This week, we continued our journey to the past as we learned about the daily lifestyle of children in the mid 1800’s.  The kids enjoyed hearing which games were common before the rise of technology and even made up their own low-tech games.  We highlighted the local town of Latourell and learned about the colorful family that founded it.  Our field trip on Friday gave us the opportunity to imagine walking the same streets when it was a bustling party town.

Portfolio Night is Wednesday.  Arrive any time during the one-hour slot you indicated.  When you arrive, your child will lead you through 4 stations which you can visit at any pace you choose.  At the end of the night, you’ll have a box of things to take home.  Please do not arrive after 7:30, as we must close up at 8:00.  We will not distribute progress reports on Wednesday.  They will be mailed the week after school dismisses.

This time of year, we always get questions about a child’s class placement for the coming year.  The default is that we’ll keep our current kindergarteners and 1^st graders.  However, if you have concerns about your child’s current placement, DeeDee Hanes is always willing to hear your concerns.

Here’s some information about summer classes being held right here at school!

An online sign up for summer enrichment classes is now available.   Courses in grades K-6 are currently available!   To register for the classes click on the “Summer Enrichment” link in the top right hand corner of the district web page.

http://corbett.k12.or.us/summer_enrichment/Summer%20Enrichment%20Class%20List.php

Once on the page follow these steps:

1.       First, click on the “Sign Up” button and make a user name and password for yourself.

2.       Second, click on the “Sign In” button and select courses for your student(s) to attend.

3.       Pay for summer enrichment courses at the Grade School office.

May 25^th:  Friday School.  Larch Mountain field trip.  Return permission slips ASAP.

May 28^th:  Holiday:  No School

May 30^th:  Big Bounce!  (A bouncy house celebration of our jog-a-thon success).  Wear

something you can jump in!

May 30^th:  Primary picnic in the back field.  Bring field toys.

May 30^th:  Portfolio Night.  Return your time-request forms ASAP.

June 1^st:  Last day of school.  Dismissal at 12:30

We are in the midst of a unit about the history of the local area.  Your child should be able to tell you all about “heritage” as well as the 3 main reasons people originally came to the Corbett area.  We sent home a questionnaire and family tree for you to fill out with your child.  Please return it Monday if you haven’t already.

We had a driving field trip around Corbett this week.  The guide is a wonderful local historian named Chuck Rollins.  We found out that Corbett used to be a collection of 11 schools (almost all of which burned down at some point).  We also heard stories about “the olden days.”  If you never have, please check out the 3 display cases in the Corbett Country Market that contain artifacts from our history.

Please remember to send kids with a water bottle, as we don’t have easy access to a drinking fountain!

On Tuesday, we had another lesson with the wonderful ECO (Ecology Classroom Outside) ladies Bethany and Sarah.  We went to our outdoor classroom on the back of our property and pulled out the invasive grasses that are threatening the native species.  ECO provides garden gloves and trowels, so we really looked the part of the hardworking gardeners.

During morning meeting, we have been talking about antonyms (also known as opposites).  The kids are really enjoying “the antonym game.”  This is where they read a short story and replace words with antonyms.  The stories always come out ridiculously funny.  Maybe you’d like to play this as a family.

Another new topic in morning meeting is the Venn Diagram.  This is a way to organize your knowledge about 2 things’ similarities and differences.  We have had a good time comparing children in our class.  Some of the kids have also been reading biographies of famous people and developing Venn Diagrams about what they’ve learned.

The district will be holding an informational meeting on Tuesday, May 1st at 7pm for district parents that are interested in sending their kids to our newly formed school at Springdale.  This is not a charter school, but more like a magnet school.  Corbett Arts Program at Springdale will open in the fall of 2012.  The focus of the school will be on the arts (visual and performing).  District parents will have the first choice of the limited number of seats at this school.  For more information please contact Lori Luna (lluna@corbett.k12.or.us) or rtrani (rtrani@corbett.k12.or.us).

Jog-a-thon was a huge success.  The kids returned to class hot, sweaty and various shades of red.  A group of amazing volunteers worked incredibly hard to help tally laps, dispense refreshments, calculate pledge totals and organize hundreds of forms.  Today, your child should have their original pledge form along with instructions on payment.  Please try hard to have all pledges returned to school by May 1^st.

Last weekend, we posted great pictures of the field trip on our website.  If you haven’t looked at them, please do!

http://corbett.k12.or.us/teacher-notes/ms-wolds-shaws-notes/

is the link to our site.  Click on the title of the article “Champoeg Field Trip” to see about 50 pictures.  The district website is also featuring a run-down and pictures of the amazing Oregon Trail simulation the intermediate grades did last week as well as articles on Springdale School and district accreditation.

You never know how children will try out their new science vocabulary.  After a few days of studying magnets, a child in our class proclaimed to our music teacher, “I am very attracted to you.”  Mrs. Swanson was a bit speechless, but when she came to us and we explained the new vocabulary words “attract” and “repel”, she saw that it was an innocent compliment.  Indeed magnets have been very “attractive” to all of us this week.  In addition to learning about how the north and south poles of a magnet attract and repel each other, we learned how to turn ordinary scissors into a magnet.  We’ve explored how compasses work and learned a song and a poem about magnets (yes, there really are such things!).

Wednesday was a wonderful day learning about pioneer lifestyle.  The bus ride was long (over an hour), but the kids were well-behaved and very patient.  We got to do so many fun things:  knead dough, spin wool, scrub on a washboard, see museums, sort beans, remove corn kernals, play games, and on and on and on.

Here’s a link to see the cabin we visited:

http://www.newellhouse.com/pioneercabin.htm.

Here’s a link to see Champoeg park, which we also visitied: http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_113.php

Check the class website over the weekend to see lots of pictures from our trip:

http://corbett.k12.or.us/teacher-notes/ms-wolds-shaws-notes/

We didn’t have time to see everything at these sites, so consider looking up their hours and going on a fun family field trip this summer.

Remember, our jog-a-thon is on the 17^th and 18^th.  The red dots jog on Tuesday and the blue dots on Wednesday.  Your child brought home a pink pledge form last week.  We told them to only ask close family members or friends to sponsor them.  Please return the pledge forms before the jog-a-thon and we’ll total up the amount to be collected from each person.  Remind your child to wear appropriate footwear on their jog-a-thon day.

Our magnet song is below!

Mrs. Shaw mshaw@corbett.k12.or.us

Mrs. Wold kwold@corbett.k12.or.us

Magnet
(Tune: Did You Ever See a Lassie?)
CHORUS:
Did you ever see a magnet,
A magnet, a magnet?
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?

On iron and steel,
Its pull is unreal!
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?

CHORUS

A magnet has action,
It’s called an attraction!
Did you ever see a magnet
Pull this way and that?

Here’s our new March poem:

March wind is a jolly fellow;
He likes to joke and play.
He turns umbrellas inside out
And blows men’s hats away.
He calls the pussy willows
And whispers in each ear,
“Wake up you lazy little seeds,
Don’t you know that spring is here.

62 wonderful guests came to our Authors’ Tea last week.We were so busy serving tea, we probably didn’t get a picture of everyone.

This was a special day for the primary classrooms of Corbett Grade School.  All year, we have been counting how many days of school we have had.  Today we reached the THRILLING number of 100.  Our parade was filled with the jubilant sounds of drums, recorders, guitars, triangles, trumpets, horns and many other instruments all playing at the same time.  Needless to say, the audiences lining the hallway were in awe!