Week of November 3

The students had a great time at our Halloween parade and party last week.  Here are some pictures from the afternoon.  Thank you to the parents who helped at the party!

We created cells out of Model Magic clay this week.  The students had to label each part of the animal cell on their models. We also discussed why we were making these models, after already labeling the parts of a cell on a paper.  With the different modalities involved, we are hoping to meet the needs of different learners.    

We also took part in a mock trial with the Narwhals.  The case was between MGM and Honda on whether a commercial they made infringed on the copyright of the James Bond movies.  Most of the students were lawyers, witnesses or the judge.  After hearing all of the evidence, we became the jury and spent time deliberating the case.  At the end, it was a hung jury...no consensus was reached.  We will deliberate again next week.

Here are some reflections from the week:

"I need to get better at cursive."

"I did great on the C.M.L test."

"I think I did well on math because I learned some new things this week."

"I understand all three branches of government and what role all three branches play."

"I think my language arts could use some improvement."

"I need to get moving on some goals."

"I think I did good on Wordly Wise."

"Homework went bad because Wordly Wise was hard."

"I am going to work on my math skills."

"I think language arts went well.  We discussed very good, and we helped each other read."

"I also picked up trash in the lunch room, because that was the act of kindness."

Week of October 13

 On Tuesday, the Peacocks and Narwhals were visited by Mr. Robert Anderson, former Lieutenant Governor of Iowa as a guest speaker. Mr. Anderson talked to us about the unusual dynamics of our government, particularly in the use of local government in decision making. He was great about answering all of our questions.

 

Some questions we asked:

"Which college did you go to?"

"As a lieutenant governor, what are your duties?"

"Does every state have a governor?"

"How was the experience of being lieutenant governor for you?"

"What qualifications do you have to have to run for governor in Iowa?"

 

This visit worked well with our study of the articles of the constitution where we have focused on learning about all of the intricacies of how the constitution impacts our government. We've learned a lot about what the president can do and why we have a senate and congress.

 

On Wednesday we made ice cream sundaes out of model magic, then made them out of real ice cream! Everyone made their own variation of a sundae by using different colors or combining colors. 

 

 

 

 

 

Week of October 6

The kids had a great time at the Seattle Art Museum today.  They saw the pop art exhibit there.  The students were asked to write a paragraph when we returned about their favorite pop art piece.  Here are their paragraphs. 

       My favorite piece of pop art was an ice bag.  It was made by Claus Oldenburg.  It was made up of cloth.  It inflated and then deflated.  It was a very interesting sculpture. 

       I liked John Cumberlain's steel sculpture.  It was like a block of steel.  It was very cool!  I liked it better than the red one. That was a cool artist. 

      I had two favorite artists.  Margarita Cabrera and Andy Warhol are my two favorites.  For Andy Warhol, it was the sparkly shoes painting.  For Margarita Cabrera it was a slug bug, old car, yellow car.  Those two are my favorite artists of all time. 

      I really like Vanishing Cream by Edward Ruscha.  I think it was interesting he used egg yolk to make it.  I also think it was interesting he called it Vanishing Cream.  I also like the Made in USA by the same person.  He used paint splatters.  I think it was really cool. 

       My favorite art work was Hair Portrait # 20.  I like it because it was sparkly.  It's a picture with ladies' faces that have rhinestones on them.  I also liked it because it was mostly black and white.

       I chose Hair Portrait #20.  The artist was Mickalene Thomas, who is my favorite pop artist.  It was crazy.  It had a lot of sparkles. 

     What I like about Yellow Cab is that its color is my favorite color (yellow).  It is my favorite type of car (bug). The artist is Margarita Cabrera.  It was made in 2004. 

     My favorite piece was Yellow Cab by Margarita Cabrera.  It was my favorite piece because it was simple.  Also it was my favorite color.  Another reason is that it is a Volkswagen.  That's why it is my favorite. 

     My favorite art piece is Yellow Cab.  It is made by Margarita Cabrera.  It was made in 2004.  It is a sculpture.  Yellow Cab is my favorite piece. 

     Yellow Cab, from Margarita Cabrera was my favorite.  It was because it was made of some leather-type stuff, well most of it.  Second, it was a full-sized Volkswagen Beetle!  Last, you could probably drive it if it had an engine.  That is why Yellow Cab, from Margarita Cabrera is my favorite work of art. 

Week of September 29

 

This week the Peacocks started learning about the creation of the U.S. constitution.  Our reading of a Jean Fritz book all about the planning and writing of the U.S. constitution will prepare us to do some summary writing. For art, we started creating Pop Art collages using commonly recognized images from media. We also created historical postcards depicting important events from our fiction reading from September.

 

 

In our science experiment, they learned about titration! This process involves breaking down iodine into a new form by introducing vitamin C.

