Class news 2019-20

Whitmore's Wonders

As of Friday, March 13, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album, please see the media tab above.

Beautiful days for garden clean up, for Remote Learning Start-up,

for loving our homes and the new learning spaces to be discovered.

This class website space will be used as the place to receive Remote Learning guidance and documents for each week. Ms. Juidi and I will be uploading our templates for the subject areas supporting pages that can be printed for use at home.

In the garden...

Science in EC-3

Learning to use the Design Center Workshop tables

Pounding nails . . . and driving screws to continue the exploration of levers. (Handle and arm; spiral lever on screw)

While our current read aloud book is Homer Price, we enjoyed a comparison with Make Way for Ducklings by the same author, Robert McCloskey

As of Friday, March 6, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album (and a few short videos), please see the media tab above.

Dear All,

Much to be grateful for in our small learning community. Children are proud of their recent foray into teaching of a geometry project to a group of Upper Schoolers in the Math and Science Center (Drinkward Center). Many thanks to our parent volunteers who have made this learning and teaching possible by supporting table groups the first Wednesday of each month. Our last two projects, a tetrahedron and a pentagonal envelope proved to be useful as well as ornamental. See pictures below.

Let's keep our children well fed and rested, and practicing good hygiene. That goes for all of us!

Best regards,

Mr. Whitmore and Ms. Juidi

This lego project happily completed!

Children put their expertise to the test in teaching Upper School students to build tetrahedrons.

Step-by-step Upper Schoolers in Mr. Drugan's Advisory were each successful in the construction. Each tetrahedron was truncated and later stabilized with hot glue. 20 of the constructions were glued together to form a formidable icosahedron which was delivered to Mr. Drugan's Drinkward Center classroom by Griffin and Hannah.

Number line work

Hopping along the number line

Pentagonal envelopes were the recent Geometry project put to immediate use to store equations for sums practice for sums 5 through 10.

Zella shared a leather bound journal.

A little fun with newly constructed icosahedron.

As of Friday, February 21, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album (and a few short videos), please see the media tab above.

The Beginning Years Movement Program was held in the Gym as it exists for the last time Wednesday. To the left and below left, Coach James and Room 22 children demonstrated the use of a parachute. BY children danced to open the program. Parents joined them to dance at the close.

Not-So-Instant Messaging

Exploring with pulleys, clamps, string, and rope in the classroom to send messages from house to house.

100th Day of School

keeping track several different ways

Science - pulleys, weights, and ramps used to move Mr. Whitmore aka black brick. . .

Griffin sharing briefly about his learning of guitar

Carter sharing nest he discovered while on a hike

Milo and Dylan cutting tube to create a straight pnumatic delivery system

Learning about bar clamps to secure pulley system

As of Friday, February 14, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album (and a short video), please see the media tab above.

Much writing of friendly letters and cards this last week. A burst of notes to and from Paddington. He also watched as the class made its way to the wetlands Science experiment with pulley systems--use of rope looped over tree branches and through simple pulleys helped children see the pull-and-lift mechanics in a variety of engineered solutions. We lifted buckets and branches. We've carried over that momentum to our classroom explorations of pulley systems, single and double and began finding ways to move notes about the room. Oh, and we had a sweet celebration of Valentine's messaging with a bit of popcorn and fruit to keep tummies from rumbling!

Maths - Combinations to ten activities investigated the commutative property of addition--how many ways to find unifix cube trains of ten in two and three colors.

Geometry project - we found many of the pattern block shapes in a circle as we folded to create a tetrahedron. We then truncated each tetrathedron to make strong building pieces. Next steps include fitting and gluing 20 of the truncated tetrathedrons together to make a structure with 20 faces--an icosahedron. Then we are off on the 25th to teach the tetrahedron project to Greg Drugan's, (Upper School Math), advisory students.

Morning message with the "short teacher"

Student generated garden/science project in the sandbox

Science preview gathering with Ms. Tina...

Valentines Day

As of Friday, January 31, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album (and a few short videos), please see the media tab above.

Our frog is growing

Slip still enjoys his favorite insect and is seen here viewing intently a container of crickets just outside his aquarium from his newfound perch. He's always kept himself submerged up to this point. Slip sometimes leaps to the glass (from the water) in an attempt to capture one of the visible crickets. Children feed him periodically throughout the day.

Our word play this last week has focused on the long vowel sound of double (ee) compared to the same long vowel sound of (ea) as well as exceptions, of course: flee, flea; reed, read; deed, dead (oops).

Mr. Whitmore leads class in a sums grid practice for fact fluency.

Vocabulary matching game called "Concentration."

Writing notes for Paddington

Juggling demonstration

5th Grade Play written by Ms. Doyle's class

4th Graders report on their Mazama Lodge trip

Stop, Walk, Talk - Friday Lower School Gathering

Weaving on a loom guided by Ms. Juidi

As of Friday, January 24, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album , please see the media tab above.

