The Middle Ages and Sir Cumference

Today in my math class we learned about Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter. It is an exciting way to teach the math concepts of the area and perimeter of a rectange, the area and circumference of a circle and how to use straight lines to measure curves.Ask your child what the story entailed. Here's a brief synopsis: When young Per visits her uncle Sir Cumference and his family, she learns how to play the game, "Inners and Edges." After she finds a clue linking the game to the mysterious castle on the island of Immeter, she must figure out how to find the perimeter and area of a circle to unlock the island's secret.



Mrs. Gellert's Math class homework for tonight: Two problems on the white sheet to find the area of a circle using the equation:
A=(1/2C) x r . I know they will all do extremely well!



In Social Studies today for the Navigators, I went on the web for an educational and informative Medieval game. It was

The Louvre

Here is some exciting news about next Tuesday's field trip

Literally a year ago I heard about the Louvre coming to Seattle and immediately set up a field trip for the school. This is the exclusive west coast exhibit of Roman Art from the Louvre. I have seen a preview of this exhibit and it is magnificent. We are all so fortunate to be going to this Seattle Art exhibit next Tuesday, March 26th. It will be a wonderful time!


Here is a link to the Seattle Art Museum's Louvre exhibit. http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/Exhibit/exhibit.asp


Here's what they had to say about the exhibit we'll be seeing a week from tomorrow.


This extraordinary selection of ancient art from Paris’s famed Musée du Louvre portrays nearly 300 years of imperial Roman life and history. The exhibition includes approximately 180 pieces—many that have never before traveled to the United States—from one of the richest collections of ancient Roman art in the world.
Visitors will meet emperors and members of the imperial court, elite and ordinary citizens, women and children, soldiers, gladiators, foreigners and slaves. Their lives and experiences are richly conveyed through a wide variety of media including monumental marble sculptures and reliefs, paintings and mosaics, bronze statuettes, jewelry, glass and silver implements. These objects demonstrate how the art of Rome shaped ancient life by representing its leaders and deities, defining public and private spaces, acculturating the conquered, and celebrating the dead. The exhibition also illustrates the varied roles that Roman art has played in the post-Classical period, and that it continues to play today.



This is a copy of the form that the office sent electronically to you today. I greatly appreciateyou signing the one from the office and sending back to school with your child post haste. Here is what the office e-mailed out to you today.





Seabury School
Field Trip Permission Slip
Dear Parent(s):

On Tuesday, March 25th, 2008, Explorer, Navigator, Beacon, Shark and Superstar students will be traveling to Seattle via private bus to visit the Seattle Art Museum’s exhibit Roman Art from the Louvre. Students will be leaving at approximately 8:30am to be on time for their 10:00am reservation and will return to Seabury by 2:00pm. The cost for this field trip is $12.00 and has been billed to your Seabury account.

Students should plan to bring a throwaway lunch and disposable beverage. Please have students dress for the weather in layers.

Please note that this is the class activity for the Navigators’, Explorers’, Beacons’, Sharks’ and Superstars’ school day. Students who choose not to attend the field trip should not come to school on Tuesday, March 25th.

Parent chaperones may be needed and will have to drive their cars. Can you help? Please let your child’s teacher know.

Please fill in the bottom portion and return ASAP. Thank you.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yes, my child ___________________________ may attend the field trip to the Seattle Art Museum on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008.


_____ I am available to chaperone.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patty's Day! Here's a bit of history marking today's, March 17th's, holiday.

First the Homework for tonight:

Mrs. Gellert's Math class: p. 11, any 5; Leprechaun sudoku. Only 20 minutes. Students had time to work on their homework in class.

If you have a moment, feel free to go on the History Channel's website:

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Video_Clips&content_type_id=1328&display_order=6&mini_id=1082

to find out more about St. Patrick's Day. It is an marvelous site with not only informative facts, but great videos as well. If you do not have any extra time (and truly, who does?), then here's some St. Patty's Day info for you to peruse:

The First Parade

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for thousands of years.

On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink, and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers to reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.

Over the next thirty-five years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called "Irish Aid" societies, like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums.

No Irish Need Apply
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country's cities took to the streets on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.

However, the Irish soon began to realize that their great numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the "green machine," became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Truman attended New York City 's St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in America.

Wearing of the Green Goes Global
Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by people of all backgrounds in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated in other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore, and Russia.
In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Last year, close to one million people took part in Ireland 's St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks shows.

