NON Display Boards

Today we took a look at the big picture and then broke it down step by step again. The big picture tells us we have 11 school days left before Night of the Notables.

The step by step picture tells us if we have stayed on track, it's an easy downhill slide from here on out. The hard work is done!

One of the many things we talked about today was the display board. Many students were ready to begin so we clearly outlined the requirements.

1. Size - The display board must be a trifold board. It should be a minimum of 36 x 48 inches. Smaller boards will not have enough room for everything required. Students are encouraged to reuse boards from previous projects.

2. Border - All boards must have a border. This border should represent the notable character in images. For example, a writer might use a pattern of pencils and books. Other border ideas include quotes or photos. The border should be high contrast and add meaning to the experience.

3. Center Panel - The center panel includes the notable character's name in large, high contrast letters. They should be at least 4 inches tall. Under the name is the black and white sketch which is being completed in art class this week. It should be backed on a high contrast piece of paper. Below that, along the bottom edge is the time line. This may go on as is or can be backed with another piece of paper for contrast.

4. Left Panel - The left panel will hold 4 trivia questions. These will be done in class so that they are formatted correctly.

5. Right Panel - This is the area for them to go wild. There is nothing official that has to be on the right panel, it is where they put other information, images, etc that they feel would enhance the presentation.

And Another Month Ends

Believe it or not we already facing the end of another month. It has been a productive month full of writing, history, math, spelling, and public speaking. We have dug trenches, learned about major battles of WWI, given reports about major metropolitan areas, and come ever closer to our Night of the Notable presentations.

This week we will learn about aerial warfare, tank warfare, and submarine warfare. As we read Leviathan, we will continue to work on our compare and contrast skills. We will finish our key word outlines and begin our rough drafts. Spelling will continue with 6 new words each night. During guided reading groups, we will focus on identifying the main idea from increasing complex passages. Our next math assessment is Monday with lessons 31 - 34 being taught Tuesday through Thursday.

This week we will not under any circumstances bring Halloween candy to school!

You can enhance your student's learning at home by:
1. Talk about your student's Night of the Notable character. The more they talk about it, the more complete their writing will be. Simply letting them tell what they know over dinner will help them form their thoughts, discover gaps in their information, and build excitement. Once they have a solid handle on the "facts", start asking about their opinion. The analysis of their character's "worth" will be the last page of the essay and is always the hardest. This is where students must justify why the person is notable. Start talking about it now so they can justify it on paper next week.
2. Watch Seargent York. This 1941 biographical film received numerous Academy Awards and tells the story of the most decorated WWI veteran.

Even as we end one month, we embrace the beginning of November!

November 2 - Conference Day
November 4 - Daylight Savings Time Ends
November 6 - Election Day
November 6 - Optional Souvenir Workshop (3:45 - 5:00)
November 8 - Sock Hop (3:45 - 4:30)
November 9 - Field Trip (Chaperones Needed!)
November 12 - Veteran's Day (No School)
November 14 - Picture Retakes
November 20 - Night of the Notables (6:00 - 8:00)

Timelines

Our Night of the Notable timelines are due this coming Thursday in their final draft form. Last Wednesday we went over them in class and today in class I checked them for accuracy.

Just in case they have forgotten the "non negotiable" aspects, they are listed below. These are the required elements of the timeline.

1. It must be horizontal.
2. It must be 27 - 30 inches by 5 inches.
3. It must include a center line, running horizontally down the paper from end to end.
4. It must have a tick mark every inch along the paper.
5. Every tick mark must be labeled with evenly spaced years. You can not skip periods of time or spread out periods of time. For example, if my person was born in 1900 and died in 1990, I would know I needed to illustrate a span of 90 years. So I would divide 90 by the number of tick marks (30). This would tell me that I need to count by 3's. The first tick mark would be 1900 and the next would be 1903 and so on until I reached 1990.
6. It must include the 10 most important life events of the notable person.
7. It must include 5 world events to help put the notable person's life in perspective.
8. It must have a title.