Math work stations give individuals and partners many different kinds of opportunities to combine digits to make sums from 1 to 20. We are learning strategies to count up from the larger of two numbers, using known facts to assist with nearby sums, making use of known doubles to find one above or one below. I've recently introduced a sums practice game called "Around the World" which challenges children to quicken their recall of sums.

Maths. . . use of counters, including fingers, helps solve for an unknown. We've been solving for unknown numbers in equations with the unknown in differing places, not just after the equal sign. Number train activities with cubes help to highlight the two addends and strengthen recall of facts. In addition, use of small number racks of 20 beads (10 red and 10 white) called Rekenreks (hand made by each child) also strengthen recall of sums.

Calendar grid observations afford children the time to make predictions, see patterns, create number trees, write story problems, and solve resulting equations.

Auction Project underway! Stay tuned.

Engineering challenge continued. While half the class was working in the garden the other half considered the challenge of delivering messages to small houses placed around the room, some above our heads in the rafters. Children explored materials (cuisinaire rods) to model towers that could potentially reach up to theses "view" sites.

5th grade play

Chaplain Phillip

As of Friday, January 17, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album (and a short video), please see the media tab above.

*Scholastic Book orders for this month are due this Tuesday, January 21

Well, we waited patiently for the snow. And it did show up momentarily!

Maths...

Math this week brought two new work place games: Doubles Plus or Minus One and Tower Race. In addition we learned another activity called Jelly Beans. Each of these activities hone and quicken addition skills through use of a die to double and add or subtract one, two dice to rapidly recognize combinations, and to use two or three dice to find as many number combinations from 1-10 and back again.

Doubles Plus or Minus One (here)

Tower Race (below left)

Jelly Beans (below)

Tinker Toy Construction Project

In order to replicate a 1970's cover photo for the OES Magazine, Room 22 took up the challenge from the Marketing and Communications Office (which we learned about this fall while exploring hidden helpers around campus) to make a connection with our current big engineering project (Paddington's Tower) and the large Tinker Toy building project pictured in 1970. We did our best. First we created scaffolding for Paddington's Tower with our class set of regular Tinker Toys. We added planks for holding up workers (Paddington's classroom stuffie friends), and posed Black Berry, Turtle, and a few other animals for the photo. Children also took positions similar to the photo 50 years ago. Look for it in the OES Magazine Celebrating 150 Years.

Science--children had a new "lever" introduced this week to move beads from one part of the Science classroom to another with a partner. The lever was a pulley. Strings and pulleys and other contrivances experimented with moving beads. We are thrilled with the practice this offered us in Room 22 as we begin to devise methods of communication with each others' homes that form a far-flung community around the classroom. Pulleys are now definitely an option.

Pulley system on the way to a successful delivery. . .

. . .with some added help in lifting the line!

Friday Gathering

Bearded Lizard Brumation

The weekly "Last Word"

As of Friday, January 10, 2020

For a link to the latest photo album (and a few short videos), please see the media tab above.

*Scholastic Book orders for this month are due on Tuesday, January 21

Dear All,

Paddington was not disappointed in the re-engineering of his tower. After a number of structural failures in his supporting cubes (they didn't pass prolonged stress tests), children we able to create enough triangular support to keep him aloft indefinitely. He kept watch over the break, looking out over the golf course next door. You may have seen him as you arrive in the morning!

We've celebrated the 7th Decade of the number of days in school, taken a close look at analog to digital time recording, explored patterns of equations created by tossing two sided beans (red, white) for sums of 7 and 8 and recorded the results.

Finishing touches - Paddington Tower . . . trouble at the tower brought engineers back to re-work support beams.

Our final product turned out much higher than anticipated originally! We had to add another level to allow Paddington's head to stay clear of the pyramid and still be able to see out of the classroom window.

Holiday Service Learning Celebration

Children identified members of our school community who help children both directly and indirectly, often behind the scenes, and wrote notes of thanks for the support they give to an OES education.

Lego kit examination and building with partners.

Close attention to detail in instructions allows for a perfect reproduction of the model.

Maths....

Bean Toss or "spilling the beans," students find patterns and yes, probabilities by recording their results.

Bean Toss - Seven results. Which equations come up more frequently? 0 red and 7 white? 1 red, 6 white? 2 red, 5 white? 3 red, 4 white? 4 red, 3 white? 5 red, 2 white? 6 red, 1 white? or 7 red, 1 white? Why?

New work station activity to find target sums. Players agree on a target sum then take turns turning cards until a sum can be made to match the target. The player who achieves the sum with 1, 2, or more cards keeps the cards and play passes on to the partner.

Science - LEVERS! Or catapults. Mr. W and Ms. Juidi, represented by little puff balls, found their way into the rafters of the Science room on Tuesday afternoon. What variable adjustments needed to be made in positioning of the lever (ruler) on the fulcrum (cup) to get the teachers into the air the most effectively?