Stream Study Update

There have been a few questions generated lately regarding the Dash Point State Park Stream Study. As you know, Mr. G and I took our classes to compile data in the fall of the 2007-2008 school year. The following is information from Mr. G. which I think will shed some light on the subject:

A word about Stream Study:
As we haven’t been going down to the stream for the past couple of months, I wanted to make sure that everyone is up to date on the status of our Stream Study. The purpose of Stream Study has been to do research to determine whether or not it will be feasible to reintroduce salmonids (salmon or trout) to the stream at Dash Point. The Explorer and Navigator classes collected data for about three months on various aspects of the stream, including depth, temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen. This data has been added to the data collected over the past few years and paints a pretty consistent picture. In the classroom, we have also been doing research on the needs of salmonids to compare to our data and determine whether or not our stream has what it will need to accommodate larger fish. We are in the process of writing up these findings to present to the Parks and Rec Commission, who originally requested our involvement. These are some of the things the class has found:
Salmonids need a “staging area” at the mouth of a stream where they will hang out for a couple months before they spawn. This staging area should be a calm pool of water, around 5 feet deep depending on the size of the fish, that has shady areas for the fish to hide from predators. Currently, our stream doesn’t have any place that could act as a staging area.
Salmonids depend upon the seasonal change in water level to cue when they should spawn, or begin other parts of their life cycle. All the data we have collected says that our water level is constant, no matter how much rain the area has been getting. This means that our stream is fed by ground water, and not much run-off. This is a potential problem that would need to be dealt with, because the fish wouldn’t have dramatic changes in water level to trigger different parts of their life cycle.
Once the eggs have hatched, the small fish need to be able to swim downstream to a wetland area where they can grow up, have protection from predators, and get used to the salt water before going out to sea. They should spend quite a long time here. Obviously, our stream doesn’t currently have a wetland area attached to it. What is now the parking lot and beach used to be a wetland that was destroyed.
After contacting the Points Northeast Society, a local historical society specializing in the history of Brown’s Point and Dash Point, we’ve learned that it’s almost certain that there were never salmon in our stream. While there is some anecdotal evidence of other salmonids, we don’t have conclusive proof. According to the historical society, our stream was used as a skid when the area was logged in the late 1800s, causing the runoff of sediment that filled in the wetland and resulted in the beach. The damage caused by the logging may take hundreds of years to be repaired.While some of these findings may be discouraging to those of us who hoped to be able to release fish into the stream at some point, this kind of scientific investigation, data collection and analysis are exactly what the Stream Study is about. I’ll be meeting with the Parks and Rec Commission to talk about our findings and find out in what ways we can support Dash Point in the future. We will present our findings, and eagerly await their suggestions. Introducing fish still may not be out of the question; we’ll just have to see what they say!

I hope that helps answer your questions.

The Math homework for tonight for My math class is as follows:

Mrs. Gellert's Math Class: p.9 (1,3,5,7,9,10,11) and page 10 (7,8 and 9)

The Math homework from Mr. G. for tonight is Question #9.

Just a few reminders. On Saturday, March 15th, we will have our annual Seabury Auction. I want to thank again the amazing parent volunteers who helped create the Explorer's auction project. It is a stunning salmon tiled table. If you have not seen it, please check on the school's website. In fact, feel free to take a moment to view the entire Seabury Auction catalog. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday evening.

As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, report cards will be going home in this Thursday's packets. There will not be any school this Friday, March 14th. Friday is a special conference day which is set aside for parents of students whom I have social, emotional, or academic concerns. I have already contacted parents whom I need to conference with. If you have not been contacted, please know that I do not have any concerns about the progress of your child. I would prefer to allocate the time Friday to those families whom I have contacted. If you still desire a conference, please feel free to contact me via my e-mail bgseabury@yahoo.com.

Social Studies homework for the Navigators tonight is to complete their Medieval Knight paper.

My report cards have been completed and were turned in last Thursday morning. With grades and comments, it takes me over 2 hours per report card. Between my Explorers, and the shared math and social studies classes with the Navigators, I have 28 report cards to do this trimester. I love my job and the report cards are a labor of love. It truly is a privilege to teach your children.

Report cards will be going home in the Thursday packets. There will not be any school this Friday, March 14th. Friday is a special conference day which is set aside for parents of students whom I have social, emotional, or academic concerns. I have already contacted parents whom I need to conference with. If you have not been contacted, please know that I do not have any concerns about the progress of your child. I would prefer to allocate the time Friday to those families whom I have contacted.

Last Friday was the day before my birthday. I was absolutely blown away with the outpouring of gifts and flowers (I love flowers) which were so generously bestowed upon me. I want to thank ALL of you, most especially my amazing room parents, for the incredible surprise!! I was so touched by the gift of each student's writing about how much they appreciate me and my teaching and also their awesome photos! This gift truly touched my heart. So thank you, thank you, thank you!!

The homework for tonight for my math group is only 20 minutes on their Continental Math League (CML) sheet. If they complete one problem before 20 minutes, they need only do two out of the 4. If they wish to proceed on, that's fine; but I am only requiring 20 minutes and/or 2 problems.

Camlann Village Fieldtrip

WOW what a day we had stepping back in time to the 1300's. It was cold, but it wasn't raining. The Explorers and the Navigators did an excellent job being not only attentive, but asking numerous questions as well. I greatly appreciate the wonderful, intrepid chaperones who went with us, braved the damp, cold weather and kept a smile on their face. I have just finished asking my students if they enjoyed the field trip today and there was a resounding, "YES!" It was a field trip to remember.

The homework for tonight for both the Navigators and the Explorers is to write a reflection paper of their field trip to Camlann Medieval Village and to draw a picture of their time there.