Darfur Day: June 5!

Darfur Day
Help raise money for our sister school in Darfur!
Location - The Neighborhood School lobby
Time-3pm-5pm

There will be an art auction, used book sale, cd's, Darfur t-shirts from DarfurDarfur, and baked good to purchase

*If you would like to donate or drop off items, please come to Room 405

For more information on the sister school program, please check out this site:
http://www.darfurdreamteam.org

Hope to see you there...

GAME NIGHT CHANGE OF TIME!

Game Night- Tonight, Wed. May 13, 5:30-7:00

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

GAME NIGHT WED. MAY 13TH...5-6:30

Come join us for a Spring Game Night next Wednesday evening!!
We had a lot of fun last time, so I'm looking forward to this one :)

Curriculum Letter Update

May 4, 2009


SPRING IS HERE!

And There is a lot to Celebrate in Room 405...


Spring Rooftop Gardens Blooms

This past week I spoke with Scott Stringer’s office about our Green Rooftop Garden grant application and the news is promising! It looks like we will be getting funding to conduct a building feasibility study to see that the building is fit to hold a garden. Of course, nothing is final until the budget comes out July 1, but it sounds very hopeful! This is just the first step in the process, but a very important one.

I want to thank all of the parents who offered such strong support and time helping put together the application and following up with Stringer’s office. This is definitely a group effort! It is so inspiring to work with such wonderfully passionate and committed families. Thanks for all you do!

As the students finish up their green building models, we are getting closer to the next planning steps for our green rooftop garden. We will need to form a building committee consisting of parents, staff, and students from both our school and P.S. 63. I have already spoken with Darlene, the principal of P.S. 63 and she is very excited about the prospect. If you are interested in being a part of this, please let me know. I will also send out more information as we start to finalize this.


CURRICULUM UPDATES:

Green Buildings:

Students are finalizing their buildings. They have been working very hard for several months now and all of the details are starting to come together. Last week, Isaiah attached solar panels to his roof and used them to light up his building. It was really exciting! All groups will have mini solar panels to use on their buildings, which were donated. If anyone has access to small light bulbs for the buildings, these will allow the students to use solar power to light their buildings. I think any local hardware store should carry them. In the next month, we will be having a museum-style showing of the student’s buildings for the whole school to see. Invitations will be sent home to notify you.

Earth Day:
Some students made Earth Day presentations of their Green Building work and knowledge to different classrooms. They shared their iMovies, buildings, and knowledge about global warming and their efforts. We have some really great posters that were made, too, which we will hang around school and outside our classroom.

Apple Store Field Trip:
Our trip to the Apple Store was a lot of fun! I wanted to thank Sandra, Hales’ mom, for finding out about this cool opportunity. The students had a chance to learn and excel at iMovie ’09. They created (and still are creating and updating) movies to go along with their buildings. I posted a few of the movies on our blog, News From Room 405, on the school website. They are really fantastic! Students are also using iMovie to create other movies, such as a guide for playing Yugioh, among others.

Word Work:
Our great student teacher, Patrice, has been working with students on word work. Each day she meets with 2 small groups, following Words Their Way. Students have small group instruction two times a week. They have word study notebooks and also have homework.

Social Studies: Mesopotamia is here...
Patrice has also been working on our Mesopotamia social studies curriculum. Students were recently paired up students for research projects. Some of the topics include: Arts, Daily Life, Rulers, Myths, Inventions, Clothing, Food. We will be doing work around research- based writing, creating good questions (and revising, when needed), using different sources to gather information, organizing sources and ideas, creating a paper citing sources. This unit is important because the students have a lot of experience crafting essays and narrative writing, but research helps them combine their nonfiction reading skills, interests, and organizational skills. Students will also have a chance for hands-on activities, such as creating models, sewing clothing, baking. They will then teach the rest of the class. Next up: Myths!