A few moments of quiet reflection is a part of Self Care

Word Work

Multi-syllable word exploration is a next step forward from c-v-c word (consonant-vowel-consonant) and other short word and syllable patterns.

Children combine: can not = cannot per form = perform

Use of spelling patterns (ending rhyme) for the creation of new words by adding new onset (intial consonant or consonant blend):

ide: wide, ride, side, tide, slide, hide, _____, ______, ______

ile: tile, file, mile, pile, _____, _____, ______

ike: bike, like, _____, _____, _____

ake: bake, cake, fake, _____, _____, _____

Dropping silent e and adding ing: bake = baking

January Theme for Lower School

As of Friday, December 13 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a few short videos), please see the media tab above.

Service Learning Celebration:

On the morning of Friday December 20th the three first grade classes will participate in a culminating collaborative experience of this season’s service learning focus - systems: habitat & community. During this event, students will express their gratitude and appreciation for OES community members who are both near and far from their student-experience. Whether it’s making cards, producing a video or building a sign, our hope is to illuminate the connections and work that happens within our community. A few parent volunteers (9 - 3 from each class) will be needed (from 9:20 - 10:50) to help lead small groups in the making and delivery of these thank-you expressions. We are also hoping for a couple parents to deliver a modest holiday work-party snack in the first grade common area. We promise to document the experience to share with everyone.

We are so grateful for your support from home and we understand how busy the holiday season already is. OES has a number of school-wide events in those weeks. We thank you for talking to your children about this event but we do want to reiterate that this is not an event we are asking parents to attend. -It’s more of a fun student work party with snacks. Thank you for your support.

Doug Whitemore

Sharon Kottler-Decker

Anthony Villaseñor

Author's Chair - How to...

Celebrating Milo on his birthday

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Sort the Sum

Double It and Double It Challenge

Giving Chapel

The Melodies singing at Giving Chapel

Maths - Calendar Work seeing patterns with geometrical solids

Maths - Calendar work keeping track of the number of days in school.

As of Friday, December 6, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a short video), please see the media tab above.

Our Geometry session this week explored a math pattern found in a triangular matrix called Pascal's Triangle. Children examined the numbers placed in the triangle to discover the pattern of adding the two spaces above a space to determine its number. Using this addition concept we filled out a triangle, color coded like numbers in the triangle and multiplied by six to get unique snowflake hexagons comprised of Pascal Triangles .

Discovering the PASCAL TRIANGLE pattern.

Checking for symmetry and color coverage . . .

Children used their own individual color codes to create the symmetry of a snowflake.

Considering who the invisible helpers in our larger community might be by modeling and visualizing.

Gathering to reflect on blessings.

Ellie's Birthday celebration begins with a song.

Ellie shares a birthday tradition from home.

Writing - What brings you joy?

Maths Calendar Work - three-dimensional shapes

As of Tuesday, November 26, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a short video), please see the media tab above.

What kinds of systems support our classroom at school? Who do we see that help us? How? Are we helped by others that we don't see? Who, where, why? Children have been looking more deeply at how we are constantly cared for by many people daily that keep our school world running smoothly. We are grateful! Who do we as school children support during our days here at OES? Is there a wider community we can support as individuals and as a class or school?

Our Chaplain, Phillip Craig, and Kristen Haferbecker, Service Learning Coordinator, are posing these questions for us to consider. We'll be soon getting acquainted with a few agencies in the Portland Metro area that the Lower School will be supporting during the giving season. You may have already seen gift bags for Giving Chapel next week decorated by Room 22 and their 4th Grade Buddies. Please take the time to talk with your children about the bags and how your family can support our wider community through this work. There are instructions attached to the Giving Bag which might be helpful to read together.

Clay inspiration

"The Road Not Taken" poem line practice . . . .

Who do we know that helps us at school?

Domino Add and Compare

Domino Top Draw

Tell about your story characters...with Ms. Tina.

"How can these new oil pastel ideas help grow an exciting part of my story?"

Grandparents and Special Friends Day....

As of Friday, November 15, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a short video), please see the media tab above. See class interviews below . . . .

First Grade Holiday Gratitude Party

Doug Whitmore

Sharon Kottler-Decker

Anthony Villaseñor

Engineers at work noticing how Paddington's pyramid gained its strength by the creation of "strength" triangles within the framework of the larger triangles. That's the good news. It's holding up very nicely.

However, when Paddington and Paddington, Jr. were both in the pyramidal viewing tower, and placed on top of the base cubes so they could see the view out the window, we experienced an unexpected failure over the weekend. During the long stress test the middle cube collapsed from side to side.

Failure is feedback, so engineers went back to the design cycle to look carefully at what happened. Not all sides of the cubes had been braced with the triangular sections. The two sides which had only vertical supports allowed the structure to collapse.

Children applied what they had noticed about strengthening the pyramid to the failed cube. They added braces to create triangular sections. Hopefully, Monday morning will come with Paddington and Paddington, Jr. still standing after the latest stress test! Stay tuned.

