Figurative Language

Reminders:

• Please sign and return the permission slip for the Marine Mammal Center field trip. Your child brought home a copy(or you can also download it here). We need drivers! Please let us know if you can drive and chaperone that day.
• Save the date for the Winter Holiday Concert our class will be performing in on Wednesday, December 14, 6:00-8:00 pm at the Northbrae Community Church.
  

Homework:

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
Purple group:
1. Finish Unit 2, pages 20-21 (download here) if you did not finish in class.
2. Complete Unit 2, pages 23-24 (download here), using factor rainbows to find all the factors.
Blue Group math homework.

Fifth grade math homework
1. Give your parents their Parent Letter for Unit 3

2. Worksheet in packet labeled Monday hw (which is actually the third page in the packet) - download part 1, part 2

Figurative Language writing homework: Simile, metaphor and personification.

Fourth grade math
Both groups took a short assessment today on subtraction, as we will be working on reviewing subtraction skills with students who need it this week. In the purple group, today's question was: How can we compare and make conclusions based on data? Fourth graders put the finishing touches on the graphs comparing two different groups, and completed pages 20-21 making conclusions about their data.

In the blue group the 4^th graders practiced skip counting as a group by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 100’s. We added on and subtracted from for our patterns, dipping into negative numbers as the pattern continued below zero. The students had time to work on their ongoing fraction activity packet, “Show Me One Half.” For this activity the students use Cuisineaire Rods (fraction sticks) to explore patterns with fractions. We discussed the numerator and denominator, and how to determine what one whole is when comparing fractions with unlike denominators.

Fifth grade math

I handed fifth graders a giant blank grid in math class, and tasked them with not only determining the total number of square units (10,000), but also with labeling the grid so tomorrow they will be able to efficiently find any number I give them between one and 10,000. It is the first activity in our unit on large numbers, which includes reading and writing large numbers, addition and subtraction of large numbers, estimation, etc.

Writing Workshop: A main focus this morning was figurative language. We looked at poems that use simile, metaphor and personification. After each poem, the students practiced writing one of the figurative language techniques exemplified by the poem. We looked at “Ode to Enchanted Light,” by Pablo Neruda, “Fog,” by Carl Sandburg, and “Who Has Seen the Wind,” by Christina Georgina Rosetti. Tonight’s homework is a review of this lesson, and a chance to go further exploring this technique.

Fort Ross Photo Extravaganza!

Many thanks to the parents who have shared their photos from different aspects of the Fort Ross trip.  Clare Woakes accompanied us as class photographer, and Sophie Gullung as an officer of the Hunters, while Kathleen Schwallie captured moments from the dress rehearsal, departure, and return.

Please click below to see their wonderful photos:

• Fort Ross Trip--Clare Woakes
• Fort Ross Trip--Sophie Gullung
• Fort Ross Return--Kathleen Schwallie
• Fort Ross Departure--Kathleen Schwallie
• Fort Ross Dress Rehearsal--Kathleen Schwallie
• Fort Ross Dress Rehearsal--Clare Woakes
• Fort Ross Trip--Sima

Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Field trip:
We have scheduled our trip with the Cerrito Creek class to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito and Rodeo Beach for Monday, December 5 from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. We will take a class and tour, then lunch and do a beach clean up and hike.

Please download and sign the permission slip (which you can download here) and return it as soon as possible. We need drivers! Please let us know if you can drive and chaperone that day.
Reminders:

• No school or child care Wednesday, Nov. 23 through Friday, Nov. 25 for the Thanksgiving holiday
• Save the date for the Winter Holiday Concert our class will be performing in on Wednesday, December 14, 6:00-8:00 pm at the Northbrae Community Church.

No Homework over the Thanksgiving Break.

Gratitude:
This morning students created Gratitude Journals in morning circle, and started writing things they are grateful for. We will be coming back to these periodically through out the year. Research shows that kids who routinely reflect on people and things they are grateful for are happier than those who don't.

In the afternoon, we continued the theme of gratitude by making garlands with paper leaves on which children wrote the names of people, pets, and things they are glad for in their lives. Hopefully some of these garlands will find their way to your holiday tables this week!

Academically, students in fourth grade math continued work on graphing data (in the purple group based on their surveys of students at our school) and interpreting graphs. Fifth grade mathematicians have been working on three-dimensional geometry. Writers continued editing drafts of their Fort Ross historical fiction on the computers, and we are almost done with the book Island of the Blue Dolphins.

We finished the day by celebrating Gwen's birthday with cupcakes!