 

Here you can some of us testing for the vitamin C levels in lemon juice by using an iodine solution and a little starch. By testing how many drops of fresh lemon juice, orange juice, or store bought juice it takes to change the solution from purple to white, we could determine which had high concentration of vitamin C.

 

 

Below, a few of our students are creating a starch testing solution.

 

 

 

In these tests, we recorded how much vitamin C it took to clear the discoloring that iodine causes when starch is added. The results allows us to evaluate which of these vitamin C sources had the most vitamin C.

 

 

 

The week wrapped up with a big First Friday Gathering where we were joined by the Middle School students for some presentations, snacks, games, and enrichment activities.

Here are some reflections from the week:

"What I want to work on...more acts of kindness."

"I loved art this week. Art is awesome. Robert Rauschenberg is amazing."

"I'm going to improve on everything next week. You can always improve on everything."

"I think French went well this week. French was fun, very fun, and hard."

"Math is awesome. I love doing decimals."

"In math I could put in a little more effort."

"Science went well because we got to do experiments."

"Things are going smoothly this week."

"I think I have excelled at reading. "

"I think this week's homework was either simple, or I am really smart."

"Also, P.E. was really fun with Ms. Nancy, we played messy yard."

"I did my work quick. I had a lot of fun."

Week of September 22

The students finished their art projects from last week and began new ones this week.  Last week, we asked the students to do a slightly different type of self-portrait.  We took pictures of the back of their heads and had them cut out these pictures and draw what they are looking at.  The students were very creative in producing these pictures.  Here are just a few of them.  The rest are hanging in our classroom and will be put into their portfolio for the year. 

"I like the back of the head self portraits, because it is like it comes to life and you can use your imagination to draw anything you want."

 

Our new art project is working on pop art.  After a brief introduction of pop art (be sure to ask what pop art is short for), students got to create their own picture.  Using only numbers, the students used crayons and water colors to create the first of several pop art pieces.  Here are some pictures from the initial stages and some of the students' thoughts on pop art. 

 

"I am really enjoying pop art.  I think it is cool artists can take anything and make it more interesting."

 

"I really like the number pictures, because everyone can do their own thing."

 

"I love pop art.  I love the idea of popular art."

 

"I think art was fun because I never did pop art and I like to paint."

 

"I <3 pop art!"

 

"Pop art is fun because it's popular and anything popular is fun."

 

"I like pop art because you can create art from anything."

 

In math, we completed a math challenge on division.  The students were asked to think of a 3 digit number, write it twice to make a 6 digit number, divide that number by 7, divide the answer by 11, then finally, divide by 13.  The students quickly discovered a pattern.  We also asked the students to try to figure out why it worked.  Few students were able to come up with a reason, but we had lots of good thinking happening! 

"Our math challenge was so cool.  Apparently you can do any 3 digit number twice like 789,789 then divide it by 7 then 11 then 13.  It works because if you do 1,001 times 789 it will equal 789,789 and same with any number."

 

"Math was hard but it was fun."

Here are some reflections from the week:
"Art went well this week."
"I didn't bring any Seabury or Seahawks gear today because I forgot."
"What I want to work on next week is NO more run on sentences."
"I loved writing too.  It seems super exciting and I'm already on my rough draft."
"Art was bad because I don't have a vivid imagination."
"The main thing that went well this week was art."
"I am proud of cooperating with my group."
"I think I need to work on reading my historical fiction."
"What I am going to work on is taking less time doing work."
"Art and math went well this week because I made a math problem out of art."
"I should have paid more attention to my homework."
"Writing was good this week.  I made a good country."

Week of September 15

The students shared their healthy food posters in Gathering this week.  Here are just a few of the posters.  The students hung them around the lunchroom, so come check them all out!

 

 

The students also presented public service announcements in Gathering, also on eating healthy food.  Here are a few pictures from each group and the messages they wanted others to get from their PSA.

 "If you eat junk food you will get big and fat, so eat nutrients and you will be healthy and strong!"

"Eat your veggies people and exercise."

"Apples are healthy, eggs are healthy, kale is healthy, and bread is healthy."

"Eat healthy!  People will tease you if you don't."

 

Here are some of the reflections from the week:

 

"I am proud that I gave it my all."

"Last I haven't gotten in trouble as often."

"My poster was not done on Thursday and some parts have to be omitted to finish it."

"I am proud of math, poster and the play and social studies."

"Next week, I won't be so impetuous when I do my timed test.  I'll try to finish the projects in the time you give me and working on having a growth mindset."

"I want to work on spelling.  Spelling is definitely not my strong suit."

"What I could work on is writing."

"I think our class did a great job showing our posters."

"I have done my homework without being asked."

"I am so proud of moving up a math group."

"We are having a fun time finding the values of letters."

"I hope by the end of next week I'll be even better than I was this week."