A new math game - adding up coins

Measuring the carpet with popsicle sticks

What story characters will emerge as children experiment with a new medium, oil pastels? Tina launched the children with a "bursting" technique to create vivid explosions of color.

TEXT - (See video on media page)

Science - Thermometers

Testing water temperatures with a thermometer

Celebrating Meher's Birthday

Siena and Griffin lead the singing of Happy Birthday.

Meher's father read aloud a favorite book from the Frog and Toad series (just a little bit scary!), and shared very cute pictures of the birthday girl over the years, followed by questions from the class.

Friday Gathering

Hannah represented Room 22, and with two other First Graders and three Second Graders, explained the First and Second Grade Theater field trips to see Me . . . Jane, a musical about the life of Jane Goodall.

Interviews

by Andrea Menz

11/15/19

Art: Jessica, Zella

We’ve been making pictures. Yesterday we did clay. We made sculptures that we’re going to make a story from. We’re going to recycle them but we’re going to take a picture of them so we can keep the picture. Zella: I sculpted a bird and a nest. Jessica: I sculpted a bunny. We sometimes do self-portraits and sometimes we do wet on wet painting. Art is fun!

Science: Elias, Milo

We had a nature walk, we made shadows and traced them and measured them. I saw a fish (Milo). We played around with spider and bugs and stuff and we used a microscope to zoom in on them. We always have a little chat before science to talk about what we’re doing and then we get right to it. We had to guess how long the shadows would be. We made a car into a mountain shadow and one was 3 feet and one was 5 feet.

Spanish: Lennox, Amelia

We’ve been coloring skeletons and caterpillars. We’ve been doing art projects. We speak Spanish when we’re doing the projects. We aren’t allowed to speak English. We’re learning a lot. We learned all the days of the week in Spanish but we don’t remember all of them right now. We learned body parts and how to ask what we’re going to do today. Sometimes we sing but only in Spanish. Sometimes we watch videos or listen to music. In first grade we always go to the Spanish room for Spanish.

Library: Ellie, Meher

We have been reading books. We’ve been getting these little pink name tags and checking books out and we get to decorate them, and if we’re going to read a book we put the tag down and get the book. We’ve been reading chapter books in class and in the library the library teacher has been reading us some family books like one of them has this little girl who has two dads but there’s a mother’s day party coming up so she brought her whole family and there was another boy who had two dads. There was another book with a family where the girl lived with her mom and dad but her grandma came to visit and they couldn’t talk to each other because the grandma only spoke Spanish and the girl only spoke English so they decided that they could all learn both languages. I like to check out princess books (Ellie). I like to check out chapter books. I have two of them in the car that are about fairyland animals. One of them is Sophie the Squirrel and the other one is a unicorn with wings but I don’t remember its name. (Meher).

Chapel: Zella, Lorelei

Last chapel we did a Diwali celebration where the second graders were dancing and singing a Diwali song. Diwali is a celebration that some people celebrate but I don’t but you usually decorate with lights in your house. It’s celebrating people who died and stuff. We usually sing about 3-4 songs in chapel. One would be like the “Circle of Love,” “Awake, Arise, and Rejoice,” “Alleluia,” “Weave,” and there are two more that we forgot. Our favorite is “Awake, Arise, and Rejoice” because it teaches you more, I think. And it’s good for waking up when it’s rainy and wet outside. When Chaplain Phillip comes to visit we learn about the Lord and St. Francis. We learned that St. Francis was kind and caring. He helped people and he decided to go out and live in the wild and the wild was his brother and sister.

Music: Ellie, Violet

In music we’ve been learning different songs and the beat that goes with it and we have these sticks for the beats and we use the use sticks that you put trains or leaves on and you clap the rhythm with syllables. We’ve been playing this song called “Queen, Queen Caroline” and there’s a game that goes with it. “Queen, Queen Caroline, Washed her hair in turpentine, Turpentine to make it shine, Queen, Queen Caroline.” Turpentine is really smelly but it makes your hair shiny and it’s real. We’ve also been making dreamers together and making a group of people and making stuff better with a community and building our togetherness level up. We’ve been having a lot of fun. We love music because we get to play music and next year we will get our own flute.

PE: Qi, Dylan, Carter

We’ve been doing games like circus arts stuff and we do speed stacking. You press the on button on the timer and then you stack cups and then you press the button again when you’re finished. The funnest thing is hula hoops and jump ropes and where you launch the froggy.

Gathering: Siena, Hannah

I shared at gathering in front today (Hannah). Gathering is when we come to the lunch room with the whole entire lower school and there are announcements about what has been happening. Like tomorrow there is the annual soccer game between Catlin Gabel and OES that I really want to go to. Some of the kids were talking about finding garbage around our campus and they were trying to say if you see a piece of trash put it in the garbage and don’t throw trash on the ground, and put it in the right can (don’t forget to recycle). We always love Two Truths and a Lie. It’s a game we play at the end of gathering where they announce a teacher’s name and the teacher comes up and says three things about his or her life and two are true and one is a lie and we have to raise our hands to vote which one is a lie and then they announce which one is which.

