April/May Highlights!

Hello 307 Families! Ms. Trapp here. April has been a crazy and busy month in 307. I have taken over teaching responsibilities and it has been an exciting and eventful time! Here are some of the things we've been up to lately:

Reading: We started a poetry unit early in April as part of National Poetry Month. Students had a chance to dive into different types of figurative language, think critically about what makes something a poem, and read lots of fantastic poems! The past couple weeks, we've also started writing poetry. Students are excited to share their work at 307's Open Mic Coffee House this week.

Writing: As many of you probably heard, there was some debate at Leschi related to assigned seating at lunch. All of the 4th and 5th graders wrote powerful persuasive letters to Ms. Claytor to eliminate assigned seats. Their letters persuaded her and the 4th and 5th graders have returned to free seating at lunch. Ask your student to share a copy of their letter that helped to persuade Ms. Claytor! It was awesome for students to see that their writing can make a difference!

We've also started a new unit where students will have a chance to write their very own graphic novels. Look forward to seeing their incredible artwork and creative storylines soon.

Science: Last week, students participated in 307's first ever science fair! They had a chance to share their hard work with each other and with students from Ms. Deese's class. We all learned a lot from their interesting projects! I sent home graded rubrics with the projects so please make sure to check those out!

Math: In math, students have been working on geometry. We've been learning all about different types of angles and the properties of different shapes.

Upcoming Events/Reminders:

• Last day of SBAC is Friday, May 22nd!
• No school on Monday, May 26th for Memorial Day.
• Field trip to the Pacific Science Center on June 1st.
• 5th Grade Promotion on June 11th - PLEASE return the Caps & Tassels permission form/$!

Last Friday was Leschi's annual Jogathon. The "Smartiez" ran hard and helped to raise a lot of money for Leschi. Here are some of the pictures from the event:

Weeks 23, 24, & 25 Highlights!

Happy first day of spring!  The month of March has flown by so quickly that it has been hard to update on all of the events!  We have been finishing up units of study in many different subjects.  We also spent time with Islandwood educators to compare the diversity of aquatic life in Lake Washington versus a pond on Bainbridge Island.  We were able to go to Lake Washington and explore, play games, and really dig deep into the process of scientific experiments.  Here are some pictures of students on this lovely Seattle morning!

A couple weeks ago, 5th graders went on a field trip to watch the Women's Pac-12 game, while 4th graders remained at school and had a fun cooking challenge!  We watched a short episode of MasterChef Junior and had a challenge with a secret ingredient: Krispy Kreme donut!  This was such a fun time for students to be creative in making their masterpieces - here is how some of them turned out.

Pi Day was last week and we had PIE!

This past week, we had instructors come for Garden Club.  Students worked on planting seeds and playing fun games together.  It was a great time!

Updates:
-We are wrapping up our information text unit in writing.  Students chose focused topics relating to civics that they were interested in and they researched more deeply to create their final research report.  Students will be adding text features and typing up their reports next week.

-In math, we are finishing up decimals/fractions and starting on measurement.

-Our unit on Microworlds ended this week, and next week, we will be starting to learn about Land & Water!

-In reading, we had debates on topics in our read aloud Gregor the Overlander.  It was a great practice for students to understand how debates work and the structure of an opening argument and writing rebuttals.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Weeks 21 & 22 Highlights!

Hello 307 Families, Ms. Trapp here!  We've had a busy couple of week after returning from Mid-Winter Break.  Here are some of the highlights:

Last week, we celebrated the 100th Day of School with a special treat (10 pieces of 10 different snacks equalling 100!) and "100" themed games.  Students had a lot of fun playing the "100 Seconds to Win It" games!

It was wonderful to see and talk with so many families at Leschi's Black History Night this past Thursday!  The 4th and 5th graders did an amazing job reciting the affirmation "I Stand Tall."

Updates:
-In our nonfiction writing unit, students worked on publishing their Civics reports.  On Tuesday, we celebrated all of their hard work on their reports with a teat and a chance to share their writing by giving compliments to each other.  307 also got the opportunity to host residents from Ms. Trapp's teaching program, the Seattle Teacher Residency, for writing studio days.  The residents had a chance to work closely with our students and helped them to polish their reports.

