Let me start out with a big thank you to all of you for your patience as these blog posts are so few and far between.
I also want to thank so many of the 5th grade parents who volunteered to come to BizTown with us last week. The students had such a good time, and learned so much thanks to your participation. With only ten 5th grade students, having 5 parent volunteers is pretty huge! I am so grateful for all of you. Should any of you also be interested, (or anyone else who is sad they missed out on our fun at BizTown!) we are also very short on volunteers for camp! Please email me if you are interested!
Important: As you may have seen in your child's Friday folder, yearbook order forms have gone out! A correction needs to be made, however: Checks should be made payable to Bear Creek Elementary, and not O'Connor Photography.
We had some other fun events happening at Bear Creek these last few weeks!
1) Author Patrick Carmen came to speak to our 3rd - 5th graders! He talked to them all about writing stories and about his new book called "Towervale." This book combines reading with a free online arcade-style game, that kids have to complete a level before they know what page to go to in order to continue reading in the story. Fun!
He had some copies for sale after his visit, but there were so many students interested in ordering a book, he has to come back to deliver more copies of it!
He will be in on Tuesday, so if anyone is interested in getting a copy, they need to bring in a check made out to PC Studio Inc. by Tuesday morning for $15.00.
2) We had a small lesson last week, where students taught us about the Hindu holiday of Holi. We celebrated the "Festival of Colors" by doing some beautiful rangoli-inspired sidewalk chalk art on the playground. Students also practiced and showed off their writing in multiple different languages! Here are some images of our beautiful work!
3) In Language Arts, we started our Non-Fiction/Informative Reading and Writing unit with biographies of young activists around the world. Students picked issues and topics they were curious about and practiced researching and taking notes on the information they found. It is amazing to me the variety of topics that students chose, we have topics like poverty and homelessness, global warming, plastic pollution, racism, police brutality, homeless pets, gun violence, children's rights, child trafficking, ivory poaching, and transgender rights. As you can tell from our list (which was 100% student created,) some of these topics can be sensitive and may require some additional support in finding sources that are appropriate for younger students. I have worked with several students to find some sources of information, however, checking in with your child about the topic that they have chosen is definitely recommended!
4) I want to congratulate our Math Olympiad participants on their hard work last weekend! While we are all especially proud of our team that is bringing a trophy to Bear Creek for the first time (!), I want to also say how proud I am of everyone's hard work. The fact that so many teams could do so well, (with many who didn't even use a calculator!!) just shows how strong of a work ethic and how much dedication they have to a subject that they enjoy. Bravo!
5) Our 5th graders have wrapped up their social studies and science units! They are working on a science assessment this weekend and the beginning of next week. Their next unit in Social Studies will start next week as well focusing on colonialism leading up to the Revolutionary War.
6) While our 5th graders were at BizTown, our 4th graders started a health unit that helped them start to think about the food they eat. While our nutrition curriculum has not changed as much as nutrition science has over the last few years, the core principle is still relevant: limiting sugars and heavily processed carbohydrates, and instead choosing less processed foods like meats and vegetables.
7) Finally, we have a finalized SBA testing schedule! For our SBA tests, both 4th and 5th graders will be taking tests together in my classroom. The only exception to this is the 5th grade Washington Comprehensive Assessment in Science (WCAS), which will have the 4th graders stay in their math rotations until the test is completed.
As a reminder, "CAT" stands for "Computer Adaptive Test" which must be taken before they can do the Performance Task, or "PT," in a subject. Because of the long writing component, ELA Performance Tasks tend to take 2+ days, while Math Performance Tasks usually don't take even an entire day.
Days indicated as "4th grade EAP testing" are for the other 4th grade EAP classes, not for our class. I am only adding this to indicate that there won't be any math rotations during those days.
Specialist, Lunch, and Recess will stay as scheduled, but please see the other notes for each testing day.
Please update your calendars with the dates and information below:
Monday, 4/22 - ELA CAT - No 4th Grade Math Rotations.
Tuesday, 4/30 - 4th Grade EAP testing, extension math for whole class.
Wednesday, 5/1 - ELA PT1 - Day 1 of Performance task will be conducted around math rotations.
Thursday, 5/2 - ELA PT2 - Day 2 of Performance task, no math rotations.
Tuesday, 5/7 - 4th Grade EAP testing, extension math for whole class.
May 8-10 - 5th Grade - Camp Cedar Springs
Monday, 5/13 - 4th Grade EAP testing, extension math for whole class.
Friday, 5/17 - 4th Grade EAP testing, extension math for whole class.
Tuesday, 5/21 - Math CAT - No 4th Grade Math Rotations
Wednesday, 5/22 - Math PT - No 4th Grade Math Rotations
Thursday, 5/30 - 5th Grade WCAS - 4th Graders will spend this time in math classrooms.
As always, I am here if you have any questions!
Warmest Regards,
Mrs. Hart
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