 NOT what we want!











We also talked about the optional features.
1. Students may type their events to increase legibility.
2. They may back their events with a contrasting paper to increase visibility.
3. They may make their background into a shape that adds meaning to the person's life. For example, Elvis could have a guitar shaped timeline.
4. They may add up to 4 images, either hand drawn or printed out to add to the timeline as long as they add to the understanding of the events.

Have fun!

Thursday Highlights

Thursday was a huge day! Between our trench warfare lesson and the Harvest Festival, it was good times from sun up until well after sundown.

8:00 - We started the morning in the classroom just long enough to take attendance and go over some ground rules. Everyone packed up their belongings and marched off to the trenches. Once we left the building, no one was allowed back in for anything besides the bathroom. Everyone was quite cheerful and excited to get started. Belongings were dropped in the grass and everyone huddled together to get their instructions. The Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance were each assigned an area, given their boundraies and told to begin.

8:30 - The digging began with plenty of singing, chatting, and chanting. I was quite impressed with the lack of standing around and how well everyone was working together. Most were using shovels to escavate while those without shovels moved the dirt out of the hole. Each side took a different approach. One side chose to create a wide trench and then worry about depth while the other side focused on getting deep early and then worry about width. Chants and jeers were traded with lots of good humor thrown in.

10:30 - For 2.5 hours each side worked on their trench with no ill words and plenty of sweat. Jackets and outer rain gear had long since been shed and tossed aside. I called a stop and gave them a minute to take a deep breath and assess their surroundings. They were then given 5 minutes to situate themselves in their trench. Once the 5 minute period was up, they would not be allowed out, except for the restroom. They had to make sure they had everything they needed and could contain everything within their trench. Each side scrambled to get everything moved and to find a comfortable position to spend the day. The side that went wide discovered they had room for everyone to sit or lie comfortably, but they HAD to sit really low or lie down because they weren't deep enough to sit up without being seen over the top of their rampart.



The other side discovered their trench was deep enough for people to sit up comfortably, but it was not wide enough to get everyone in comfortably. They wedged themselves in like sardines and tried to figure out how to make it functional for the rest of the day.

During the first hour everyone was pretty chipper, they read to each other out of our current novel, helped each other with math work, and chatted about all kinds of things.

11:00 - Out of nowhere a very short batallion attacked and bombed the trenches with soft artillery. The surprise really set everyone off and energy was once again running high, but this time it was nervous energy.

12:00 - By lunch time the chattering had decreased significantly. The trenches were fairly quiet. We called a momentary truce and sent those that were buying lunch in to get it. As soon as everyone returned, it was back into the trenches. After lunch Senor Herboth and Wenny Lao Shi came out to the trenches to teach World Languages. We held a momentary truce and had all of the Spanish students switch to one trench and all the Chinese students switch to the other.

1:15 - The afternoon was filled with aerial attacks. Each side attempted to bomb the other trench using only those missles that fell within reach of their trench. If a student was touched by the missle, they were "dead". Each attack was timed and the side with the least casulties was credited with the win. As the attacks continued, each side discovered they could build up their fortifications using handy items. Tempers were starting to get short. In between attacks people were still trying to get work done but were discovering they couldn't find their things, things had been stepped on, someone had touched it, etc. Personal space was in high demand and there was none to be had. The "this isn't fun anymore" phase had set in. The real lesson was definitely in full force.

 

 

2:00 - Our time in the trenches had come to an end. I called everyone out and we discussed the lessons learned. There were some great quotes from students.

"When we started it was really fun, but after a while you could feel the tension building."

"Even though we were on the same side, I was ready to explode at people, it really made my view of the enemy much darker."

"Even though we volunteered, we began to wonder what we'd gotten ourselves in to by lunch."

"The soliders must have been really dedicated to put up with that for months or years on end."

 

They had learned more than one lesson, and I'm sure they won't forget them any time soon!

