Learning Updates 12/16/11

Dear Families,

Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy a safe, fun, relaxing time with friends and family during this holiday break.

This week we finished our time in 2011 with another action packed week.Check out our all the great pieces students wrote, published and shared at our Author's Chair!

Below, please enjoy the pictures our class selected and captions that students wrote today during our writing time--they're now all accomplished Bloggers!

We celebrate our second Author's Chair by doing a toast and raising our cups of apple juice in the air.

Death. A dead fish lies on the ground, unconscious, with an upside down snail accompanying him. We're watching the decomposition process in one of our ecocolumns.

Author's Chair. This author presents his dramatic story while the class listens quietly.

Pushing buttons. Last Friday evening we had a special visitor after hours. William came to check out the classroom and our technology.

Math

• Reviewed and finished Unit 5, took the final test and an open response
• We'll start Unit 6 when we resume school in January

Reading

• Read a Time for Kids edition about the coolest inventions of 2011. Students wrote opinion journal entries about which invention was most important/why
• Learned about thinkmarks (like a bookmark, but tracks your thinking). Students practiced writing their thinking on sticky notes and placing those in the book. This will lead us to some deeper thinking/written reflection in the near future.
• Met with our 2nd grade reading buddies in Miss Evanger's class

 Science

• Finished our STC Ecosystems unit (the one with ecocolumns). Students analyzed/discussed the findings of their pollution experiments and extrapolated to what the effects might be on columns that actually contained animals
• Watched/discussed a short film and a written piece about Chesapeake Bay--a real ecosystem with pollution problems
• Took some end of unit ecosystems and engineering assessments

Writing

• Published personal narrative pieces from our second unit of writing in a picture book format (Read them all here)
• We held an author's chair and students shared their work with the class

Learning Updates 12/9/11

Happy Friday!

It's been another busy week, especially with all the great things we're trying to fit in just one week before winter break.

Market Day...
...was a huge success! Thank you for all your support at home in helping your child tackle this project. Also thanks to all the parents who assisted in setup, cleanup, making change, and helping out during Market Day. We couldn't have done it without you.

Check out lots more oil cleanup & Market Day pictures below:

Click HERE for Market Day and Science Pictures!

Math

• Worked on 2x2 and 3x2 digit multiplication with the partial products and lattice algorithms--ask your student to show you both
• Studied powers of 10 and rounding/reporting large numbers

Reading

• Discussed and wrote in our response journals about our histories as readers, and what things we've been thinking about lately as we read
• Reviewed our books finished logs and introduced a genre tracking graph

Science

• Planned oil containment/cleanup based on our hands on tests with each of nine potential materials. Students combined, altered, and changed the order in which to use these materials
• Conducted the cleanup, calculated scores, tried to improve designs/redesigned, and conducted a second cleanup/calculated new scores

Writing

• Talked about the editing process. Students finished drafts and began revising/editing
• Next week we'll conference and author's chair is coming soon

Learning Update 12.5.11

Dear Families,

It was wonderful meeting with all of you for parent conferences. I loved talking about the progress and growth your student has made, as well as the shared goals we have. Please know that you can always get in touch with me throughout the year to further discuss your child. Thank you for all of your help and support at home!

Here's a quick update:

In designing the solution, groups considered materials, how they might be combined or altered to work best, and the order in which to use them.

Principal Otley visited our classroom and read aloud to the class. We made some great connections between the story and the writing that we're doing in our personal narratives unit.

We watched the fourth and fifth grade chorus rehearsal. This was the Thriller dance!

 Math

• We've been working on a couple multiplication algorithms--partial products and today we reviewed the lattice multiplication method
• Remember to print out the parent letter that I send you each month. It has great background information, which allow you to best help your student. Plus, it makes checking your students' math homework each night very easy because all the answers are provided! Family letters are here.

Science

• We tested various materials for oil spill cleanup and containment
• We're working on the application part now where students formulate a plan and we test it out on a riverbed model containing oil

Writing

• We've made story mountains of our seed stories and are working on discovery rough drafts--ask your student to tell you their story (in story, not summary form)
• Next step on the way to publishing these pieces is revising

Reading

• Ask your student about the latest in our read aloud, Listening for Lions. Ask--What's the author's message so far?
• We've been analyzing picture book stories for story mountain/story arc structure and talking about how we can apply that to our writing

Important Dates
December 7........Market Day 9:30-10:30 Multipurpose Room
December 14.......Spirit PJ Day-Wear Your Pajamas to School
December 16......Classroom Auction
December 19-January 2.........Winter Break
January 16......Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 31.......Planetarium (4th grade enrichment)

Learning Updates 11.18.11

Dear Families,

Happy Friday. Here's a quick overview of what we've been up to this week. But first...a reminder that report cards will come home with your child on Wednesday 11/23. Also, in your child's Friday Folder today are a number of graded assignments I'd been holding on to for report cards.

Math

• Finished Unit 4 and took the test
• We've now moved in to Unit 5, focused on big numbers, estimation and computation. Today we learned about extended multiplication facts, which help us solve problems like 40*80=? Ask your student how.
• Bonus--have your student write "pH test" on a note and give to me by Monday for 10 Grizzly Bucks. It's easy.

Science

• We ventured further in to EiE, doing some real environmental engineering
• We read "Tehya's Story," which set the stage for our work. Ask your student about the story
• Today we simulated working as environmental engineers hired by a fictitious town of Greenville, which has been experiencing pollution problems. Each small group of students performed pH tests on various water samples taken from around the town. We'll do more with this next week.

Reading

• Focused on high interest non-fiction articles in Time for Kids, and took a quiz
• Learned about and examined figurative language
• Took a mock MSP reading test, which I can show you at parent conferences

Writing

• Worked more on the components of effective leads
• Looked at adding scenes that are flashbacks of the past or flash-forwards of the future
• Examined mentor texts for how to bring more of the internal (thoughts, feelings, questions in our head) part of the story to our pieces

Examining the pH strips during EiE (Engineering is Elementary: A Slick Solution)

Taking a sample

Matching up against the pH chart. This sample from the Greenville car factory is somewhat acidic. We may have some pollution!

Learning Update 11.13.11

Dear Families,


What a short week we had, but still had a lot of things going on!  I hope you enjoyed the three-day weekend as we celebrated Veteran's Day. Here's the latest...


Science

• Students designed and began pollution experiments on either acid rain, fertilizer or road salt in our special plants-only experimental eco-columns
• Took an ecosystems quiz
• This week we'll put ecosystems on the back burner as the pollution experiments play out over the next few weeks. In the meantime we'll start a related unit called EiE (Engineering is Elementary--A Slick Solution: Cleaning an Oil Spill--Ecosystems & Environmental Engineering for Elementary Students. More on this soon!

Math

• Continued working with decimals, using base 10 blocks to represent values in to the thousandths place, played fishing for digits game, reviewed the metric system and practiced measuring objects in the classroom
• We'll take the Unit 4 test later this week

Reading

• We continued our focus on schema (activating background knowledge) as students read about the role of decomposers in an ecosystems. Prior to reading we charted what they know & want to know, and afterward, what they learned
• Finished our read aloud--The Gollywhopper Games and started a new read aloud Listening for Lions, a past Global Reading Challenge book. 

Writing

• Moving toward a seed story idea--ask your child what their story idea is. It's helpful to have them orally tell you the story ("air write" the story for you)
• Discussed balancing internal/external details, stretching/zooming in on the heart of our stories and not unimportant parts, asking ourselves what we're really trying to say, and looking at mentor texts for ideas--especially for ways to write leads
• Fun Bonus--your child can earn 10 Grizzly Bucks if you have them write and bring in to Mr. Herzberg the word "EiE" on a note.

Learning Updates 11.4.11

Here's the latest from our classroom

Last Friday we had an Art Docent Lesson. Thank you to Lisa Purdon and Christina Elin, Jolene Strait, Debbie Spoto, and Kim Foster.

Students learned about Rousseau and created oil pastel ecosystem drawings on black construction paper.

Mr. Ciraulo worked with students on problem solving. We examined and critiqued a student example, learning from it. Students will redo the problem, this time using much of what we learned.

Math

• Continued working with decimals--using base 10 blocks to model ones/tenths/hundreths, practicing correct notation, comparing/ordering decimals, estimating with decimals, adding/subtracting decimals, and working with decimals in money

Reading

• Continued our focus on main idea, using a picture book, Brave Irene, and continued our schema (background knowledge) focus by listening to a short book on tape. We'll follow up next week by revising our schema when students can actually see the pictures in the book.
• Read with our second grade reading buddies in Miss Evanger's class 

 Writing

• Learned about making revisions sooner this time than in our first unit--using what we know now about great personal narrative writing. Also talked about setting a balance between external (things you can see and hear) and internal factors (thoughts, feelings, emotions inside you) in our stories
• Completed our fourth grade personal narrative fall writing prompt--a chance for us to see growth in students' writing
• Bonus. Have your student write "pollution" on a sticky note or paper and give it to me by Monday 11/7 for 10 Grizzly bucks!

