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

Week 12

Weekly Greetings!

Finally, the pool at Fort Greely is open so we are going to celebrate the end of our first quarter together by taking a field trip there on Thursday, November 10. I will have copies of the permission slips at Parent/Teacher Conferences, but if you still need to sign one you can return the slip attached to the weekly parent letter. Your child will need their winter gear for traveling, a swimsuit, and towel. We will leave as soon as the students finish breakfast, and will return sometime around 5:30pm for the Community Planning meeting at the school. Please leave me a phone number on the permission slip, so that I can call you with a more accurate time to pick your child up when we get close to Tok. We will take a bag lunch and also have pizza after swimming. You can send additional snacks if you think your child will need more than that for the day trip. There will not be any homework that night.

Also, on Friday there will be a special Veterans Day Celebration at 1:00pm at the school.  The students have been practicing songs and will be honoring our veterans. In addition, the students will be let out of school that day at 2:00pm, so that the staff can continue working on a strategic plan with the district administration.

Last week started off with Halloween fun! All the students wore their costumes to school, and after we finished carving our Jack-o-Lantern I got a group shot! After the school parade, we also had a class party with lots of goodies and a few parent visitors. I also put on a short movie about a bat that was based on the book Stellaluna.

In Science, the students explored chemical changes using simple household products in our unit on Matter.

The class also finished the novel unit we have been doing on the book Because of Winn-Dixie, and I ordered the movie to watch and compare with the book. Also at the end of the book, there is a party with egg salad sandwiches, pickles, punch, and a bowl of hard candy. When it came to that part in the movie, we stopped and had the same foods while finishing the movie.

Even though it will be a rather short week with conferences and our field trip, we will move into Unit 2 in the Treasures reading program. The class will  have Art again with Shauna Lee this week on Wednesday, and the Photo retake day is also on Wednesday this week.

With the parent letter there will be a book order form if you would like to order any books. I was not sent any forms for October, but there was a Book Fair at the school that I know many of you visited. If you would like to order, please get the forms back to me by the 18th of this month. If you can pay cash, or write the check to me, then I can call the order in and put it on my card to get the books here faster. If not, then I have to mail the order in and it takes a bit longer.

Have a wonderful week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 11

 Weekly Greetings!

The field trip to Fort Greely to go swimming had to be postponed last week, as a part needed to operate something in the pool was broken. The pool is scheduled to be reopened on November 7th, so I have set the date for Thursday the 10th. Hopefully, there will not be any more problems. I will talk more with you all at Parent/Teacher conferences on the 7th and have permission slips ready that week. After we get through all the Halloween activities this Monday, I will call you all to schedule times for the conferences coming up. We will officially be starting our 2nd quarter this Monday!

October is "Fire Safety Month", and we were fortunate to have a visit from some of our local fire fighters last Tuesday. They went to every class to remind students of the important safety and survival skills needed in case they are faced with a home fire. The students listened intently and had some really good questions.

The next day in the afternoon, the class had another art session with Shauna Lee. How fortunate the school is to have such a talented and trained artist who is willing to volunteer to teach.  After a lesson on using acrylic paints, the class started a new project and began the background.

In Science, we have continued t o explore states of matter. Last week the students used solids and liquid to discover how much air, or gas, was in the objects that allowed them to float. Using a Venn diagram, each group sorted out which object floated, sank, or first floated and later sank.

This will be the last week of the novel unit on Because of Winn-Dixie. Some days, we have read  chapters together or in pairs, and other days they have read independently while I circulate and listen. They have been finding comfortable spots in the class to just curl up and enjoy reading. While reading, the class has been filling out graphic organizers and answering questions to help with the final review.

With Halloween coming, we investigated a pumpkin on Friday. The activity began with the question "What do you know about pumpkins?" Then we went into a moving and visualization activity where they acted out growing from a seed to a pumpkin. Linked together in a vine, they imagined ripening. After I pretended to harvest them all, they rolled over to a good spot for a short read aloud book called The Run Away Pumpkin. We discussed the rhyme and rhythm of the story in addition to some unfamiliar vocabulary words. I shared some fun pumpkin facts, which also tied into aspects of our Science experiments from the day before.  After measuring the circumference,  it was then time to cut open the pumpkin and look over the five parts and seed structure. Once it was opened, the class pulled the seeds out, cleaned them, and counted how many. We found a total of 235 seeds in our pumpkin. The final step was to toast the seeds for our class party on Monday. We will also make a Jack-o-Lantern that day as a group activity for Halloween.

I will have more pictures next week from the Halloween activities that will start our week off.

NO HOMEWORK ON HALLOWEEN!

Enjoy your week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 10

 Weekly Greetings!

Before I recap some highlights from our past week, there are a couple important things I need to inform you about this week.

First, the pool at Fort Greely should be opening on this Monday so we are going to celebrate the end of our first quarter together by taking a field trip there on Thursday. Please return the permission slip attached to the weekly parent letter. Your child will need their winter gear for traveling, a swimsuit, and towel. We will leave as soon as the students finish breakfast, and will return sometime around 5:30pm to 6:00pm. Please leave me a phone number on the permission slip, so that I can call you with a more accurate time to pick your child up when we get close to Tok. We will take a bag lunch and also have pizza after swimming. You can send additional snacks if you think your child will need more than that for the day trip. There will not be any homework that night.

Halloween will be in a week. It is my understanding that the students can bring costumes, but they are not to wear hats, masks, or any accessories that will distract them from learning. We will have a normal morning, and then a school parade starting at 2:30pm. Class parties will begin when the parade is over. Then that evening, there will be the Trick or Treat Street and carnival at the school for Tok and  the local communities. Please fill out and return the party food request that will be at the end of the parent letter this week.

Now on with a few highlights from our short week...All the drums went home last week and the students were so proud of their work. We took a class picture of them all with the additional 16-sided class drum we will display all year.

In addition to the regular classroom curriculum covered each week, the students enjoy a number of enrichment classes. On Tuesday after they have Library, they take a Computer class and are learning to keyboard from Mrs. Hack. They also have a structured P.E. class three days a week with Mr. Cronk.

On Wednesday, we participated in another AK Teach activity with 13 other schools from Alaska and the Lower 48 states. Scientists in Action connect students to scientists in the field via the Internet, and are a live and inter-active experience. Through this activity, we were able to travel to a “Mogollon” (Moh-gee-yohn) site in New Mexico with Dr. Steve Nash of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Octavius Seowtewa of the Zuni Cultural Resources Assessment Team as our guides. The people archaeologists call Mogollon lived in mountainous regions bordering Arizona and New Mexico from AD 300 to about AD 1300. In the harsh but fertile environment, they hunted deer and other animals, grew corn and other crops, and lived in pit houses before switching to above-ground structures. At the site, there were numerous rock paintings that are believed to tell the origin story of the ancient culture.  We will have another AK Teach experience in November.

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown