Language Arts: We had a spelling test as usual.  Now everyone is finishing up their books.  Moving on to other books was fun.

Math: This week the green group took a test on Wednesday about graphs and a pretest.  Purple group did long division.  Also a mathematician came and talked to us a bit too.  We had to figure out how many squares we could find in a 3x3 grid, a 4x4 grid, a 5x5 grid, all the way up to a chess board (8x8 grid).  We found a cool pattern to it, so some of us found out how many squares there are in a 10x10 grid.  

Writing: We started on a new story this week.  Everybody has to write a story from somebody or something else's point of view that you can't talk to.  For example, we could write from Santa or a reindeer's perspective.  When you are done, you get to draw pictures around your paper.

Social Studies: For Social Studies this week we are starting to work on the Civil War and we just finished the presidents.  Also, Mrs. Price read a story about the civil way and it was VERY realistic, let's just say that.  We also started talking about what it was like for a slave.

Science: This week in Science we started our study of microbiology.  We're learning about things like bacteria, cells and germs.  We started by highlighting things in microbiology papers.  

Art: We are making very cool wrapping paper.  What we do is we have this tub of water and a little paper circle.  We put the circle in the water.  Then we have paint dropper thingies and we drop the drops of different colored paint onto the circle and it makes a really cool design in the water.  Then we put a piece of paper on the water and when we take it off, the design that was in the water will be on the paper.  

Gathering: The Octopi sang "12 Days of Christmas".  We started up SOS (Seabury on Stage) again.  This is where students can sign up to do some special talent at Gathering.  

Recess: Right now we are mainly playing blazer wars and freeze tag.  We also play with little fortresses of dirt and wood chips.  We use the wood chips as bricks and things as barbed wire.  

Math Games: This week we played 1,2,3 Nim.  The traps are multiples of 4.  For the original when you can take 1 or 2, the traps are multiples of 3.  We also found that for 1,3 Nim, the trap is an even number.  

French: We're getting into the holidays now so we're playing a really fun Christmas game.  We also learned Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman in French.  Also the decorations are good too!

PE: In PE we went to the Norpoint Center and did the climbing wall.  Then when we were done with the climbing wall, we went into the gym and played games.  

Here we are with the mathematician who came and taught us a cool lesson!

This post probably won't be nearly as interesting, as the kids weren't able to write about the week.  So, here was the week, according to Mrs. Price.

Language Arts: We are working hard to get our election chapter books finished before winter break.  The students also worked on a book report for their realistic fiction book.  They were asked to write the usual items, the characters, setting, problem, solution, and summary.  Then they also took one of the main characters and create a FAST Chart about them.  This included the character's feelings, actions, sayings, and thoughts.  We will begin books on the Civil War when we get back in January.

Math: The "green" group is finishing up their work on reading and creating graphs and probability.  They will have a test on this information next week.  The "purple" group is working hard to understand long division.  They too will be tested on this either next week or the week after.  

Writing: We are finishing the publishing of our 5 paragraph papers and will begin a new story next week.

Social Studies: The students finished their PowerPoint presentations on one of the presidents at the beginning of the week, then showed them to the rest of the class.  Many of the students showed an understanding of animation and the pasting of pictures into their work.  We also began our study of the U.S. Civil War.  We started a timeline of the events before the Civil War and will continue it with the battles and other important dates during the war.  We also watched 2 short films from the History Channel about the war.  

Gathering: Today was First Friday Gathering.  The students gathered together and spent about an hour snacking on hot chocolate and graham crackers, then read books with other students from a variety of grade levels.  It was a great, wearing pajamas and reading!

Recess: The students were very excited to earn four-square back during recess.  There are a few new rules and it was decided that if individual students are having issues with the game, they will not be able to play.  So far, things have gone smoothly.

Brownie Party: We had a brownie party on Tuesday this week.  They were s'more brownies with graham crackers and marshmallows.  Yum!

Our 2 candidates from the mock election fulfilled their duties on Friday.  They led the First Friday Gathering, brought all the teachers a drink from Starbucks, went out to lunch, and visited the middle school.  They also made some important decisions regarding the school that were important to their constituencies.  

Next week we will begin our study of Microbiology!

Here are some pictures from our read-in!

Our Head of School and Secretary busy at work.  

Week of November 26

Social Studies: We each picked a president.  Then we looked up facts about him.  We had to find out years when he was president, his birth and death, his family, his pets, his wins and loses, achievements, home state, important things they did, important events they went to, hobbies, strange facts, nicknames, the party he was in, and his vice president and we could find more if we wanted to.  Then we typed a PowerPoint about him.  

Math: The 3rd graders are working on line plots and reading graphs.  The 4th graders are working on division and stuff.  The math we are working on is really fun.  But I think it should be more exciting.  Math is fun!

Library: We have been checking out books, building forts out of pillows, and reading books together.  

Recess: We are still trying to earn back 4-square, but we also have other games like tag.  

Music: This week we are working on our winter program and we have some fun stuff planned out for you guys.  There's some action, fun, and last but not least, music!

Writing: Some people are finishing their "If I were President" story.  Other people are free writing.  The stories are very creative.  That means we are the Creativores.  