Math: Griffin, Elias

We have been doing rekenrek and a graph and we use it to do math and we write numbers and equations on the graph. We do 10-20 or 10-100. It’s fun!

Counselor: Amelia, Andrew

We’ve been doing yoga: Jedi Training. Ms. Vicki gets our mats and we’re training so we can have lightsabers. We learn different poses.

Field Trip: Dylan, Hannah

We went to Me, Jane and we went on the school bus and we had all our snacks packed and before it opened we got to stop at the park and play in the leaves and we made a confetti party. I got leaves in my pants (Dylan). Then we went to the children’s theater and we saw it. It was about Jane Goodall. She is a scientist that studies chimpanzees. She had a dream to go to Africa and people were telling her it wouldn’t never happen but she finally did it! Now she’s in Africa studying chimpanzees and I’ve seen some pretty cute pictures of her with them – she was even kissing one! (Hannah). It was a musical and there was a song about how pythons don’t blink. Someone came along and gave her a book about dogs and a dog named Rusty came and Jane read it to the dog but it was wrong because it said dogs have no feelings and it made the dog sad. She tried to show the world what animals really are and that they have feelings.

As of Friday, November 8, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a short video), please the the media tab above.

Children gathered in the Park Blocks prior to attending Me -- Jane, a musical performance about the life of Jane Goodall. October leaves provided lots of fun for "recess."

Room 22 engineers went to work on Wednesday following Paddington's designs for the parts of his viewing tower. Table 1 had the challenge of constructing two one-foot cubes for the tower base. Tables 2 and 3 had the task of creating 4 tall triangles for the pyramid topping the structure. Children also created unique waxed paper windows for the pyramid with crayon shavings. Stop in this week to see the new tower.

Enjoying the fall leaves before the play

In the lobby after the show

Artful Ant

Addition facts game

Geometry ...

Post-geometry session engineering challenge

Last week in Chapel

Next week - Diwali Chapel

Chaplain Phillip

As of Friday October 25, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a short video), please the the media tab above.

Dear All--

A wonderful turnout Friday morning for the First Grade Literacy Celebration. If you were unable to attend your child can show you his or her literacy activities before or after school.

On another topic, children are looking forward to our first off-campus Field Trip on Tuesday. We will take in "Me---Jane" at the Performing Arts Center and be away from campus mid-morning until about 2:00, (with sack lunches to enjoy in a nearby park before the play).

Mr. W.

Arty Ant sent Paddington an October message with a number code. It's about something in the garden . . . .

Here's a collection of stuffies gathered before Chapel--assembled lovingly by very sincere First Graders!

Blessing of the Stuffies and a visit from Aardy Aardvark.

Children learning about the fire resistance of a race car driver's jump suit--as shared by Milo.

Writing workshop:: ABOUT ME.

Reading Workshop: Read Aloud to Someone

LITERACY CELEBRATION

MATH -- On Thursday and Friday while we were not working on literacy, we explored non-standard units of measure--in this case unifix cubes. Children employed the cubes to measure various parts of the room including bookshelves, windows, carpets, desks, and doors. They also measured each other! Lots of estimates were first recorded and then actual measures made by assembling cube trains and counting. Children wrote their findings in small booklets.

Estimate, then measure.

As of Friday October 18, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a short video), please the the media tab above.

Friday morning Gathering provided an opportunity for Room 22 to explain (to friends in the Lower School) news about our class frog, Slip. I'm including the children's talking points:

Gathering Announcement Remarks by

Carter, Milo, Violet and Griffin:

CARTER: We found a frog on the playground sidewalk under a small Lincoln log few weeks ago. I caught him and Griffin helped bring him in to the classroom. ·

MILO: His name is Slip. We set up an aquarium habitat for Slip with pond water, duck weed, and rocks.

VIOLET: His favorite meal is a cricket although he does like any kind of moving insect including dragonflies, box elder bugs, shield bugs, and moths!

GRIFFIN: Room 22 wonders what to do with Slip at the end of the year. He is likely a bullfrog judging by his markings and size. Bullfrogs are an invasive species here in Oregon. They can take over a habitat like our wetland area because they are big and will eat almost anything!

MILO: You are welcome to stop by for a peek at Slip through Room 22’s window.

On Tuesday we had a chapel honoring indigenous peoples. Chaplain Craig is a kind and wise leader and in this instance we took time to reflect on the First Nations of Oregon. The Lower School supports development of this topic over several grade levels and so children were given a sweet foundation for--in coming years--a thoughtful learning about this history.

Dylan shares his Magic Box--brought from home--which contained favorite gems and rocks.

Griffin shares teeth uncovered at a fossil dig in New Jersey with his family last week.

