Super Bowl Weekend!

A Week in Review

January 28 - 31

 

 

Dear Families in Room 210,

 

This was an interesting week, as we had no school on Monday and then I was out sick for three days! In my thirteen years of teaching, I have never had to take three sick days in row. Wow! It was a bad flu, but I'm happy to be back. The guest teachers left great notes about the students and the huge welcome I got upon my return felt wonderful! Thanks for all the birthday wishes and gifts. Thank you cards will be coming home with students, as they did during the holidays, so watch for those! :) I'm just so appreciative for these students and how they helped the guest teachers, worked hard, and kept the class running smoothly in my absence. It is good to be back!

 

Virtue Awards:

Mrs. Hatlestad's Class has earned a Virtue Award for displaying the virtues of respect and helpfulness. While I was out sick, they helped the guest teachers and kept the class running smoothly. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was a realistic fiction piece, Darnell Rock Reporting by Walter Dean Myers. We used the target skill persuasion and the target strategy summarize to deepen our comprehension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Math:

We wrapped up our Unit 5 Addition and Subtraction of Fractions this week. Students worked to order fractions from greatest to smallest, as well as compare and order fractions and decimals. We ended the week reviewing for the end-of-unit assessment!

 

 

 

Social Studies/Writing:

As a class, students created a rubric for a writing assignment in Social Studies. The assignment is based on the hands-on activities that students participated in last week. Students wrote letters describing their experience, focusing on the descriptions of the "places" they "visited" and how it compares to their life today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science:

Due to the short week and the Taproot Assembly on Thursday, students did not have Science this week with Ms. Keenan. They will pick it back up next week.

 

 

Thanks again for the birthday wishes!

 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

10 Feb - Big Picture School Information Night

14 Feb - International School Lottery Application Due

17-21 Feb - No School, Mid-Winter Break

14 Mar - No School, Secondary Professional Development Day (Elem. non-paid)

7-11 Apr - No School, Spring Break

23 May - No School, 1/2 day paid Professional Day

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

23June - Last Day of School (unless additional snow days occur)

 



A Tour of Colonial Williamsburg

A Week in Review

January 21 - 24

 

Happy Friday! We may have had a 4-day week, but we packed a lot of learning into it! Here is what we've been up to:

 

Virtue Awards:

Anjali has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of excellence and reliability. Anjali is always focused during instruction, seeking ways to go above and beyond, and pushing herself to achieve her goals. Keep up the amazing work!

 

 

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was from a read aloud we read earlier in the year, "The Dog Newspaper" from Five Pages A Day by Peg Kehret. Rereading this excerpt allowed us to deepen our comprehension even more as we used the target skill fact and opinion and the target strategy analyze/evaluate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing:

We worked to revise our parent and grandparent essays this week. I'm so impressed with how seriously students are taking their Heritage Project and the effort they're putting forth. Reading the essays has been amazing! I love the stories they are choosing to share about their family.

 

Math:

Wow! It was a jam-packed week in Math! We continued our fraction learning as we added/subtracted fractions with unlike denominators, had more practice with simplifying our answers, and began understanding how fractions and decimals are equivalent. We used our background knowledge of pennies to dollars to help make this concept more understandable.

 

 

 

Science:

Ms. Keenan and our students learned that their new challenge for this Science Unit is "Pollution Solution". Students will examine water quality and how it impacts us. They were introduced to "Russell" a water quality investigator and learned what his job entails. Students will help Russell investigate suspcious looking water in a nearby creek.

 

Social Studies:

In Chapter 9: Life in Colonial Williamsburg, students took a "walking tour" in order to learn about daily life in colonial Virginia. They visited six stations, each represented an actual site at Williamsburg. At each station, students examined written and visual information and completed a colonial task.

 

 

As you can see, we had a busy week - full of learning and FUN!

 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

29 Jan and 10 Feb - Big Picture School Information Night

27 Jan - No School, Elementary Teachers Professional Development Day

14 Feb - International School Lottery Application Due

17-21 Feb - No School, Mid-Winter Break

14 Mar - No School, Secondary Professional Development Day (Elem. non-paid)

7-11 Apr - No School, Spring Break

23 May - No School, 1/2 day paid Professional Day

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

23June - Last Day of School (unless additional snow days occur)

Market Day!

A Week in Review

January 13 - 17

 

Happy Friday! We've accomplished a lot this week in our learning! Fractions are challenging us to think, our Social Studies chapter on slavery caused us to pause and reflect, and our Friday Market Day was a success! Read on to find out more about our week.

 

Virtue Awards:

Jaclyn and Anushri have earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of helpfulness and cleanliness. They volunteered their recess time to clean all of the hot cocoa mugs from our "Cocoa and Current Events" session on Thursday! Thank you ladies!

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was LAFFF by Lensey Namioka. Students worked on the target skill, "story structure" and identified the elements of this science fiction story. Students also used the target strategy infer/predict to deepen their comprehension.

 

 

Writing:

We spent time this week looking at an example Heritage Essay that I wrote about my mom when she was ten. We reviewed proper interview protocol, drafted our essays, revised and edited them. I can't wait to read our students' writing!

 

 

 

 

 

Math:

Students worked hard this week, as our fraction unit became more challenging. Students created equivalent fractions, they learned to simplify and unsimplify, they also worked to add/subtract fractions with unlike denominators. We learned terms like Greatest Common Factor and Least Common Multiple.

 

 

 

Science:

Ms. Keenan and our students used an environscape to  simulate how pollutants enter our water shed. Using a model, students "polluted" the neighborhood with things like antifreeze (green sprinkles), dog waste (chocolate sprinkles), and soap (red sprinkles). Then they "made it rain" with spray bottles and observed where all of the pollutants went when they were 'washed away'.