PE: We played battleship.  We really need to work on team work.  We played island tag.  

Language Arts: We are trying to finish up reading our chapter books and we are almost done! First we read the chapter.  Second we write words and a summary.  Last we answer a questions and move onto another chapter.

Art: This week we are doing something SECRET but we can tell you about the other stuff like writing, science, social studies, and the other stuff.  

Math Games: Mrs. Price has let us choose from a variety of math games including multiplication war.  

Here is our turkey fruit from the Thanksgiving Feast!  

Week of November 13

Language Arts:  We are still working on the election books.  We started a new method of reading them.  It is reading completely independent.

Math: We had a lot of fun this week with math.  We learned about factors and multiples.  The fourth graders were multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers.

Writing:  We have been writing a story about what we would do or change if we ever become president.  It is very very very very very fun!

Science: We made two things bubble and we found out what liquids mix and what doesn't mix.  We learned about density of liquids and made layers.  We are now creating our own projects.  

Social Studies: We have been learning about all the presidents by reading a story with funny phrases.  We had a test on them today.

French: We have been learning about how to say numbers in French.

PE: PE is fun but we have had some problems.  We also played games like battle ship and hamburger.  We sometimes played 4 square to try to earn it back for recess.  

Week of November 5th

It was an exciting week for the Creators.  After many weeks of long, hard work, we were rewarded with a win in both the race for Head of School and Secretary.  Our flyers, commercials, buttons, t-shirts, speeches, and signs all paid off for the Endeavor Party.  We were all excellent winners, nicely congratulating the Pig Party on a job well-done.  Here are our Endeavor Party leaders.

Math: We learned how to multiply big numbers like 62 x 7 and bigger ones.  We also started a new fact practice on a website.  

Science: We tested to see what happens when you mix Sierra Mist with Smarties, Skittles, Mentos and jelly beans.  It didn't go as high as we expected.  

Language Arts: This week we wrote our book reports.  We had to write the characters, setting, problem, solution, and summary.  We also had to write 2 paragraphs to find similarities and differences with our current book and another one we have read.  

Social Studies: We also started learning the presidents in order.  To learn them, we are using this funny book called Yo, Millard Fillmore!  This book tells a funny story and gives certain words to help us remember.  It is fun!

Week of October 26

Social Studies: We are almost done with the election.  We had a debate in Gathering on Friday.  We also showed our commercials to the school.  We have a good feeling that we are going to win.

Language Arts: Most people are reading chapters 8 and 9 in their books.  We also worked on our book reports.  We had to do a summary and our best paragraph writing.

Math: We did x 11s and x 12s.  Mrs. Price showed us a trick with 11s that is kind of fun!  We also did the stock market game and it was awesome.  

Writing: We are writing about "If I Were President."  We have to write 5 paragraphs from the outlines we made.  We are doing great.

Science: In science, we are working still on Chemistry.  We did some experiments and we went through the Scientific Method.  We mixed Borax, baking soda, and vinegar.  It only fizzed and didn't blow up like we thought it would.

Gathering: This week was our First Friday Gathering.  We said the pledge and sang the Star Spangled Banner and made a video to send to Mrs. Dumler's husband and the others in his troop in Afghanistan.  We also had a debate for our election coming up.  We went to special classes.  

Homework: For homework we've been working on our packet like usual.  Also, some people asked for extra homework pages so they worked on that too.

Brownie Points: We have 4 brownie points.  That means 8 more to go!

Halloween: We had a great Halloween parade and party.  We worked on fun pages that day that worked on math and other things.  Some of us also made a cool ghost picture with our feet.  

Week of October 22

Writing: Already people are working on their second story some people are already done!!!! They are on their third of course... 

Math: Last week we investigated making squares using tangrams.  We had to make different sized squares and then figure out the area of them.  Some were really easy.  We could just use the small square and put them on top of the squares we made.  We knew those were just the squares used for square roots.  Some squares we couldn't measure like that though.  We had to break the small square into triangles and then measure using the triangles.  We found that there were squares made of 2, 8, 32, and 72 square units.  It was cool to discover this and try to find the square root of these numbers.  

Reading: For reading people have been working hard and there still working on their story's.  Hopefully we get new books in about a couple of months, years or even days... HOPEFULLY!

Science: This week we made gloup and are still studying chemistry. We also made bouncy balls.  

Social Studies:We are still working on the election. So far, We've told our speeches to the the fifth grade class, the kindergarten class, first grade class, and the second grade class. After the speeches, we gave them flyers and pins that said,"Vote for Olivia and Zoe" and has a picture of them. We've already registered voters. Last week, we visited the republican headquarters, Jake Fey and Debbie Regala.

Democratic Senator Debbie Regala and City Councilman (running for State Rep) Jake Fey speak

Republican Headquarters

Lunch at the Downtown Tacoma Farmers' Market

Brownie Points: We had a brownie party on Tuesday and they had white chocolate chips. Today we earned 2 brownie points. I hope we can have another brownie party soon!

Book fair: Our school has started a book fair and it is very very fun! The books are Scholastic books and there are many other things like erasers, pens, posters, and of course BOOKS!!!!!

Seabury Students reading the Declaration of Independence on the way back to school!