 

 



Coming Events, Reminders, and Thank You's

Thank You's
A very special thank you to Mrs. O'Reilly, Mrs. Moutos, Mrs. McFarland, and Mrs. Marshall for spending the day with us on Friday. The field trip was fantastic. I particulary enjoyed floating around and listening to students talk about the art at Maryhill.

Coming Events

Thursday is our extra messy history activity. Students may wear jeans in good repair (no holes) and the RED field trip t-shirt or a dark plain colored t-shirt. They will want a jacket, extra pair of shoes and socks, and possibly gloves. If you have a shovel, please send it! Students may bring rain gear if they have it.

 

Thursday night is the 7th annual CHPCS Harvest Festival. This is a FREE event designed to bring the Cascade community together and celebrate the changing of the seasons. It is NOT a Halloween event and costumes are not allowed. Families that would like to enter the baking contest may bring their apple or pumpkin entry anytime on Thursday as long as it's here for the judging at 3:30. The fun begings at 6:00 and ends at 7:30. Come join us!

 

Come one, come all, to the second PTA Social!!! This Friday, at 1pm in the school Library, the PTA will host another event! By now you've certainly heard some of the raving about the first meeting. You don't want to miss out again, do you? Don't you find ice cream delicious? Don't you appreciate door prizes?  See you there!!

 

Conferences are November 2nd. Some families signed up at Back to School Night, but I had the wrong date up. Below you will find the current schedule as I know it. If the time listed does not work for you, please let me know. If you are not on the list, please let me know what time works for you. Times are first come, first served so speak up early! We will be talking about current progress, goal setting, and looking at baseline MAP scores and how they compare to classroom performance.

 

8:00 ___________________________

8:30 O'Reilly

9:00 Wesson

9:30 Walker

10:00 Rovang

10:30 O'Brien

11:00 McFarland

11:30 ___________________________

1:00 ____________________________

1:30 ____________________________

2:00 ____________________________

2:30 Saidjanov

3:00 Rajamoney

3:30 Bandera

4:00 Hansen

4:30 Moutos

 

Coming Up This Week

This week in seventh grade we'll be exploring the new technologies developed during WWI. We'll be studying tanks, early aircraft, and trench warfare among other things.

On Thursday students will need to wear jeans and their red field trip t shirt. They should also bring a change of shoes and socks. We will be getting extremely messy! Also, if you happen to have a shovel that we can use on Thursday, we would greatly appreciate it.

Thursday night is one of my favorite nights of the year. Please join us for the annual Harvest Festival. The Harvest Festival is a free night of family fun for all ages. Yes, even middle schoolers can enjoy a night of games, crafts, and baked goods. If you are planning to enter the baking contest, you may bring it to school on Thursday anytime before 3:30.

School Uniform Reminder

Dear Falcon Families:

The weather has changed, which makes it a good time for reminders about shoes for children.
We greatly appreciate it when children follow dress code. Staff would prefer not to issue uniform violations and you can help at home by reviewing the uniform code with your children. Please remember these important uniform code guide lines:

From the Parent Student Handbook:

· SHOES:

* shoes must offer firm support,

*closed heel and closed toe, resist slipping, and stay on feet.

· *Solid black, white, brown, or navy shoes only (small logos and stripes ok) *Clarification: No red shoes, no fluorescent or brightly colored (except school colors) shoe laces.

Students may NOT wear:

· Crocs

Heelies

Boots of ANY kind (including UGGS and rain boots)--if time permits, children may change into rain boots for recess, but with the new campus, this is quite uneccesary.

High heels

Five-finger shoes

If you need more clarification about appropriate shoes, please check in the office.

On rainy, cold days, children may bring boots to change into for outdoor play. If feet are cold, wear warm socks and shoes.

· SOCKS: solid white, black, or navy socks must be worn and visible with all shoes

· Children run and play in PE and at recess every day at our school. They need shoes that facilitate this. We have minimal janitorial services at our school, and carpet cleaning/vacuuming is left to teachers and parent volunteers; boots wreak havoc on our carpet!