 

Social Studies:

Social Studies was tough this week, not because it was academically challenging, but because it was emotionally challenging. We finished reading Chapter 8: Facing Slavery and learned more about the harsh treatment that the West Africans were forced to endure during the European slave trade. We studied their journey from capture in West Africa, to the nightmare journey on ships during the Middle Passage, and to their life as slaves on plantations in America. It wasn't an easy chapter, but the students handled it with maturity and respect.

 

Remember there is no school on Monday, January 20th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

22, 29 Jan and 10 Feb - Big Picture School Information Night
20 Jan - No School in observance of MLK Jr. Day

23 Jan - Odle Middle School Information Night

27 Jan - No School, Elementary Teachers Professional Development Day

14 Feb - International School Lottery Application Due

17-21 Feb - No School, Mid-Winter Break

14 Mar - No School, Secondary Professional Development Day (Elem. non-paid)

7-11 Apr - No School, Spring Break

23 May - No School, 1/2 day paid Professional Day

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

23June - Last Day of School (unless additional snow days occur)

Happy New Year!

A Week in Review

January 6 - 10

 

 

Happy New Year! I hope that you had a great Winter Break, we have transitioned back into the swing of things quite easily in Room 210!

 

Virtue Awards:

Gracie and Shelby have earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of enthusiasm and creativity. Gracie and Shelby decorated our classroom library for Valentine's Day, spreading a little holiday cheer and brightening up our reading space!

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was Lunch Money by Andrew Clements. Students used the target strategy "monitor/clarify" to ensure comprehension as they read and used the target skill "identifying author's purpose". As we made claims about the author's viewpoint and purpose, students were challenged to use evidence to support their claim and explain how the evidence they cited supported their claim.

 

 

 

 

Writing:

We started our Expository Essay Writing Unit this week. Students used their Heritage Essays (writing about self) to work on elaborating on their ideas. They added relevant and descriptive details to their essays.

 

Math:

Students continued their work in Unit 5: Addition and Subtraction with Fractions. We worked this week on converting mixed numbers into improper fractions and improper fractions into mixed numbers. Students also worked to add mixed numbers and subtract mixed numbers while having to ungroup.

 

 

 

Science:

Ms. Keenan and our students started their new Science unit this week, "Pollution Solution". Students brainstormed the ways they use water inside and outside of their homes. They also learned the difference between the surface water system and the sewer system. This unit is centered around water quality.

 

 

 

Social Studies:

Not only did students wrap up the first unit in Social Studies (chapters 1, 4-7) by taking an end-of-unit test, they also started working in Chapter 8: Facing Slavery. We began Chapter 8 by examining personal dilemmas (having to make a choice between two equally unattractive choices) that they've faced. Students will connect their own dilemmas to those that West Africans faced.

 

 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

14 & 15 Jan - International School Information Night (7-8:30pm)

16 Jan - Chinook Middle School Information Night (6:30-8:30pm) at Ringdall

16, 22, 29 Jan and 10 Feb - Big Picture School Information Night 
20 Jan - No School in observance of MLK Jr. Day

23 Jan - Odle Middle School Information Night

27 Jan - No School, Elementary Teachers Professional Development Day

14 Feb - International School Lottery Application Due

17-21 Feb - No School, Mid-Winter Break

14 Mar - No School, Secondary Professional Development Day (Elem. non-paid)

7-11 Apr - No School, Spring Break

23 May - No School, 1/2 day paid Professional Day

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

23June - Last Day of School (unless additional snow days occur)

Winter Break is Here!

A Week in Review

December 16 - 20

 

It's hard to believe that 2013 is coming to an end, but here we are, starting Winter Break! We had a busy week of learning and wrapping up projects before we have two weeks off to rest and rejuvenate for 2014!

 

Virtue Awards:

 

 

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this weeks was Cougars by Patricia Corrigan. We used the target skill: identifying main idea and details. This helped deepen our comprehension and gave us important practice in using evidence from the text to support our thinking. Our target strategy was monitoring and clarifying as we read, to ensure we understood what the author was telling us.

 

 

Writing:

We wrapped up our Poetry Workshop. Students wrote at least 10 poems over the last two weeks. They were hard at work revising for word choice, fluency, and voice. I'm so impressed with the effort they put into this unit!

 

 

Math:

Fractions is what it is all about! Students worked to add and subtract fractions this week. We also used algebraic notation and solved for unknown numerators and denominators. We will pick right back up at this point when we return in January.

 

 

 

 

Social Studies:

Social Studies groups finished their "Billboard Advertisements" for their assigned colony, each group gave a sales pitch, and then students chose which colony they would want to move to. We discussed the reasons and what factors were important to students when they made their choice.

 

Science:

THANK YOU to those parents that were able to make it to our GO PUBLIC presentations on Wednesday! Our students were so very excited to present their research to you as they chose the best site for the Evergreen Development Company to build their apartment complex. They worked hard to use evidence and sound reasoning to make their decision.

 

 

 

Thank you for this amazing group of students. I am thankful that I get to teach them each and every day. They are a special group that never ceases to amaze me. 

 

Wishing you and your family a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year! Enjoy your Winter Break!

 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:
21 Dec - 5 January - Winter Break

20 Jan - No School in observance of MLK Jr. Day

27 Jan - No School, Elementary Teachers Professional Development Day

17-21 Feb - No School, Mid-Winter Break

14 Mar - No School, Secondary Professional Development Day (Elem. non-paid)

7-11 Apr - No School, Spring Break

23 May - No School, 1/2 day paid Professional Day

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

20 June - Last Day of School (unless snow days occur)