Word Play--children listen carefully to dictated words to practice hearing vowel and consonant sounds. They work to discern--aurally-- consonant blends and digraphs in single syllable words, and join together two syllable words. This, of course, is part of the learning-to-read curriculum that underpins First Grade intellectual growth.

Ms. Margaret (Synan-Russell), the children's Art Tteacher, came to the classroom to give instruction in "learning to how to see" in preparation for observation drawing of the Northern Flicker. So many skills are presented, practiced, deepend during such a minni-lesson: listtening, questioning, acting on new information, self-editing, considering shape, contour, detail from an intellectual perspective as well as an artistic orientation. These are wonderful steps in learning how to learn.

Partners assembled a 100 number grid with number tiles, noticing patterns to help with a more efficient placement of tiles in the matrix. Pattern recognition is applicable in all kinds of academic literacy areas. It is logical/sequential as well as playful and creative.

As of Thursday, October 10, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a short video), please the the media tab above.

Dear All,

We were able--and happy about it-- to reclaim our postponed Habitat Hunt on the water last Thursday. We enjoyed a beautiful morning during which time a majestic blue heron put in three flying performances for canoeists--each time finding a new perch in the branches at pond's edge. And on a different topic, I hope the short break has found you all rested and ready for another four-day week!

Mr. Whitmore

Chapel Question of the Week

Special Chapel Coming - October 22!

Chaplain Phillip

Beginning Years Guest Artist, Ms. Tina Eckton, comes to OES once a week and last Wednesday she was with Room 22 for 50 minutes. She provided each child with 1 wire, 1 string, and 1 fabric strip to create wire figures. The children enjoyed her challenge. The initial prompt was "What moveable 'pose-able' character can you sculpt?" We followed up our time with Tina with a story workshop to begin imagining and writing short scenarios that include our new characters.

Miss Tina - Setting parameters for sculpture characters with wire, string, and fabric strips...

Field trip to the wetland pond

Making observations on land while awaiting a turn in the canoes.

Shadow Science - observing, tracing, measuring, and comparing

As of Friday, October 4, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album (and a video), please the the media tab above.

Geometry:

Room 22 Engineers continued their inquiry into creating strength with ordinary paper. After finding that folds helped to build bridges capable of carrying weight these able/creative/funny/clever thinkers applied that learning to the geometric construction of a cube on Wednesday. Folded tubes proved to be very strong-- carrying much more weight than 20 small bears! They are wondering, now, what else can be made from folded tubes. Stay tuned . . . .

The Habitat Hunt on Thursday disclosed to intrepid explorers many kinds of habitats--including living quarters/hiding places for spiders, bees, flies, dragonflies, frogs, and tadpoles. There's no place like home, we learn, as a universal anchor from which to participate in the world.

The Walk for Fun--all day on Friday--afforded children the chance to earn "footies" at the beginning of the day (and during recess times throughout the day.) Many miles logged.

Four-day week for children coming up. Then a number of teachers and admin travel on Friday to Tacoma for the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools conference/in-service professional development day on Friday. THEN we all have a three-day weekend--but meanwhile, lots to learn this week. We're digging into reading, writing and numeracy with zeal these days. Humming. Quiet (and noisy) humming. That's the sound of First Graders in the learning-and-exploring groove. We like humming.

Language Arts - Doozers

Workplace Math

Subitizing Practice

Number Rack response work

geometry part 1

geometry part 3

geometry part 2

geometry part 4

Habitat Hunt

By the garden

Habitat Hunt

In the woods

Habitat Hunt

By the pond

Walk for Fun

As of Friday, September 27, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album, please the the media tab above.

Slip, our Class Frog, catches late afternoon rays as we are continue to be curious about what manner of frog we have . . . . If you're an amphibian expert or semi-expert, we would like your direction and information.

We have a busy week ahead. We have Geometry on Wednesday--the first of a once-a-month exploration. Children will be constructing 6" cubes from folded construction paper tubes and we find out what makes strong vertices? Why are folded tubes stronger than flat paper? Why is this like making bear bridges? In addition, First Grade is the year of tape! (At least so it proved to be for my own two children 30 years ago and for many a child since.) It's a fun volunteer opportunity!

Thursday we set out on our First Grade Habitat Hunt to explore our pond in canoes, our field/wetlands border, and the forest/garden habitats. We are grateful to be part of such a rich Northwest area.

Friday is the Walk For Fun Gathering at 8:10--followed by a few laps of the track and more laps as time permits in the day at recesses and PE. Come join in the morning movement!

MATH EXPLORE

NUMBER CORNER MATH

CHAPEL (on our September theme of belonging)

HOMECOMING PEP RALLY

(There is a short video clip from the rally posted on the media page.)

BUS SAFETY

As of Friday, September 20, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album, please the the media tab above.

Greetings All,

We're getting acquainted with our resident frog, noticing that it's quite at home in water and a skilled cricket hunter, and is gaining notice by many in our wing who come to the window to view. Comments in this week's Interview Column to follow.

