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.