first of all, sorry it has been a bit since my last post - my oldest daughter was in a car accident a week and 1/2 ago and things got a little hectic. thankfully the car and the lap top were the biggest casualties - her injuries should heal soon. in regards to class, i have apologized to the students that their native am. diaries will not likely be returned until after break - but all other work should be posted by the end of next week. This week we finished up our lit circles with a creative water color paper on themes - they also did an in class "on-demand" writing for about 15 minutes. the watercolor pieces and plot-cartoons (selected by each group) will be displayed next week (come take a look if you get the chance - they really are quite good!!!) --- they also worked in class for 2 days on their ch. 7 wsh graphic organizers while we did the geography bee. these too turned out very well :) we will use them as resources for an in class competition on monday. additionally, we have continued with the video series "frontier house" - the kids enjoy this and it opens up quite a lot of conversation regarding changes that society has seen in the past 100 years or so. enjoy the weekend!!! next week we will review ch. 7, play a game, cover ch. 8, finish frontier house, and possibly read a short story (I am Sam is also a possibilty to end our lit. circles. ) --- thanks for your patience. kw oh, and block one, to add to our study of Al Capone Does My Shirts, baked lemon cake with the help of mrs. tippett :) we are thankful for her time and talents!

Welcome back! We now have 15 days of school before Winter Break which means we will be working very hard to wrap up our literature circles and finish the video Frontier House as well as a couple more chapters in Washington State History. There will be a quiz on ch. 5 WSH this Friday (questions due on Thursday). Everyone looks pretty tired today though. I'm assuming that late nights and too much turkey and pie is to blame. Hopefully an earlier bedtime tonight will get everyone a bit more energized by tomorrow (of course the quiet wasn't such a bad thing). kw

Happy Thanksgiving Break!!! While i did not give a large amount of work for the break - i did ask that the kids (those who had not finished) to catch up and finish the second section of their literature circle book and the assigned portion of the packet. This should not take more than an hour for the average reader. Hopefully they are enjoying the book so it won't seem like such a chore! Hope you all enjoy the week and that the students come back rested and ready to work for 3 weeks up to our next vacation!

first blog while it's snowing :) or :( depending on how long it lasts --- ok - just a heads up in case you have a student that wonders why they have a zero for their ch. 4 quiz --- for some reason, a few kids did not turn their quizzes in to the person who alphabetized them and gave them to me. therefore, they have no score --- they need to give me their quiz on monday and we'll chat about the confusion. also, i decided to lower the value of the quiz to 28 from 30 - after looking more carefully at our book and one of the questions, i decided the book didn't cover York in enough depth to fairly hold students accountable for the question about how he was treated by the Mandans. We'll talk about it next week. Also, next week will be filled with sharing the completed diaries which are due on Monday - they have had nearly a month to work on these so i am looking forward to seeing quality projects. we will also continue lit circles - these are in class so don't expect to see books at home unless your student needs to catch up. we will also be watching smokesignals or starting the video series frontier house - which should be fun going into thanksgiving vacation. happy 1st snow :) kw

a couple of due dates - Block 1 should be through ch. 3 in Al Capone Does My Shirts by tomorrow 11/6 ---- Blocks 2 and 3 should have ch. 4 in the WSH book read and the questions at the end of the chapter done by Thursday. ---- Also, blocks 2 and 3 should spend 10 minutes or so tonight looking at www.pbs.org/weta/thewest they then need to search under "people" and read about Chief Joseph and the Whitmans. If you don't have access at home they may use the 2 computers in my room or in the library in the AM.

11/2 - 11/6

we're back at if full days after conferences last week - i was out with a sick child on monday, but the classes went well with mr. trendall --- i will also be subbing for mr. grow next week, so the classes will enjoy jerry harms for a day as well. in class we are continuing our study of native americans in the pacific northwest and how their lives changed as settlers from the east came into the west. the kids have a diary/journal assignment that they should be working on outside of class - it is due on november 16th. i will be asking for evidence of preliminary research this friday. also in class we are beginning our disabilities literature circle. they are doing a read-around where they sample a few pages of each book. i give a "blurb" on each as well and explain the lexile for each book - they will be making their selections in class today - some will get their 1st choice, but others will get their 2nd - a few sometimes have to settle for choice #3, but i try to avoid that. most of the reading will be done in class, but occasionally they will need to bring a book home in order to keep up with their group. if your student selects the book, "the curious incident of the dog in the night time" i will need you to write a brief note giving them permission to read this book. it is a very good book with a narrator who is autistic and trying to solve a murder mystery involving his neighbor's dog - there is however some profanity sprinkled throughout the book and i think it's only fair that you have the opportunity to say yes or no to this book. enjoy the beautiful fall weather :) kw

Greetings on this gloriously gloomy Monday --- i gave quite a bit of info about this week in last week's blog - but just a reminder, there is a wsh quiz over chapter 3 on Wednesday and your student should also be researching PNW native tribes in order to pick a tribe for their diary/journal assignment. They have the info on this assignment if you would like to know the details - the due date will likely be November 13th - I know this a long period of time to work on this project, but the 1/2 days this week slow our progress.