Thank you to Andrea Menz for recording interviews with children this week about the special classes and homeroom activities. Enjoy!

Interviews 9/23/19

(Recorded by Andrea Menz, Hannah’s mom)

Opening - Ellie and Violet

What we do in opening is we draw a different insect each day and we have to copy what’s on the board – the insect – and when we’re done we show Mr. Whitmore and we color it in and put it in the student workbox and then we can read. – Violet

Every day we like draw an insect, and each day they are different, and we have to show the teacher and we have to show the teacher and at the end we put it in the student workbox and we read and do some stuff and go outside. -Ellie

Every day there’s different bugs and they’re really interesting. We thought we were going to do a spider on Friday but we didn’t – we did a walking stick. -Violet

We’re BFFs and we’re both goofballs and we say stuff at the same time. -Ellie and Violet

Art – Qi and Zella

We do a lot of sketching, like faces. You only look in a mirror and you only see the mirror but not the paper and you draw your face. We used oil pastels to draw on the paper and then rub it around. You swirl it around and then wash it off because you have oil pastel on your hands.

You look at yourself with a mirror and use a sketchbook. When someone says you can look then you look and it’s weird. My eyes were way over here far away from my head. We do a lot of projects. Sometimes we draw whatever we want. Sometimes we do explore in there. Like we explore the classroom and see what’s in there like we explore the pencils and the bird. And sometimes we look at a book with art in it or a sketchbook.

Music – Meher and Siena

We’ve been doing projects. And for good morning we sing a song. We’ve made feathers and colored them in and cut them out and hung them up in the classroom on a string. We also have our spots in music on the carpet and since there are a lot of us some of us have to sit in a space. My favorite thing is singing and doing the projects. (Meher) My favorite thing is playing the instruments and singing and doing the projects (Siena.) We also sing the “How’d ya do” song and dance around and say “how’d ya do” to each other.

Spanish – Lennox and Winston

We do activities and projects and art stuff and we learn Spanish, like moon and sun and star. But I don’t remember star. And we also know how to say cloud but we don’t remember. We like crafts and the art projects. Sometimes I can use Spanish with my mom because my family is learning Spanish and my mom went to Nicaragua. Our Spanish teacher is Professor Peche.

PE – Amelia and Milo

We’ve been playing games like yarnball games and throwing games and walking games so far. Also played… what else… gaga ball. You hit the ball and try to touch people’s toes. It’s especially fun when there’s a lot of people. We played with hula hoops and we run the track and once you do two loops you can play on the field or do hula hoops or do more running. And you mark it on a card that you wear around your neck. It’s fun, active stuff.

Chapel – Lorelei and Jessica

We sing songs and there are people dressed in red and white and they walk down the aisle and my sister does it sometimes. And we pray to God about kindness and community stuff. And the chaplain talks about the news and community and kindness and friendship. And sometimes he comes to our class and we sing friendship and community songs and he lets us talk about thankful stuff and we get a pretend candle. And he has a guitar and we sing “Light of Mine.”

Counselor -- Carter and Meher

With Ms. Vickie we sit on these mats and we do lightsaber yoga and if we pass some tests we get to do yoga WITH lightsabers. We have to be quiet and listen to the teacher. If you don’t listen to the teacher you don’t get to use the lightsaber. I have always wanted peace and quiet all my life but I never get any so I like that about yoga (Meher). Every time we have to line up and when we open the door we’re really quiet and we get our mats.

Reading – Elias and Dylan

We’ve been doing comprehension. There are like four people in the class who get Lego books. We like Lego books. I had a Lego book once when I was four years old and there was a button on the last page and lasers come up out of the page and it was really fun but it got torn up. You have to do cross checking. Sounds right, looks right, and makes sense. And expand your vocabulary.

Writing – Hannah and Griffin

I’ve been writing a huge story. Mine’s the longest one. It’s about four characters: a bee named Bob, a Monarch butterfly named Maggie, a stick bug named Slicka, and a bird named Bluey. Bluey and Maggie aren’t friends because the bird wants to eat the Monarch but then this stick bug comes along and they become friends but Slicka breaks her leg and then this bee comes along after her leg is healed. It’s my favorite subject. Sight word spellers are some books that we practice our heart words in and we make sentences with them. I love listening to stories and I love writing stories. - Hannah

We’ve been writing a few stories. We’ve been writing in our handwriting books and in our sight word spellers. I’ve been writing about a Swallowtail Butterfly and a Praying Mantis. The Butterfly saw a beautiful flower then it goes to the flower then when he went to the flower he found a praying mantis guarding the flower. And I haven’t finished the rest of it. -Griffin

Math – Elias and Qi

I made a bridge that could hold 13 bears – Qi

I made a bridge that could hold 51 bears – Elias

We made a wrecking rack [rekenrek]. It’s a thing that you do math on with beads, like you have one white one on the top and one bottom one and that’s one and one and that makes two. The white ones stay together and you have different lanes.

