have questions, please email me. Thank you families!
Upcoming Out and Abouts:
Students will be spending more time getting to know the Backyard garden during most of our Out and Abouts in November and December. We hope to be planting garlic from seed saved this summer as well as fava beans to enrich the soil with nitrogen in the newly dug garden beds. On Thursday, December 8th, from 1:00-3:00, students will be cooking at the UCC in Forest Grove. We may make garlic bread using the garlic and some of the wheat from the school gardens. We may also make a fava bean hummus. Students are also interested in using the grain called amaranth in order to make an amazing (and healthy) dessert. We will see! Students will be cooking in small groups and we will need 3 or 4 parent volunteers. Please email me if you are interested in joining us. Thank you!
What We Did Last Week:
Last week students worked on editing and publishing their stories about our trip to the Kittle's Farm. Students know how to use carrots in their writing in order to add more details. They have been learning about capital letters at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end. We have discussed adjectives and even touched on similes and metaphors.
We studied why leaves change color and then went on almost an hour long leaf walk. Students' goals were to gather leaves from different types of trees, to find a variety of colors, and to find some leaves that were still green for an experiment. On the walk we saw mushrooms popping up all over. We were amazed to see large, bright red mushrooms with white polka dots scattered between the road and sidewalk by Wells Fargo Bank on A Street. (It is worth the walk over, if you'd like to see them! We were careful not to disturb them.) We ended our short week with a leaf experiment. We used rubbing alcohol and coffee filters to draw out the chlorophyll and pigment from the leaves. There are now 'ribbons' of green, orange, and yellow pigment trailing up the coffee filter!
Math:
In math, the 1st graders classified, sorted and graphed a variety of manipulatives. The 2nd graders practiced single-digit addition and subtraction. They reviewed telling time by the hour and identifying coins. Soon they will be working on fluency with single digit addition.
Home Bags:
This Monday is the first day for Home Bags! With this being the first week of work-at-home for level 1 students, it's important to take some time to discuss with your child the new routine that works for your family. It may be helpful to make a chart with days of the week and pictures showing what will be happening each day and when for your child to refer to. Thank you for making this important effort in supporting your student at home! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Garden Work Party:
I hope you are able to join us on Friday for the garden work party. In order for our level 1 students to have a garden to work in regularly, starting as early as November, we will need many adults (and kids!) with shovels this Friday. Our goal is for small groups of 4 or 5 students to each have a 4' by 8' garden bed to learn and work in for the rest of the school year. We want our students to have experiences growing, caring for, and tasting fresh vegetables and fruits. The garden work party will be from 1:30-5:00 in the Backyard and you are welcome to join us for all or part of that time. Once the beds are dug, we will welcome leaves from your yard to serve as mulch and for learning about decomposition.
It was great to see you all at conferences!
Sincerely,
Sherry
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