Writing:
We’ve been doing a lot of writing lately! We will be having a double publishing soon, for both Independent Projects and our current unit, Realistic Fiction. I’m hoping for Thursday, but invitations will follow. In our Realistic Fiction study, we have spent time developing strong characters, strong beginnings (beginning with action, setting description, character description), and detailed story elements (setting, plot, problem/suspense, change, movement through time) to help the readers envision. Next we are moving into a Mentor Author study. Our reading work will help us with this unit...

Reading: Book Clubs Arrive!
Students are in author book clubs. They will be reading the work of authors: Walter Dean Myers, Sandra Cisneros, Jacqueline Woodson, Gary Paulson, and Patricia Reilly Giff. Each group chose an author and book. The books have just arrived, so I’m excited to move into the study. Our work will focus on talk and thinking that readers do. Book clubs provide such a great opportunity to really push everyone’s comprehension skills. One thing we worked on a lot as a class was reading with a lens for social issues. This author study work in book clubs will also prepare students for the next writing unit, Mentor Author Study. In that unit, they will be studying the work of their mentor author as a writer!

Math: Students Publish Data Projects!
We have finished up our data study with individual data projects. Students designed a unique experiment to collect and analyze data about a particular question. They focused on presenting the data in a clear and logical way using line plots, bar graphs, range and median to show results. It was a lot of fun! Some questions included: Who can stare longer eyes open without blinking, 4th or 5th graders? These projects will also be on display during our celebration. We will moving into probability and then back to multiplication and division, focusing on larger numbers and more efficient strategies.

Student Activism Sparks Up Awareness About Darfur:
Georgia’s mom, Jane, has been doing activist work for Darfur for a while. Last month I went to a gallery show supporting this work and raising awareness, which was very powerful. Jane connected us with a couple of organizations doing work with students and Darfur, which I thought it would be a perfect match for our class’ commitment to activism. We are going to be participating in the Sister Schools Project, which matches our class with a sister school in a Darfuri refugee camp. Two main objectives are to provide quality education for students in Darfuri refugee camps, and develop connections and mutual understanding between students from the U.S. and Darfur. For more information, here is a link to the website: http://www.darfurdreamteam.org/
Georgia and many other students are working on a fundraiser, which will take place in June 5, after-school in the lobby. If you can donate anything, that would be great! They already have commitments for original artwork, books, gift certificates. So, anything you could contribute would be very much appreciated!

OTHER UPDATES:

Homework:
Homework has been a little disrupted this past month because of all of the birthday celebrations in April! There were many wishes for no homework, so if you noticed less homework than usual, that’s why! I’m hoping to get back on track this week. Students have a Homework Log to write down each night’s homework. Students have reading EVERY night! There is a weekly reading log that goes home, which they complete and add their thinking to. In addition, there may be a Writing Entry, Social Studies handout, or Math Handout. Students have been making goals for themselves on their reading logs, Reading Notebooks, and Writer’s Notebooks.

Typing:
Kofi’s mom, Catherine, found this website, so I wanted to pass it on. It’s a great way for students to practice and learn typing skills. During open work/ project time, some students have been trying it out:http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Schools Attuned:
The past two Fridays I have been out at a for a 5-day workshop. I will be out the next two Fridays as well. This workshop is based on understanding how students learn and individualizing needs, with a focus on neurodevelopmental diversity.

We are excited to be welcoming a new member to our community, Maria Lucia. If you see her around be sure to say hi! Take care and please feel free to contact me!

Sincerely,
Lauren

Dates to Remember:

* May 5- Cinco de Mayo!
* Celebration: Writing and Math! (TBA)
* May 15- 1/2 Day, 11:30 dismissal
* May 21- Science field-trip to the Queens Museum ($6.50)
* May 25- Memorial Day, No School
* May 27- SING @ 8:45 a.m.
* June 5- Darfur Fundraiser in the lobby after-school
* Green Building Museum Expo- Coming Early June...

Materials Needed:
* glue sticks for glue guns (large and small)
* tape: scotch, masking, packing
* paper towels
* all-purpose cleaner
* tissue