Class Halloween Party

A few pictures from our Halloween Party. If you took some class group pictures, can you please share with me? Then, I will share with them with everyone. Thanks.

Giving Tree

Giving Tree Service Learning Project (a message from Margaret Rajan)

Dear Teachers,

The Service Learning Coordinator (incorporating the helping hands of our AISC students with your guidance), the Elementary Student Council, ASA Girl Scout Troop and PCA Elementary Grade Level Representatives, are sponsoring our second Annual Giving Tree to support 300 students in 4 area orphanages. Through the work of Mr. Balajee, our Service Learning Coordinator, we have expanded our outreach this year by an additional 120 children! We are so grateful again for the opportunity to express our compassion and creativity as we move into the holiday season and bring year 2014 to a most successful and helpful close. As always, we are asking that teachers encourage students and their families to support this worthy effort.

The 4 orphanages our Giving Tree will support are:

Home Of Hope for Boys by the World of Life Church – 50 children

Assisi Ilam Orphanage – 25 Kids

St. Joseph Social Service Center (two locations) – 40 Kids and 130 kids

Seva Samajam Girls Home – 55 Kids

The Giving Tree will be set up on or about November 19th in the Elementary Cafeteria.

1. Children/parents can take a star off the tree and purchase a small item useful to the child

on the star. This year we will try to play Santa and the children at the orphanages will be allowed to request a specific gift!

2. We would like the present to be wrapped, and the star attached to the gift (stars will be

color-coded to indicate which orphanage gift will go to). The wrapped gift is to be returned

to a drop off box in the Elementary Library. Thank you to Mr. Jet for helping us find a safe

spot to receive the gifts. The gifts will be collected at the end of each day during the drop off

period.

3. The last day to drop off gifts will be about December 10.

4. Gifts will be dropped off to the orphanages sometime after December 14, dates to be determined by Parent Gina Makawana and Mr. Balajee. Like last year, delivery is open to

any families interested in visiting the orphanages.

5. Communications will also be sent to parent community via the PCA representatives and

room parents and shared with the student community via the Elementary Student Council

members.

Most importantly, in the spirit of continuous improvement and working towards a service

learning culture, we would also like to expand the number of AISC children’s helping hands

touching the stars and need your assistance in the following:

1. Cereal box donation drive – encourage the children to bring empty cereal boxes from home between October 27 and November 3. The PCA room parents will also send out a message to the parent community. The boxes are to be dropped off with Ms. Prisca in Elementary reception and the PCA grade representatives will collect them and cut to size for the base of the stars.

2. The PCA grade reps will provide materials required to make up the stars to the Art teachers, the Elementary Student Council, and parent JoAnn Restuccia leading the Girl Scout troop by November 7 and the appropriate children can work on decorating these from November 7 through November 18. Mr. Balajee will be exploring if the Highschool student service group would be able to join the ES Council and work with the children in the making of the stars as well. If there is any teacher interested in including their homeroom in the making of the stars, please contact Mr. Balajee, Margaret Rajan (mrprice1@yahoo.com), or Gina Makawana. (gina.makawana@yahoo.com) and a set of stars will be sent to you to work on with your class. Please feel free to help if you feel moved to do so!

3. Teachers Pam Thompson and Deanna Doherty, leading the Elementary Student Council, will collect all the stars and work with the ES student council to put the stars on the tree on or about November 19. The Elementary Student Council can again work on writing the rules to be posted by the tree in several different languages to make this accessible to our diverse community.

4. The PCA representatives will organize a methodology to honor the work of all the children and teachers who lead them, who touch the stars throughout the process.

Again, thank you for supporting this and creating a tradition of caring through the Elementary School Giving Tree Project.

Update Oct 17

Announcements:

Halloween. October 31^st Party from 2-3pm and Parade 3:10-3:30

Field Trip to Kariacheri Village with Storytails on November 14^th.

Google Calendar

4E has a Google calendar, which shows important school events as well as large homework assignments. You can see and subscribe to this calendar either through your student’s account or through the 4E class Moodle page. Please contact me if you have any questions or need help.

Hope you have a Fantastic Diwali Break!

I hope you all get a chance to rest and have a wonderful time with family.

I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures.

Please read below to learn what is happening in the units when we return:

Literacy:

Students have been working to explore characters in the books they read. When we return, students will use the reading strategies and character trait skills they have learned to start book clubs. In book clubs, students need to come to reading workshop with details, explanations and their thinking written so they can fully participate with their group.

Students will be writing a 5 Point Essay about their experiences in India. A five-point essay has one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs with support and development, and one concluding paragraph.

Math:

We will continue to work conceptually with multiplying, dividing, and solving word problems.  Students will continue to work on:

·      Multiply or divide to solve word problems by drawing models, writing equations and solving for a missing number.

·      Represent word problems by using equations with a letter standing for the unknown number.

·      Find all factor pairs for a number 1 to 100.

Social Studies:  The Geography of South Asia

Students have started working on a movie that shows how Pangaea formed the Himalaya Mountains. Students have watched the first segment, Daughter of the Mountains, with 4A and started taking visual notes. We will continue to add to our movie about the Himalayas to show how the Ganges was formed. From this video, we will start to move from how the geological features of South Asia affect the culture and life of the people who live here.

Sincerely,

Ms. Chris and Ms. Lauren 

Update October 12th

Announcements:

• Report Card Presentation. Tuesday Oct. 14^th 8:45-9:45 in FAC
• EAL Parent Meeting. Wednesday 2-3 in 4^th grade EAL room.
• Diwali Assembly. Thursday Oct. 16^th 8:45-9:45 in FAC
• Realistic Fiction Writer’s Celebration. Wednesday Oct. 16^th 10-11 in 4E, following Diwali Assembly.
• October Break:  October 18th-26^th
• Halloween Party and Parade. October 31^st.

Realistic Fiction Celebration: Thursday following the Performance

Please come to our writing celebration following the Diwali performance.  Students have been working for weeks on their stories and this is our opportunity to share them with each other, and with you. The celebration will be in our classroom, 3136.

Please read below to learn what is happening in the units this week:

Literacy:

Students will be working hard this week to make revisions and edits to their realistic fiction stories.  Meanwhile, it is time for us to assess the students reading comprehension, as well as the evidence of “thinking work” they’ve been recording in their reading notebooks.  Ms. Lauren and Ms. Chris will meet with each student to perform running records, as well as to review Reading Notebooks with the students.  

Math:

We continue to work conceptually with multiplying, dividing, and solving word problems.  Students will:

• Multiply or divide to solve word problems by drawing models, writing equations and solving for a missing number.
• Represent word problems by using equations with a letter standing for the unknown number.
• Find all factor pairs for a number 1 to 100.

Social Studies:  The Geography of South Asia

Students have finished their geologic landform vocabulary slideshow. They will present their slides to their classmates Tuesday morning. This week, students will make videos to show what they know about the formation of the Himalayan Mountains.  These videos are being uploaded to the e-portfolios.  We will then start to look at the “Daughter of the Himalayas,” the Ganges River. We will be watching a movies from the BBC, that connects the fabulous landforms in India and how the effect the life and culture in the surrounding area. The first segment, Daughter of the Mountains, is available on Youtube.  If you are interested in The Ganges, this is a beautiful film.  

We hope to see everyone this Thursday for the Diwali Performance and the Realistic Fiction celebration.

Sincerely,

Ms. Chris and Ms. Lauren

Passion Projects

4E and 4A will be starting to explore "Passion Projects" this year.
The idea behind passion projects is to give time and support for students to explore their passions and interests. Then in the classroom we can practice some skills and strategies we have learned in workshop and class discussion to our own interests.
Today, we watched this clip by a young man, Robby, in the United States who is working with his brother, Brad, on their own passion project. They make movies for fun but also to spread hope and joy. They challenge their views to "Make the world more awesome."

We are still brainstorming and thinking about what excites and inspires us. We will continue to work on developing ideas and thinking of new projects for a couple more weeks. Ask your child about their ideas, interests, and passions.

Pottery and Glass Blowing Demo

Today 4E went to go see two craftsman on campus. Every student got a chance to make their own piece of pottery and we all watched the glassblower draw with glass and blow into the glass to make different objects such as a vase, a peacock, a Christmas ornament, and an elephant!