-This week in our Microworlds science unit, students had the chance to become detectives and idenitfy mystery substances using microscopes.  They are really becoming microscope experts!

-All of our math groups are continuing their work with decimals right now!

-In our Fantasy reading unit, we continued our read aloud of Gregor the Overlander and met with book clubs.


Upcoming Events/Activities:
-This week, we will go on a walking field trip to Frink Park and the Leschi Marina area to explore and investigate organisms for our science unit.  This field trip will be led by educators from the Islandwood program!

-5th graders will be going on a field trip on Friday to the Pac-10 Women's Basketball game with Mr. Moriarty.  It should be a fun time!  4th graders will have a fun day at school as well with some activities!

-Seattle Music Partners 5th Grade students will go on a short field trip on Wednesday morning to Washington Middle School.

Week 20 Highlights!

We celebrated Valentine's Day this week as well as invite Beecher's Cheese Pure Food Kids Foundation to come and teach us how to make vegetarian chili and hold a nutrition workshop in our classroom!  Both were fun days where we got to make food/snacks and get lots of hands-on experience in our pseudo Room 307 Kitchen!  Take a look at all of the pictures of students chopping (look at their chopping skills!) and helping to make our chili - the onion group had to take many breaks due to the tears! :)

For our Valentine's Day snack, we made Sweetheart Buddies and although it wasn't the most nutritious snack, it sure was delicious!  It got pretty hectic with everyone helping to make it and I forgot to take action shots, but here is the finally product!  We had it with some strawberry milk... yum.

Updates:

-In our current writing unit, students continued revising their Civics informational pieces and focused on writing strong introductions and conclusions.  All students should be finished with their first drafts and ready to start publishing this week!

-All math groups are working on their current decimals units!

-Students were excited to begin working with their very own microscopes during science this week!  They had the chance to examine small pictures called microfiche under microscopes and will start observing microscopic organisms soon.

-For our fantasy unit in reading, we continued our read aloud of Gregor the Overlander and met with our book club groups.  Students are expected to finish their reading and the book club assignment by the time the book club meets each week.  There is a lot of accountability within the group to finish and produce quality work and have a meaningful conversation.

-Last but not least, this week, Ms. Trapp taught a philosophy lesson!  Students participated in their first ever philosophical discussion.  They had a chance to hear some of Plato's Myth of Gyges and talk about what makes something right or wrong.  We will continue to have philosophy sessions once in a while with Ms. Trapp - it really makes them think!

Reminders:

-Black History Biography Projects should be well under way at home.  If not, please start now!  Rubrics will go home this week!

-100th Day of School is on Wednesday, February 18th!

Week 19 Highlights!

Hi 307 Families!  Ms. Trapp here.  February is off to a busy start in 307.  Here are some of the highlights from the week:

-On Monday, Leschi hosted two community members for the first Black History Month assembly, Dr. Danielson from the Odessa Brown Clinic and Dr. Dawn Mason, a former Washington Representative.  They both gave encouraging and inspiring talks to our Leschi community.

-On Thursday, the 4th and 5th grade classes participated in the Global Reading Challenge.  Two students from 307, Erica and Tali, won with their team the Reading Rockets and will be representing Leschi at the semi-final challenge!

-Students met with their Kindergarten and 1st grade buddies in Ms. Chin's class on Friday to work on a Valentine's fraction activity.

Updates:
-This week in reading, we started a new Fantasy unit!  We began a new read aloud, Gregor the Overlander, and started our fantasy book clubs.  Ask your student about their new book club book!

-Science started back up this week with our new Microworlds unit.  Students worked on making scientific observations and will begin using microscopes next week!

-Students began making revisions to their information text drafts in writing.

-This week in math, we started learning about decimals!

Reminders:
-Black History Night is coming up on the 26th of this month.  4th and 5th grade students at Leschi will be completing a Cereal Box Biography!  It will be a fun project to share information in honor of courage African Americans in our history - details coming home this week!

-5th grade families: permission slip for FLASH went home on Thursday - please be sure to sign and return them to indicate whether or not you want your student to participate.

-Mid-Winter Break is coming up!  There is no school on February 16th and 17th!