Science

• We've read about terrestrial animals, how seeds germinate, and three common sources of pollution in ecosystems--acid rain, road salt, and fertilizer.
• Students began designing their group's pollution experiment on either salt, vinegar (acid rain), or fertilizer
• SOAR (in-class field trip) brought a couple birds of prey and talked with students about food webs. It was a high interest, great tie in with our ecosystems studies. Thank you for funding this!

SOAR presentation right before the birds came out!

Learning Updates 10.28.11

Here's a quick update of our week together:

Math

• Took the Unit 3 assessment, coming home in Friday Folders
• Started Unit 4. Worked with decimal place value, notation, representing using base 10 blocks

Reading

• Focused on determining main idea by examining Van Gogh's Starry Night and looking at a shared reading on the printing press. We pulled important details & used them to come up with a main idea.
• Mrs. McGraw did a focus lesson on schema (background knowledge) related to a poem about popcorn on a stove.

Writing

• Began our second writing unit, again on Personal Narratives, but we'll go much deeper this time
• Learned new strategies for generating writing ideas, i.e. thinking of turning points such as first or last times, of times when strong emotions were involved, or of classic family stories

Science

• Continued to observe our aquaria and terraria
• Added our crickets and isopods to the terraria, and assembled the eco column!
• Fun bonus--ask your child to write "isopod" on a sticky note and get it to me by Friday 11/4 for 10 Grizzly Bucks.

Dependent vs. Independent Relationships. Our class generated this during a discussion. Click to view larger and ask your student to explain this to you.

Mayhem! Two crickets on the loose and half the class on the hunt. The story ends happily with both fugitives apprehended and happily enjoying the confines of their new terrarium.

Learning Updates 10.21.11

Happy Friday,

We've been pretty busy lately. Here's the latest:

Social Studies

• We finished our Regions of Washington Unit

Science

• Started our ecosystems unit. Thanks for all your help in gathering 2 liter bottles! Also, big thanks to Christa Elin for cutting all those bottles
• Had an in class field trip from Science to Go on Food Webs
• Students built aquariums and terrariums and have been observing them in their science notebooks
• Animals arrived (mosquito fish, snails, crickets and isopods--pill bugs) and we'll put them in the aquariums and terrariums next week

Researching water plants in their small group, and preparing for their presentation.

Math

• We've practiced multiplication facts, looked at the multiplication/division connection, calculated airline route distances, practiced problem solving procedures, worked with parentheses in number sentences, and worked with open sentences--solving variables like in algebra
• We'll both review and take the math test on Monday. Students have the sheet in their math tab and can do some work at home, but there will be in-class time to work on the review as well

Writing

Author's chair. Cheers to finishing our first writing unit! Be sure to view students' writing pieces here!

• We had an author's chair celebration for our first unit of writing--Personal Narratives
• Students wrote some fabulous pieces. Please check them out digitally here!
• Brainstormed and wrote some haunted house stories
• We'll begin a new personal narrative writing unit next week, where we'll delve much deeper in to the elements of effective story writing. Personal Narratives are a great topic to use while we're learning these skills because students are knowledgeable experts on the events of their lives

Reading

• Ask your student what's been happening in our read aloud book, Gollywhopper Games. In the story, the main character, Gil, is faced with a dilemma. Should he accept a "wheelbarrow of cash" in return for quitting the games now that he's in the final five, or should he continue on. Ask your child what they would choose in his place and why. Also, why was he the only finalist offered all this cash?
• Made inferences by looking only at pictures and only at text clues in a PowerPoint presentation. Students then practiced in their own books
• Looked at the strategy of visualizing when we read
• Students worked in small groups to become experts on a piece of our science reading on elodea, duckweed, and algae. Students practiced finding evidence for a particular statement. They then presented their section and their learning to the class.
• If you're reading this part, here's a fun bonus: ask your student to write the word "ecosystem" on a sticky note or piece of paper. Have them bring it to Mr. Herzberg before Friday next week for 10 Grizzly Bucks! :)

Presenting their group's information on producers and consumers.

More presentations--this one on Elodea, the plant on the screen behind them and also in our aquaria.

Putting water plants in their aquaria--elodea, duckweed and algae.

Gathering duckweed

Live animals have arrived. The crickets are so interesting to watch!