Best wishes to all of you for a very meaningful and restful holiday with family and friends.

Surrealism in the Classroom

Reminders:

• No school or child care Wednesday, Nov. 23 through Friday, Nov. 25 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
• Save the date for the Winter Holiday Concert our class will be performing in on Wednesday, December 14, 6:00-8:00 pm, Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley.

Homework:
Spelling homework due tomorrow.

Fourth grade math due tomorrow.
Blue Group Homework: Revisiting Pictographs
Purple Group Homework:
1. Finish the Peanut count sheet and Interesting plot sheet if you did not complete these in class.
2. Please choose one of these options:

• Option 1: Factor practice sheet
• Option 2: Calculate sheet (you may use a calculator, but explain your thinking)

Fifth grade math due tomorrow.
Write about which shape box would be best for shipping the product - long and skinny, cubical, etc. Why?


Art Appreciation
This morning Strawberry students contemplated a painting by Salvador Dali, "The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory." Students recorded notes about what they could "see," what the painting made them "think," and what it made them "wonder" about. We will find opportunities to view other artists, works by poets and more.

Math
4th Grade Blue Group: In class the blue group students are creating double bar graphs. They began by analyzing the appropriate scale to use to represent the data provided. This became increasingly challenging as the data set grew in size and did not fit a uniform pattern in each category. Tomorrow we we share graphs, and determine which scales chosen successfully represent the data.
Blue Group Homework: Revisiting Pictographs

4th Grade Purple Group: Today's question: How can we collect and keep track of data from 2 groups to answer a question? Students started collecting data from fourth graders and in some cases Kindergartners and first graders using the questions they settled on Thursday. They also completed work in the activity books graphing and interpreting graphs, and some continued fraction work with Show Me One Half. See homework above.

5th Grade Math: Fifth graders drew rectangular prisms that could fit 12 of another rectangular prism. They had constructed prisms with grid paper last week, and this led to today's question of how one would ship a given number of smaller boxes in a larger box. For tonight's homework, they will write about which shape box would be best for shipping the product - long and skinny, cubical, etc. Why?

Social Rules--What's Happening?
From Kate Klaire

In Sweet Briar Creek, Strawberry Creek, and Cerrito Creek we are thinking about the big stuff of friendships and what it’s like to make new friends. This is poignant as we have been inviting a few new friends into our TBS community. Conversations have been insightful and generative. Here are some of the big ideas and thoughts about what to try with new friends - Remember who I am, Feel out the situation, Introduce myself, Old friends introduce you to someone you think they might like, Noticing common interests or something you like and going over to meet them, Be helpful, Be myself, and, If I keep trust with my friends, we will be able to do more things together. These are a few conversation starters you can have with your child about friendships. It is great to have you participating from home, so we can build common language and social skills with our kids.

1812-2011 & Friday Buddies

1812 to 2011

Wow! What an experience. We traveled back to the 19th century, lived by candle light, cooked by wood fires, "slept" in drafty redwood buildings, took long walks to necessities such as water (carrying buckets to and from) and used primitive privies. Ahh, but we all wished we could stay longer. Then, we were thrust back into the 21st century as if all else was for naught!

Fort Ross is indelible. I hope your time traveler(s) has shared his or her experiences and stories with you, and showed you their historical account in their handmade journal. Just know that seeing a raccoon at night, a whale at dawn, a wooden cemetery cross, or a blast from a cannon symbolize a much greater adventure of walking into the past and living a day and a half in the surreal territory of time displacement.

A tremendous amount of thanks go to our adult chaperones and helpers. For the support we received before the trip in the form of cutting fabric, threading needles, baking pies, donating supplies and materials and ideas, to being in the classroom to help students, and those who were able to be officer/chaperones we are immensely grateful.

Cerritoberry meeting: This Friday morning as part of our Cerritoberry time we watched the movie short, "The Story of Broke," which is the next in the series of "The Story of Stuff." The link for this is: "http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-broke/"
The movie short helps to explain the context for what the current "Occupy" movement has been about, yet is not specifically about Occupy. After watching the movie there was a student led discussion.

Otter math: Math on Friday was a Strawberry class event, with students partnered to work on mathematical problems related to sea otter information. From determining population growth to diving depth, the problems require multiple operations and constructive thinking to unravel. While it is not homework, please enjoy as you wish: Otter Math worksheet.

Buddies: Strawberry students selected books from the school library to read to their buddies. Each student also shared a "comic strip" they are working on about their Fort Ross experience. In the comic strips students are elaborating on real experiences, such as cannon firings that go astray.