10/19 - 10/23 --- Grades for 1st quarter went in on Wednesday - you should get a paper copy sometime soon (probably Friday) - This week we have continued reading short stories in class from our literature book - we have been doing short assignments from the book, in class and taking small quizzes at the end of each story. Next week we will spend most of our time for English looking at Edgar Allen Poe, which will culminate with "Poe Fest" on Thursday and Friday --- in Wa. St. History - we are reading ch. 3 in the book and the students with odd class numbers are doing the odd questions at the end of the chapter and vice versa for the evens - these are due tomorrow. We will continue with our study of Native Americans in the PNW for the next couple of weeks and will revisit this topic in Civics as well - including a look at a new video called "Shadow of the Salmon" and a fun Chinook Jargon activity. I'm looking forward to seeing folks at conferences - kw

Sorry this post is so late in the week - the good news is that there have not been any big tests or projects due this week. For the most part we are working in class out of the literature book (this is why you don't see assigned reading at home) although during times like this, the students should continue to do choice reading outside of class. We are working on the Big Question from Unit One of the lit book - "Is truth the same for everyone" - we are also looking at elements of plot (ask them to show you the hand motions for Conflict, Complications, etc...) --- Today we also jumped over to Civics to look briefly at juveniles in the justice system - we looked at the sad case of the boy who was set on fire by classmates in Florida yesterday and we read in our Civics text about legal policies regarding juvenile offenders. I asked them to talk with adults at home regarding their opinions on juvenile justice. They were very engaged and I'm sure have many more questions and ideas. We will occasionally make these jumps in curriculum when a current event fits with something we will cover later in the year - it keeps it so much more "real" for the kids rather than just listening to me drone or doing assigned text book reading. early best wishes for a good weekend :) kw

Happiest of Mondays to you all --- this a short week for the students - they earned it after working so hard on their writing last Thursday and Friday --- most students used both periods on prewriting, drafting, and final drafts --- many took at least 15 - 30 minutes more! I hope we get good feedback from the state so I can share the details with the students but I don't know the timeline for that return at this point.
Block 1 - this week we are working on test taking strategies for map tests - watching a video on mud slides in the Pacific NW -- finishing up a short novel in class and starting on a new unit in the Reader's Journey
Blocks 2 and 3 - we will review for tommorow's map test by going outside and locating map items on an oversized chalk outline of the region. tommorow is the test (54 points!) --- we will also be watching a video, finishing the scoring of their group maps, and working on the first unit in the new literature book -- other than preparing for tomorrow's test, not a lot of homework this week :) Oh, we will also do a group sharing of their book projects that were turned in last week.

change in plans - the map test over washington, oregon and idaho has been moved to Tuesday of next week --- each student has a double sided map of the region, a completed wa. st. map, a list of the required items, and class time access to the items for ore. and id. --- due to the pilot msp writing activity on thursday and friday and our shortened assembly schedule - both last fri. and tomorrow - i felt we needed one more day to review (monday) and a few more to study.

9/29 - 10/2

A quick early blurb - the book project due date was moved to Tuesday --- also, if your child has been out sick, make sure they are communicating with me about flexible due dates ---- we have made great progress on the Wa. maps - those will be finished up in class on Monday (possibly some groups will be using a bit of Tuesday) - assessment will be oral during class time. We have an assembly on Wednesday - and sometime in the next week we will be doing a practice WASL type writing in class. Mr. Grow will be providing more details on this. There is a map test on Friday covering the items on their project and a few from Ore. and Id (i'll let them know these on Monday) --- have a great weekend!!! kw

9/21 - 9/25

It may officially be Fall, but my room is definately still feeling like summer - Wow! Please encourage your students to bring water bottles and dress appropriately for heat! This week in history we are well into our group map project where groups of 3 (a couple with only 2) students build Washington State, complete with elevated mountains, rivers, etc... out of materials that they provide --- most choose clay (i provided a koolaid playdough recipe for those that wanted it), others go with playdough or modelling clay - paint is also used by some, while others choose frosting and candy. Of course i do not require expensive items and students are welcome to simply color with markers or colored pencils and then use recycled items such as egg cartons to build mountains (a few go with this approach) --- yesterday they traced outlines of the state up at the Smart Board - they love getting the chance to use that technology :) regions are in progress and today most groups will begin building mountains and adding rivers. We will likely finish this up in class on Monday since we magazine drive assembly starts tomorrow!!! A test on the cities will follow next week (probably Thursday or Friday depending on map progress)
For English, the students have a book project and a reading log due on Monday --- this has been the only homework to speak of for the last week or so. They should have a handout that explains this project and they have seen multiple examples in class.
GO TEAM RED!!! this is my homeroom's team for the magazine drive. my class does have a history of winning this event and that is always fun - but my main emphasis for this sale is civic responsibility. In class we talk about ASB funding (dances, sports, end of year ice cream, etc...) and how they benefit from the sales that were done the year before. I hope that each student can sell at least one magazine in order to feel that they contribute to the ASB fund that enriches their experience at school. This should be fun and not stressful --- i have encouraged them to think about magazines as gifts or to ask parents or grandparents to consider this as well - they really do make a great gift and you save on postage, wrapping and shopping time :) if you have any issues with your student selling - please communicate this with me. Thanks again for supporting your kids and our school! Happy almost end of the week! kw

English and Washington State History

English: This week we had our 2nd day of MAP testing (math this time) - i will try and conference with each student regarding their Reading score and I will be happy to share this with adults as well when we get to conferences. Students should be reading their choice book at home and be at least 3/4 of the way through by Monday. We will do a project on this book in class next week.

History: The grades for the chapter 1 quiz (blocks 2 and 3) are entered now so you can check them on parent-access if you would like. We are watching a video called, Sculpted by Floods and we will look at chapter 2 and begin building our wa. st. maps in small groups by Wednesday of next week. There will be a fairly comprehensive test in a couple of weeks that will cover the cities and geographic details of Washington.

Introduction

This is where I tell students about my course.