More live animals. This was the place to be before school started on Thursday!

Learning Update 10.7.11

Here's a taste of what we've been doing this week:

Experts taught their groups everything they'd learned about their region. Then we played the process grid game.

Students put heads together to learn from their expert.

Rain Shadow Effect Demonstration. Ask your student all about this and how the effect works in Washington.

Class Sort. Students took turns sorting words on the Activboard.

Mr. Ciraulo came to our class to talk about problem solving. He will join us monthly to help us apply a four step problem solving method.

Students gave student council representative speeches. Then we voted for two representatives.

Student Council Speeches. Each fourth and fifth grade class will elect two representatives.

 Math

• Took Unit 2 assessment and open response Monday
• Started Unit 3 on multiplication & division, number sentences & algebra
• Please print & hang on to the Unit 3 Family letter (attached to my email)
• Reviewed what’s my rule problems, strategies for solving multiplication facts, & the 50s facts test routine

Reading

• Started reading buddies with Miss Evanger’s 2^nd grade class
• Began a new set of word sort words & did some sorts
• Read John Henry and talked about hyperbole, features of tall tales, and similes
• Class discussed “what we know to be true about reading” and then students began their reading response journals with their own thoughts about this
• Started a new read aloud—The Gollywhopper Games (A Sasquatch Award Winning Book this year)

 Writing

• Looked deeper at zooming in on the heart of stories
• Students wrote and revised clean copies of the story they will publish
• Students began revising conferences with me and with student coaches

Social Studies

• Finished expert groups
• Experts taught their group about their region, then we played the process grid game
• Students filled in their process grids
• Conducted a rain shadow simulation

School News 10.7.11

Parent-Teacher Conferences, November 30th-December 1^st—SIGN-UP

Dear Parents,

This year we are using VolunteerSpot to schedule our Parent-Teacher Conferences. To schedule a Parent-Teacher Conference for either November 30th or December 1st, click here. VolunteerSpot will ask you for your email address. This address will only be used to contact you with a confirmation of your appointment as well as with a reminder two days before your conference. Email addresses are not used in any other way.

Process:

        1.  Parents click to sign up for a conference between now and November 23rd.

        2.  Teachers check VolunteerSpot to verify scheduled conferences.

        3.  Parents will receive a reminder email two days before the conference.

Any changes needed to be made after November 23rd need to be done through the classroom teacher and not VolunteerSpot.

For detailed directions, click here.

If you have any trouble accessing the site, please contact Leslie Lederman at ledermanl@issaquah.wednet.edu.

Thank you,
The Grand Ridge Staff

For the Men of Grand Ridge!

Are you ready for some football? Come kick off the school year and meet other Grand Ridge dads and men, all while watching Monday Night Football at Zeeks. There'll be great prices and great fun just for us. Note which date corresponds to the age(s) of your child(ren), and attend that night's festivities. If football's not your thing, don't despair! We have more plans up our sleeves for the upcoming weeks; but to start off with pizza and football was too obvious to pass up. We look forward to seeing you there. Times will be 6:30-8:30 pm each night.  Hosted by MEN of Grand Ridge PTSA. Questions? Contact Tim Ryan at tryteo@comcast.net.

Monday, Oct. 10, Kindergarten-1st grade

Monday, Oct. 17, 2-3rd grade

Monday, Oct. 24, 4-5th grade

The Grand Ridge Book Swap
October 13th^th from 5-8PM
With special guest Charlie Williams as… The Noise Guy!
*Students are required to be accompanied by a chaperone to attend this event. 
Thank you!*

Coffee with Christy

October 25th 9:30 - 10:30

Grand Ridge Commons

Grand Ridge’s 1st Auction is on February 11, 2012 - NOW ACCEPTING SPONSORSHIPS.     Are you seeking to promote products and services to the Grand Ridge Community?  The Auction is the perfect venue to not only market your business, but to contribute to our children's future at the same time. For more information contact Auction Sponsorship Lead,  Dan Wilson, 425-577-1170.

Learning Update

Dear Families,

It’s been another terrific week packed with learning. I’ve had a great time working with your students. Here are some highlights of what we’ve been up to. Plus, I’ve included some probing questions to help you get more information out of your fourth graders.

-Mr. Herzberg

Family Size. Our class' data is literally off the chart. We used these sticky notes to create a line plot and then found landmarks.