Theme – Jessica and Siena

We’ve been feeding our pet frog crickets. And it’s really long compared to its mouth. He pounces on it and squishes it first and then eats it up. It’s very fun to watch the frog eat the crickets. He does so many things. And then he slurps it up and gulps it down. It’s a green frog – like a tree frog. We’ve also been sketching insects every morning – a butterfly, a moth, a stick bug, a caterpillar, a Swallowtail butterfly, a dragonfly, and a beetle and a house fly, and today we did a honeybee. And we’ve been learning a lot about the insects. Like caterpillar can get really, really long if it eats a lot, like 10 inches long. It eats bugs and crickets and leaves and stuff.

Explore – Jessica and Amelia

We go to other classes and we sing songs and we can play with legos and we can play in all three classrooms. And we make friends.

Gathering – Andrew and Lennox

We basically go downstairs to the lunch room and we get our buddies and we sing a couple songs and then Chaplain Philip tells us about something and then some kids tell about something. Next gathering I think we’re going to go up and tell about our frog. I like Two Truths and a Lie – a teacher will tell about their life and say two things that are true and one that’s a lie and everyone likes it so they all scream.

Frog – Griffin and Carter and Violet

Carter caught a Frog under a log and we got some materials to put in the cage and we took it upstairs and it was really fun and after recess everyone looked at it. Griffin helped us put it in the cage. But it jumped out of Carter’s hand and I got it and we got it into the classroom. Everyone can look at it when it’s explore time and we got to see it pounce on a cricket and eat it this morning!

The OES campus is home to many frogs. This one was found during recess, and lovingly brought into the classroom to share. Much excitement and wonder!

"Slip" gets a name by class consensus, and also a new classroom habitat!

After chapel, language arts time with our fourth grade buddies

Reading strategies

First Grade Together on first grade explore days.

The vowel song...

Spanish

Story Workshop

Fire Drill

As of Friday, September 13, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album, please the the media tab above.

Dear All,

We've logged our first full week of school punctuated by morning sketches of a grasshopper, firefly, moth, Monarch butterfly, and praying mantis. Small groups are tasked next week with applying the sketching skills to poster-sized insects.

Please note that our class will have pictures taken this Thursday, September 19 from 2:00-2:25pm.

Also, Tuesday morning children will be having a short review of Bus Safety including practice loading and evacuation of a school bus from 8:50-9:10.

Half the class began a garden exploration on Friday afternoon with Ms. Meredith. The other half listened to a podcast with the Bug Chicks [that's right] (of Portland) on insect topics including the question: "What do Mosquitos Do In Winter?" The class will alternate B days from 1:30-2:00 with half-class activities.

Thursday 12:00-12:30 the children visited the Movement Room in Fariss Hall and were led through a round of Yoga Calm--Jedi Training by our counselor, Vickie Soli-Compton.

A recent Word Play query: what's the idea or concept in this group of words on the left?

[Yes, it fits the idea] [No, is doesn't fit the idea]

pop snap

eye ear

mom mother

dad father

91319 92319

Anna Anne

civic civics

racecar sportscar

noon evening

rotor prop

Now add your own words to the list of palindromes!

Engineers at work gathering information by observation . . . what seems to be working in this prototype? What seems to be a challenge?

This week we added "read to someone" to our daily language arts rotations....

After gathering, our buddies joined us in our classroom

Science

Observation and discussion - What do you notice about our tortoise? What does a tortoise need to live?

Recording our observations and what we've learned.

Whitmore's Wonders

As of Friday, September 6, 2019

For a link to this week's photo album, please the the media tab above.

Dear All,

We've had our first few days together--getting acquainted, learning classroom routines, sharing summer experiences, enjoying the four books of McDuff read aloud, pouring over picture books and non-fiction selections, and beginning to understand Paddington Bear. Ms. Juidi and I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday evening for Back to School Night!

Reading to self and reading with teachers . . . . Mr. Whitmore is reading with individuals in a nook by the front window, Ms. Alongi at her round table and and a drop-in visit by Ms. Kirstin who listened to several readers! Children pulled books from our classroom collection and found quiet areas around the room to do some sustained reading.

Step-by-step insect drawing of a dragonfly. It's our first in a series of practice drawings which are helping children to focus close attention to the size, shape, and detail--an exercise in really seeing what is presented as the model insect. Next up: grasshopper. How is a dragonfly different from a grasshopper? Why? I'll soon introduce some formal scientific classification names: Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids) to begin to see how insects can be organized by similar characteristics.

Morning Meeting and Sharing. Children discovered the Oregon Agricultural School Calendar for 2019-20 (left) loaded with interesting non-random-but-surprisingly comprehensive information regarding farming and ranching in Oregon. We like the ideas around anything that grows and needs nurturing.

A visit to the Science Lab . . .

Counselor Vicki Soli-Compton came to our classroom to share important ideas about self-regulation through self-knowledge.

Celebrating Qi's Birthday . . .

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