Space Colony Photos

The Power and Water Team

The Mars Rover and Garage

The Greenhouse Team

The Rocket- a.k.a- F.C.I.S
(First Carrot in Space)

Last Weekly Update of the Year! June 3, 2009

Hard to believe, but this will be the last blog entry of the year! What an amazing year it's been!

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday, June 10th -Field Day

Thursday, June 11th-Beach Day

Friday June 12- LAST DAY! Dismiss at noon!

Reading: We've been busy wrapping up the year with our tri-annual reading assessments. Once again, we're impressed by the efforts, growth and love of reading that all the Beacons exhibit. We are also still reading the novel, Naya Nuki, by Kenneth Thomasma.


Writing: As many of you saw at the Space Colony fair, the research reports are done. These second graders continually amaze me with their abilities. It's pretty rare for most second graders to be doing research reports on nebulas, quasars, black holes and such. We are finishing out the year with freewriting and sharing during author's chair. It's fun to look back at their writing from the beginning of the year and see how much they've grown.

Math: The Dragons are finishing out the year getting familiar with decimals and a yearly review and the Cool Blue Dolphins are finishing out the year getting ready for third grade skills.

Science: We hope you all enjoyed your visit to our space colony and seeing all the Beacons' have learned about astronomy. We'll be finishing the year dismantling our space station, coming back to Earth and thinking about all we've learned this year: from States of Matter, Weather and Astronomy.

Social Studies: Please see the photos in the following blog for there are all of the happy photos of our spectacular day being Lewis and Clark at the Downtown Tacoma Thursday Farmers' Market. We wish you all could have been with us!

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

Here's the a FANTASTIC year with your Beacon!

Betsy and Tamara

Tacoma's Thursday Farmers' Market, May 28, 2009

We're off on our Lewis and Clark Field Trip to the Thursday Tacoma Farmers' Market. Students were each given $2.00 each to purchase food items that they felt the Corps of Discovery will need in order to survive their incredible trip. Students were broken into teams of two. In each group one Beacon was Lewis and the other was Clark. Students were only able to purchase a few items for their $2.00, so they needed to select carefully. They each had to write down the item's name, then write in how much it cost per unit of measure. For instance: 3 for $1.00 or 3 for 1 pound etc. They then were to put down the amount of money they spent, put down the amount of money they received as change and then go onto the next vendor. I was very impressed with all the hard work each student put forth in deciding which item to purchase. One student scoured the market for salt for he thought it was extremely important only to find that the only salt that was sold was lavender salt for $6.00 an ounce! Needless to say, he went onto another item, herbs.



We unloaded at the new site of the new Seabury Middle School. VERY exciting to see!! Here we are as we got off the bus to begin our Lewis and Clark expedition!

Here is a vendor explaining to all of us which vegetables are the most nutritious and which ones dried the best.

Hard at work, doing the math, figuring out the price per unit measurement!

Weekly Update, May 19, 2009

Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 2009

Upcoming Events:

NO SCHOOL this Friday, May 22nd. Teacher In-service- child care available- call Joslyn A.S.A.P.

NO SCHOOL on Monday, May 25th. Memorial Day

JUNE 2- Corps of Exploration- Space Colony party 2-3 in the Beacons' room

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE BEACONS' WORLD !

Writing: We have a master group of scientific researchers AND creative writers. By popular demand we have gone back to "free writing" with and author's chair format. All the practice that we've done over this year is really showing in their ideas, creativity and story development.

They have also been working very hard on research reports about deep space. I have been truly amazed at the abilities of these second graders to research difficult concepts, decide which facts are important and put them them into their own words. This synthesis of information is a skill expected of much older children. Gotta love these Seabury kids!!!

Reading: We have started reading the novel Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran by Kenneth Thomasma. This story is a fictional tale based on The following journal entry by Meriwether Lewis about Sacajawea return to her Shoshoni tribe. We drew near to the camp and just was we approached it, a woman made her way through the crowd toward Sacajawea, and recognizing each other, they embraced with most tender affection. The meeting of these two young women has in it something peculiarly touching, not only in the ardent manner in which their feeling were expressed, but from the interest of their situation. They had been companions in childhood. In the war with the Minnetares they had both been taken prisoner in the same battle. They had shared and softened the rigours of their captivity until one of them escaped from the Minnetares with scared hope of ever seeing her friend relieved from the hand of her enemies.

The author took this excerpt and created a fictional story of a girl escaping the Minnetares in North Dakota and making a thousand mile trek back to the mountains of Montana. I have been begged and given 'puppy dog eyes" to convince me to keep reading!

Math:

Dragons: Comparing and ordering fractions has been more challenging for this group. We spent some time this week backtracking and playing with models of pizza fractions and such to develop a more complete concrete understanding of fractions. We'll spend some more time practicing and working with fractions and then go on to order them on a number line.

Cool Blue Dolphins: They have been working with the Singapore Math curriculum on mental math, time, money and multiplication facts.

Science: Just as I mentioned in writing, we have an expert team of deep space researchers in class. Did you know: A nebula is a interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma where new stars are formed?; That there are 3 main kinds of galaxies: spiral, elliptical and irregular; That blue giants make up most of the stars we see at night; A supernova is a blue giant exploding and can be brighter than an entire galaxy? ; A black hole pulls matter in by gravity not suction; A a quasar is found 13 billion light years away....

