Valentine's Day

This Friday we will be having a Valentine's Day celebration! Mrs. Harrington and Ms. Kinsman wanted to do something special for the students, so we will be serving delicious Italian sodas! If you would like to donate a two liter of plain soda water, please let us know. We will need the bottles before Friday in order to have them refrigerated and cooled in time. Mrs. Harrington has already purchased cream and cups, while Ms. Kinsman will take care of the strawberry flavored syrup.

In addition to our sweet treat, students have been given plain envelopes to decorate as "mailboxes" for Valentine's Day. We sent home a class list on Friday, along with the envelopes, for kids who want to bring in cards for the class. This is not a required activity, nor is it necessary to send in extra candy or extravagant gifts. Simple, homemade messages or inexpensive store bought cards are just fine. The key is that all students are included and have fun.

Finally, we will be spending a part of the morning and the afternoon working on a special art project. In the spirit of love and sharing, we will be working on "Mixed Media Hearts" to help decorate the hospital room of McKenzie Anderson, a local girl who is working toward recovering from a rare illness that has left her paralyzed from the neck down. Ms. Kinsman heard about McKenzie's story from her sister (an employee of the Children's Miracle Network), and knew that a special art project from our class could do so much to brighten this little girl's day. She has been in contact with McKenzie's mom, who was delighted to hear that our students would be willing to share their artwork with her daughter. 

If you would like to volunteer on Friday afternoon, we can always use a few extra hands. We will begin our celebration around 1:40 and will work until the end of the day. Please let us know if you are interested in helping out!

Can You Say Field Trips? OH YEAH!!!!

We have MANY field trips in the works for this Spring.  It may, in fact, be a record number.  With support from grants, educational organizations, and sponsors, we are able to offer these rich and engaging educational opportunities for our 4th grade students.

We will be sending home permission slips this week with the students.  We will also be planning ahead for lunch needs as we need to order any school-made lunches early to help our kitchen staff.  We also need to ask for financial donations for two of our field trips.  Both Fort Vancouver and the Oregon State Capitol Trips are free with educational programs, but we need to provide our own funding for the buses on these two trips.  If you are able to help out with a donation, we greatly appreciate your assistance.

We will need parent chaperones!  We encourage you to consider accompanying us on one or all of our trips.  Sometimes our bus space will be tight, and there may be some trips where we need you to drive behind the bus(es), but we very much need parent help to ensure the oversight and management of the students in these various settings.

Below is a preview for you to see all of the amazing trips coming up.
Thank you for your support and help.

2/26 Charlie Brown (play performance by Glencoe High School)
3/10 Clean Water Festival (University of Portland)
3/11 Portland Youth Philharmonic (Downtown Portland Schnitzer)
3/19 Hagg Lake- releasing hatched baby trout 
3/20 Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, WA
4/9 Oregon Coast- Marine Hatfield Science Center and Tidepools at Yaquina Head
4/15 (Dow/Golay & H/K) and 4/22 (Ramchandar)  Tillamook Forestry Center
4/28 Oregon State Capitol
5/8 Oregon Historical Society
6/3 (Dow/Golay & Ramchandar) and 6/8 (H/K) Tyron Creek Park (near Lewis & Clark College)

The National Championship game created quite a flurry of excitement at Free Orchards.  One of our sixth grade teachers, Mrs. Dessert, held a challenge that the top "dressed" student at each grade level showing the best spirit would earn a new Ducks T-Shirt.  We are proud of our top two 4th grade students.  Congrats to Mason (right) for taking home first place from our 4th grade spirit competition.  We hope you enjoy wearing your new shirt, Mason!

Native American Studies

In reading, we are studying the Native American groups that lived in Oregon before European settlers moved into the area. Students have been placed into small groups to research the homes, environment, and customs of one region, and will present their findings to the whole class.

To help focus their research, we have created a list of resources that we feel would be helpful to fourth graders. Use the links below to learn more about Oregon's diverse Native American groups:

http://www.native-languages.org/oregon.htm - This is a site with many different links to help you learn about Oregon's different tribes. Be sure to read the links carefully to find the information you are searching for.

http://www.nps.gov/para/forteachers/upload/Total-Final-Curriculum.pdf -Information about the Pauite tribe

http://www.bigorrin.org/chinook_kids.htm - Facts about the Chinook Tribe

http://www.bigorrin.org/nez_kids.htm - Facts about the Nez Perce

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/or/county/clackamas/molallas.html - Information about the Molalla tribe in the Willamette Valley

http://www.critfc.org/for-kids-home/for-kids/indians-and-indian-tribes -Website for all the types of Indians – Can choose from Costal, Valley, or Plateau (no desert)

http://www.ducksters.com/history/native_americans.php - Nice simple timeline of American Native Indian History

Holiday Fun on Friday

We have a fun day planned this Friday, December 19, and wanted to let families know what to expect before winter break.

We will start our morning with two stations; the first is a craft project that half the students will work on while the other half play with Snap Circuits. If you are not familiar with Snap Circuits, they are a great way for our students to get some safe, hands-on experience with electricity. This is the perfect end to our energy unit, which we just finished today!

Snap Circuits: One of the coolest toys ever!

 

Later in the morning the students will be finishing their fun winter stories and then will have their last Artist in Residence session. Finally, we will return to the classroom for our Electronics Party!!! We let the students vote on a party to celebrate their participation in the food drive and electronics party won! Tomorrow, we will be sending home more information about our electronics policies, but please be aware that we have school iPads available to use rather than bringing devices from home.

If you would like to send a treat to school with your child to share with the class, please have your student let us know tomorrow. We will be offering these as snacks during our afternoon party. 

Have a wonderful winter break with your families. We look forward to seeing you all in 2015!

The joy of creating computer code.  Last week some of the 4th graders had the opportunity to do further experimentation in developing computer code.  As you can see from the video below it was met with the kind of enthusiasm that only our amazing 4th graders can exude. Students can do that at home as well.  Just go to Code.org and follow the directions.  I know some of them have already tried it.

Canned Food Drive

Despite our best efforts, the H/K kids took second place in the canned food drive! We lost by a mere eight cans! I want to give a HUGE thank you to all of our students and families who donated to this wonderful cause. I know our local food bank appreciates all of our efforts. Your kids have amazing spirit and big hearts.

The students furiously unpacking the huge donation from Peyton's family.

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