Thursday, September 27, 2007

PIZZA FRIDAY and STREAM STUDY TOMORROW!!

Pizza slices $1.00 each.

YUMMY!

We are still in need of a few drivers for tomorrow's field trip to Dash Point State Park Stream Study. If you are available, please feel free to call the school tomorrow and let Mr. G. and me know. Thank you so very much. We greatly appreciate YOU!

ONLY SOCIAL STUDIES AND LANGUAGE ARTS TONIGHT !

Homework for the Explorers: All Verb packets, Wordly Wise Lesson 3 and The Write Stuff are to be turned in tomorrow, if they have not been turned in already.

Homework for the Navigators: Social Studies Packet Week 4: A Map Grid and Index AND the colored distorted Mercator map is due tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

It's a small world after all !

We've been learning all about the Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemispheres. We now know all about the 0 degree of the Prime Meridian with its longitudinal meridians running east and west which ultimately intersect at the North and South Poles respectively. We have learned about the parallel latitude lines emanating to the north and south from the 0 degrees Equator. The grapefruits and oranges brought in by the students, were marked with coordinates in class. We then scored them to prove that the longitutinal lines do intersect and the latitudional ones are indeed parallel. They were then cut according to the Prime Meridian for the eastern and western hemispheres and then the Equator to illustrate the northern and southern hemisphers. Differences in the types of maps with their respective distortions have led to incredible classroom discussions.It has been a fascinating time in Geography and Social Studies. All of the Navigators and Explorers have been thoroughly enjoying it.

Recently I shared my favorite Geography video with the classes on the 5 themes of Geography. Like the old ABC Wide World of Sports theme song stated, "Spanning the globe to bring you the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat", this National Geographic movie does precisely that. It is especially pertinent to current global interdependence as dictated by the geography of various countries. It was riveting and educational. If any of you would like to view it for your family's educational purposes, please feel free to let me know. It is that good!

DASH POINT

STREAM PROJECT

THIS FRIDAY !

DRIVERS

ARE STILL NEEDED!

Students received their next week's spelling words today. Please ask your Explorer to share them with you. They are in their binder. SPELLING TEST on TUESDAY.

Congrats to the students who received 100% on this week's spelling tests!! GREAT JOB to ALL the Explorers. Everyone did excellent work on their spelling. Keep up the great job!

HOMEWORK TONIGHT:

Math: All math homework was completed in class today.

Science: Please check Mr. G.'s website.

TUESDAY, September 25, 2007

Welcome

to my

world!

Today is one of those fantastic days where your incredible students did an excellent job at all of the challenging work presented to them.

I do have a hilarious vignette to share with you all that illustrates the mind of a gifted child. Nearly every day I start with an "On This Day in History" segment which we discuss in depth. Students are then to write a response to the question, "Why is this significant?" They are to rewrite the question in the form of the answer.

Today we had a number of exciting historical events. I let the students select one historical item celebrated today and then write about it. Here are some of the selections: From China, today celebrates T 'u-ti Kung's birthday which, according to Chinese folklore, is the earth god. The festival, with its famous "moon pies", celebrates the harvest on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. Today was also the anniversary of the first American Newspaper which was published on September 25, 1690 by Benjamin Harris. The newspaper was considered offensive and ordered for immediate suppression! In addition, today, in 1981, the first woman Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, was sworn in. (I remember it well, even though I was very young). One exciting historical event today was that of Greenwich Mean Time which began today in 1676. Amazingly, two very accurate clocks were set in motion at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. (It is now called Universal Time). In 1884 Greenwich Mean Time became the standard for the world. Today in Korea is the Chusok gala celebration for the Autumn harvest thanksgiving moon festival . Moon cakes are also served. This important day where Koreans pay homage to ancestors and express gratitude to guarding spirits for another year of rich crops has been observed since Silla Dynasty which was the beginning of the first millennium! On a sports note, on this day in history, the Major League Baseball's First Double Header was played in 1882. That makes today the 125th anniversary! (I believe there's a double header being played tonight in Safeco field against the Cleveland Indians). In addition, today marks the "discovery" of the Pacific Ocean in 1513 by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador who climbed atop a peak in the Darien (present day Panama) claiming it as the South Sea in the name of the King of Spain. Also, today would have been Christopher Reeve's 55th birthday. He died on October 10, 2004. He was truly a Superman in my mind for in his courage, dignity and grace as he lived the final phase of his life. In Rwanda, today is their "Republic Day", for in 1961, the referendum abolished the monarchy. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were established on this day in history in 1890. (If you haven't been there, you really should take your child and go exploring! It is magnificent!) With all of those amazing items for On This Day in History there is also, in very small print at the bottom of the page, a listing of notable birthdays, one of whom was Barbara Walters. Out of all of these historical selections, one of my students selected Barbara Walters. The information on the "On This Day in History" said:

"Barbara Walters, 76, journalist, television host ("20/20", "The View") born Boston, Mass, September 25, 1931. "

My student wrote:

"Barbara Walters: This is significant because a 76 year old has eyesight as 20/20. Mine is 20/25. She was born before World War II and she can still see with 20/20 vision!"

Tonight's homework is the following:

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Due on Thursday: Students are to complete their Wordly Wise Lesson 3, their Helping Verb packet, and their Write Stuff newsletters.

Social Studies:

Explorers are to complete by Friday, Geography Packet Week 3.

Navigators are to work on their Geography Week 4 packet. This is due on Friday.

MONDAY, September 24th

Please take a moment to view my two weekend postings:

Dash Point State Park Field Trip Dates

and the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge field trip photos.
I hope you enjoy both of these important field trip postings.








SPELLING TEST TOMORROW !



















Homework tonight is:
Math and Science.

My math class has an Everyday Math xeroxed sheet on hexagon and rhombus fractions. We reviewed this sheet in math class today. This assignment is due tomorrow.

Science homework: Please refer to Mr. G's webpage.

FIELD TRIP DATES DASH POINT STATE PARK

FLAG THESE DATES !

DASH POINT STATE PARK

STREAM PROJECT

FIELD TRIP DATES.

Here are the upcoming Dash Point Stream Study dates. If you are interested in being a driver for any or all of them, please let me know as soon as possible. My heartfelt thanks to all of you who drove two weeks ago. We simply could not do this project without your support and vehicle!

SEPTEMBER:

This Friday, September28th


OCTOBER:

Friday, October 5th

(We will have our OPI field trip Oct. 10-12 and the following week (Oct 18th and 19th) there will be no school due to a 3 day teacher inservice for the Washington Association of Educators of the Talented and Gifted which will be in Richland, WA this year).

Friday, October 26th

NOVEMBER:

Friday, November 9th

Friday, November 16th
(No School on November 22-23 due to Thanksgiving Break) and November 30th we will be having an all school field trip to Settle).

DECEMBER:

December 7th- We will not have school due to report card parent-teacher conferences.
Friday, December 14th

There is a possibility of Thursday, Dec. 20th, since Friday the 21st is a half day due to the start of Winter Break!

The first two Dash Point State Park field trips of 2008 will be in:

January, 2008

Friday, January 18th
Friday, January 25th

This is as far in the 2008 calendar that I feel comfortable posting. On a regular basis, there will be more Dash Point State Park field trip dates in 2008; however, I will wait until later to post the remaining 2008 dates.

NISQUALLY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE FIELD TRIP PHOTOS

Here are some additional fabulous field trip photos !