Come let these 2nd graders teach you more at our Space Colony party on Tuesday , June 2 from 2-3

Social Studies: We are enjoying retracing Lewis and Clarks' Journey of Discovery. Students are making great field guides of the flora and fauna which the Corps of Discovery "discovered".

Here's a bit of information on Memorial Day, which is this coming Monday:

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (on May 25 in 2009). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.

The following is an award winning poem by my brother,

John Traill Bird.

Last Monday in May

We pause to remember those who died

With so much courage, so much pride

They'll never come back, yet memories endure

To remind us of freedom; fragile, pure

We're worthy of their sacrifice if we pause each day

Not just on the last Monday in May.

Looking forward to another exciting week with the Beacons,

Tamara and Betsy

Weekly Update May 12, 2009

Here's some Beacons as they performed in "Anansi the Spider and the Middle Passage"

Upcoming Events:
Spring Music Festival! Wednesday, May 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Knutsen Theater. (students please arrive at 6:30) The program will feature music presentations from the whole school, a scene from the drama club play and a performance from Seabury's Garage Band.

Space Colony Presentation: Tuesday, June 2 from 2:00-3:00 here in the Beacons' room

Here's What's Going On in the Beacons' Room:

Writing: Hope you liked your Mother's Day Poems!
We have just started to work on "official research reports". Students will choose from Deep Space topics such as: galaxies, quasars, nebulae, black holes and life cycle of stars. We will work finding important facts, writing them in their own words , and putting them in an outline format. From there we will write 3 paragraph reports. It will be challenging, but we have been building skills all year and they are ready for it!

Reading: We have been busy reading poetry, silent reading, and working on SRA cards.

Math:
The Dragons: Are making lots of pizza as they study fractions. We are working on equivalent fractions. I did have one student ask, "why do we need to learn this?"! So of course, I went on a long tangent about all the ways we use fractions in every day life. It will be great if you can enforce that concept at home. If you cook with your child, have them figure out equivalent fractions in measuring ingredients. Have them cut slices of pizza, lasagna or brownies into different sized portions and create equal servings. Food will almost always get their attention!

The Cool Blue Dolphins: Completed the "End of the Year Test" with excellent results. They have shown strong retention of all the facts and concepts learned this year. are working on the final section of their workbooks, " looking ahead to 3rd grade math." They are having fun with this.

Science: We are working on a constitution for out "Corps of Exploration" (the now official name for the space colony) and soon we will vote for a president and a vice president. As we fictitiously settle into living on Mars, we look towards deep space and begin research projects on: galaxies, nebulae, quasars, black holes and the life cycle of stars. We will be using these two web-sites frequently.

http://www.kidsastronomy.com
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

You are invited to see the colony and all our space knowledge on Tuesday, June 2 from 2-3 in the classroom!

Social Studies: We're learning all about the amazing items Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery took with them. We are learning about the "artichoke" coda that Jefferson and Lewis devised to protect their secret messages!

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

~Berthold Auerbach

Looking forward to another exciting week at Seabury,
Tamara and Betsy

Weekly Update May 6, 2009

Drama Club Presents: "Anansi the Spider and the Middle Passage" Thursday, May 7th at 6:30 pm and at 9:00 am on Friday, May 8th in the Multi-Purpose Room.

Space Colony Presentation: Tuesday, June 2 from 2:00-3:00 here in the Beacons' room

Here's What's Going On in the Beacons' Room:

Writing: We have been writing Haiku this week. The students caught on quickly to the format and the poems range from silly to profound. We're also working on a secret project but that's all I can say!

Here's some Haiku from the Beacons:

A dog in the snow
covered in a blanket now
now is invisible

Blowing in the wind
The beautiful evergreen
Standing in the woods.

Leaves slowly drift down
from a beautiful oak tree
piling on the ground

Math is fantastic
Math is so magnificent
Math is so awesome

The old Frog jumps. Splash!
in the pond swimming, swimming
croaking and splashing



Reading: We have been busy reading poetry, silent reading, and working on SRA cards.

Math:
The Dragons: The Dragons are ready to take the chapter test on probability and displaying data. They will then begin Chapter 13- Developing Fractions.

The Cool Blue Dolphins: They are wrapping up the last chapter of their books. They will then spend time reviewing and building essential skills and concepts that will ensure a solid start in 3rd grade math!

Science: The students are finishing posters that help to better explain the thinking that went into the models of the colony.
Once the colony is completed, we'll turn our sites to deeper space; learning about the life cycle and classification of stars, the constellations and investigating black holes, nebulae, super novas, and quasars. Students will practice the research skill of discerning important information and summarizing it into their own words.
You are invited to see the colony and all our space knowledge on Tuesday, June 2 from 2-3 in the classroom!

Social Studies: We're learning all about the amazing items Lewis and Clark took with them and the "artichoke" coda that Jefferson and Lewis devised to protect their secret messages!

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease. ~Lisa Alther

Have a wonderful Mother's Day!
-Tamara and Betsy

Our Fun-Filled Grandparents'/Special Friends' Day