Social Studies

• Students partner read the rest of Chapter 1 in our WA Adventure textbook about landforms and changing land
• Took a unit one open book test on this material
• We reviewed common landforms and took an Activote quiz on the topic
• Began expert groups--small group of students read, then highlighted and sketched important info about one of the five regions of WA

Math

• Finished Unit 2, students completed a study guide and are reviewing the material over the weekend before Monday’s test
• Studied landmarks like minimum, maximum, range, mode, and median
• Practiced finding the median and creating line & bar graphs
• Ask your student about how we gathered and used data regarding family size and head sizes

Writing

• Continued our exploration and study of personal narratives
• In addition to experimenting with a number of pieces in this genre, most students should now have two small moments seed idea stories written
• Learned this week about reliving the episode as you write about it, when/how to paragraph, zooming in on a part of your timeline, and letting the heart of your story guide the angle you take with it
• Students have now chosen one of their seed stories to revise and publish in the coming days. Ask your student about the one they chose. What’s the heart of it (what do they really want to show) and how are they doing this?

Reading

• Introduced word work this week
• We did a whole class word sort on our Activboard
• Learned/tried some different sorts including: writing sort, blind buddy sort, speed sort
• The idea behind these sorts is that they are a fun way for students to interact with word patterns. By doing this work they have to think analytically, and through our discussions, they will uncover word patterns that will help them become better spellers, readers and writers
• Talked more about/practiced the strategy of checking for understanding
• Finished our read aloud There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom
• Ask—what was your favorite part of the read aloud/why? What was Louis Sachar’s (the author’s) message? Give some examples of how the characters changed throughout the story. Also—what was your favorite word sort this week/why?

School News 10.1.11

Pictures Needed 

We will be putting together a school wide slide show of Veterans in our lives and community.  Please send digital pictures to Alice Badgley badgleya@issaquah.wednet.edu to be included in this special presentation.  Please include name and division of the military they served.

Please submit pictures by Wednesday Nov. 2^nd.
Thanks,
Grand Ridge Staff 

Japan is coming to Grand Ridge in October 

Throughout this school year, the PTSA's Cultural Diversity Council will be highlighting various countries and their cultures each month.  Look for our World Map in the Commons and a museum of Japanese items and books in the library.  Plus, every Tuesday throughout the month of October there will be events in the lunchroom and activities during afternoon recess.  Let us know what countries and cultures you'd like to see represented in future months!  For more information, please contact Susan Wan (susanwan@gmail.com) or Yuki Foss at (yukifoss2@hotmail.com).

Salmon Days Run
Calling all physical fitness and healthy living enthusiasts. The Issaquah Schools Foundation wants you to sign up for the Issaquah Rotary Run at Salmon Days on Sunday, October 2nd. The 10K run, 5K walk and 1K Kids Dash offer challenges for every level AND a portion of each entry fee will benefit theIssaquah Schools Foundation—which will then benefit your kids. Go to www.isssaquahrun.com to join the fun.
  

Book Swap!

On October 13^th we’ll be holding our school’s second annual children’s book swap at Grand Ridge.  We’re looking for picture books and chapter books of all genres that are appropriate for elementary aged students.  You may drop off your donated books to Grand Ridge Elementary September 26-October 7th.  If you would like more information, or would like to help with this event, contact Sara Winnick swinnick@ihmail.com.  
School Directory updateAs a benefit of joining, all PTSA member households receive a Grand Ridge School Directory.  The directory is being worked on right now and should be ready for delivery in the beginning of November.   Join the Grand Ridge PTSA today!

Committee Chair Meeting
Do you chair a PTSA committee, or would you like to?  We are having a meeting on Thursday October 6th at 9:30 in P7.  We will go over a lot of helpful information with regards to working on any PTSA programs or events.  Come learn who to contact, what you need, where inventory is, and how to get into our new storage container!  Please email Carolyn Kennedy (carolynk2@hotmail.com) with questions.
Save the Date!  Grand Ridge’s 1^st Auction is on February 11, 2012.     Would you like to see more Arts? Music? Science? in your child’s education?  Here is a chance to channel your donations.  This is not your Parent’s Auction!  Get ready for an adult night-out party!   Tickets go on sale Nov. 1st.  Proceeds to benefit Science, Art, and Music at Grand Ridge.  More information can be found on the PTSA Website.  Questions? Please email the Auction Chair, Lida Buckner
ARTISTS WANTED!
2011- 2012 REFLECTIONS PROGRAM
“DIVERSITY MEANS…..”
Submissions due: Thursday, Oct. 27^th.
For more information go to:http://www.grandridgeptsa.org/programs