Week 17

 Weekly Greetings,

Thank you to all of you that helped and donated food for the movie night fundraiser last Friday night. We made $388.00! I have a couple more movies coming in the mail, and we still have concession food left over, so hopefully we can do another movie night again soon.

This week we will be having an enrichment week with books and activities surrounding the holiday season. There will be homework as usual, but no spelling list this week. The most important event will be the Christmas Concert at 2:00pm on Thursday. Please try to be there, as the students have been working hard on the songs that they will be singing. The last day of school before Christmas vacation will be this Friday. We will be having a class party starting at 12:30pm and I will attach a snack sign up list with this week's parent letter.

As for some highlights from last week, we started the week off on Monday with the bi-weekly visit from the school councilor. The students are being encouraged to explore careers, and work hard academically.

The class has also made a Christmas wall with the 3rd grade, and we needed numerous hand prints for a tree decoration. Everyone traced and cut enough hand prints for a good-sized tree and then colored some decorations to go on it.

There was a special presentation sponsored by the Tetlin Refuge on Wednesday, and the class got to meet master snowshoe maker, George Albert. He did a nice job of showing the students the tradition way of making snowshoes from birch trees.

In Science, observations were recorded about the aquatic organisms in our classroom. As a class, we then compared and contrasted the snails and Guppies viewed in the containers.

Friday, everyone went to the greenhouse to see what was growing during the winter months. The class saw the barley growing in the dirt beds that will be tilled in for organic fertilizer before planting new food crops this spring. Then they made decorations out of natural materials that will come home later this week.

They also got to have a special snack before we returned to our class to finish the day.

This will be the last post of 2016. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. Class will resume again on Tuesday, January 3, 2017.

Wishing you a warm and healthy vacation break.

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 16

Weekly Greetings!

As I mentioned last week, Tim Lorenzini from the Tetlin Refuge was in on Monday to help get the class focused on a contribution to the Migratory Bird calendar for 2018. After the students returned from PE, and the wonderful time practicing NYO techniques that day, they were ready to research the bird each had chosen to study. For those that had been struggling with picking a bird, Tim had numerous books to look at and he was able to help everyone find a bird that interested them. Using the internet, the students read and took notes on characteristics and habitat, in addition to listening to the bird's song. This week, they will finish a literature contribution, and start a picture in Art on Wednesday.

Last week in Science, we started seriously looking at the role of living organisms in the balance of recycling nature. Students worked in pairs to observe and describe Pill Bugs on one day, then Millipedes on another day.

They seemed to enjoy the Millipedes more, as they were far more active.

This week, the class will observe aquatic organisms and compare the snails and fish we have in our room.

Please remember that we have a fundraiser movie night planned on Friday and I will send home a final flyer later this week.

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 15

Weekly Greetings!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving break, despite the cold temperatures last Thursday. Even though we had just three days last week, the students accomplished a lot. Stephen Rudolph returned on Monday to do a poetry activity with the group and each one wrote a response to the Robert Frost poem he recited. They took turns sharing what they wrote in front the class.

In Social Studies the focus was on the first Thanksgiving and the important role that the Native Americans played in the survival of the pilgrim settles. The students made a table decoration to help them remember the positive relationship the two groups had.

On Wednesday, the class had worked so hard during the week that we took a short break for some Eraser Tag. It is a fun game and can easily be done in the classroom.

There are some new critters in the room to go with our Science unit on "Organisms" that we will be starting this week.

 

Also, on Monday we will start work on the Migratory Bird Calendar competition with the help of Tim Lorenzini from the Tetlin Refuge.

I hope you have a awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 14

Weekly Greetings!

First of all I want to remind you that there is only three days of school this week, and the students will be released at 2:00pm on Wednesday for the Thanksgiving break. Students will be required to clean out their lockers that day, and take home any clothing and expected to take items home. Also, we have a movie night fundraiser planned for December 9, so please let me know if you can help with that. I will be sending a list of foods needed when we return after the four-day break.

Last week there was additional enrichment activities for the class to participate in starting on Monday with the bi-weekly visit from the councilor. They played "Career Bingo" and had to guess what career it was when the clues were read. Everyone really enjoyed their time.

 On Tuesday, we participated in another virtual AK Teach program. The class interacted with museum curator Dr. Nicole Garneau, who is a geneticist who studies how our DNA affects how we experience taste. Garneau conducts her research using crowd sourcing and citizen science in the Genetics of Taste Lab at the Denver Museum. The results from her research have debunked super tasting, helped to confirm fat as the 6th taste and is providing evidence that the microbes in our mouth might be helping us taste sweet things! With students participating from all over Alaska and a few other states, our class got an exclusive behind-the-scenes sneak peek at her new research study, the Science of Sour,  and learn more about the ways her lab is changing the way we look at taste. Some of the students had great questions, and through the web cam could talk with Dr. Garneau.

 In Science, we closed our focus on chemical changes in Matter, by making a crazy substance called "Flubber". The students were shocked when all the different liquid solutions came together as a rubbery solid.

The next day, they worked in groups to follow a recipe for making ice cream using solids and liquids. They poured to solutions into two special balls that had a cylinder to hold the ice cream solution, and an outer shell that held ice.

 For around 30 minutes that kept the balls moving, and in the end the ice cream mixture had become a solid. We added some root beer, which was a liquid and gas, and had root beer floats to close out our Matter Unit.

Ranger Rodulph from the Tetlin Refuge was in on Thursday to share about "Matter and Energy in Ecosystems". He guides the class through the flow of a food web as they drew their own version on paper. The class always enjoys seeing him and he will be back this week to do a literature activity with them.

I will be sending homework home as usual on Monday and Tuesday. There will not be a Spelling test this week due to such a short week, but some of the words will be on next weeks test.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 13

 Weekly Greetings!

Last week started off with Parent/Teacher Conferences, and I want to thank all of you that attended! It was really nice to share your child's progress with you and I appreciate you making the time to attend.

The next event of the week was Election Day. I was surprised by how much the class knew of the current events, as it was not something we had discussed previously. In the afternoon that day, the class was able to see a sample ballot, and vote in a mock election at the school.

Then on Thursday, we took our field trip to Fort Greely to swim. Once the group was changed into their suits, the life guards sat everyone down to hear the rules before entering the pool. Five out of the nine students attending the trip passed a swim test and could go into the deep end of the pool. The diving board was a big hit at that end! The swim test consisted of swimming two laps starting at the deep end, and then treading water for a certain amount of time. Six students attempted the test, but one student was not a strong enough swimmer at this point, so she spent the day in shallower water. For three of the students, it was only their second time in a pool. You will see from the pictures that there was a lot to do, and the class swam for close to three hours. When they were done, we went for pizza and they ate three large pizzas before we headed back to Tok.

 

 

On Friday, the class celebrated our first birthday complete with cupcakes! Then it was off to the Veterans Day Ceremony. 

The class sang "Your a Grand Old Flag" with the 5th Grade and then "This Land Is Your Land" with the whole elementary. It was a very nice ceremony and it was really nice to have so many veterans in attendance, so we could show our appreciation for their service.

 

With the homework on Monday, I am sending home a letter from the 3rd Grade about a community service project they are doing. Please take a minute to read through the information and see if there is anything you can contribute. Also, last week I asked for any book orders to be returned by this coming Friday, but if you are considering an order, please get it to me by Thursday as I will be out on Friday this week.

I hope you have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown