Mrs. Burns' Shining Stars

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Pioneer Farms

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Mystery Reader 3/3/10

noreply@blogger.com (Contact Information) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:08:00 +0000

Thank you to Dr. Ogata, Carson's dad, for reading the story Happy Birthday To You to the class. It was a great way to honor Carson's birthday. Carson was also the Star of the week. He shared photos and his favorite things with the class.

Math Problem Solving

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Directed Art Lesson: Drawing Nutcrackers

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Everyday Mathematics Exploration

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Art Lesson: Analogous Color Schemes and Weaving

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Art Lesson: Triad Color Schemes

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Science-To-Go Fossil Exploration Lab

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Art Lesson: Motion in Art

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Comparing Parallel and Series Circuits

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Harvest Celebration

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Planting Bulbs

noreply@blogger.com (Contact Information) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:46:00 +0000

The PTA volunteers have been busy cleaning up the school garden. Each class planted bulbs in the garden. Some students had never seen a bulb before! It was fun getting our hands dirty.

Writer's Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Contact Information) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:42:00 +0000

We have started Writer's Workshop. We meet each day for a 15-20 minute mini-lesson. Then the students go off and write for 30-45 minutes in their writing notebooks. Finally, we meet back at the meeting area and authors share what they have been working on.

Building a Circuit

noreply@blogger.com (Contact Information) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:47:00 +0000

Our unit of study on electricity is off to a great start. Mr. Townsend, an electrician for Puget Sound Electric, has already visited our classroom for the second hour long session. We will have four sessions this month with Mr. Townsend. The first session focused on thinking about electricity and its properties, what electricity can do, and safety. In our second session with Mr. Townsend the students built their own circuits. They learned how to use a battery holder, a light bulb socket, and a Fahnestock clip. Students also learned a troubleshooting technique to check their circuits. This technique gives students practice in isolating the elements of a circuit and figuring out, by a process of elimination, which part is malfunctioning. Once students had gained some understanding of circuits and how they work, we discovered that conductors are materials that allow electricity to pass through them. We also learned that insulators are materials through which electricity does not flow---at least not in detectable amounts. To determine if a material (paper clip, golf tee, brass screw, chalk, marble, aluminum nail, pipe cleaner, wire nail) is a conductor or an insulator, students placed each material between the two wires of the circuit tester. Science is Super!

Mystery Reader 10/07/09

noreply@blogger.com (Contact Information) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Mr. Thieme, Cooper's Dad, surprised the students as our Mystery Reader of the Week. The students enjoyed listening to the story Enemy Pie and the great personal stories Mr. Thieme shared about his family. It is fun to see how excited the students get each Wednesday when I give them the five clues that help them identify the Mystery Reader.

Salmon Dissection

noreply@blogger.com (Contact Information) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:54:00 +0000

Wow! The students had the amazing opportunity to observe a salmon dissection during our first Science-To-Go lab. We will have two more labs this year, which are funded by the Sunset PTA. I was proud of the students' interest in the lab and the way they "zoomed in" to observe the organs even when they smelled a bit fishy.