Winter break

It's hard to believe the year is almost half over, but here we are in the middle of December already! We've finished our second round of benchmark testing (expect results in January), are about to wind up our study of weather, and will take chapter five math tests on Thursday. We'll be all ready for a fresh start when we come back from break on January 7th. To celebrate the end of school in 2008, we have a party planned for December 18th, from 12:30 to 1:30. Please come join us! If you would like to bring food for the party, healthy treats would be much appreciated. After the party, students will be watching a movie in the auditorium, sponsored by the Student Council.

My due date (February 18th) still seems far away to me, but it is beginning to approach ever more quickly. I have five interviews scheduled this week with potential replacement teachers. I really look forward to meeting them all, and to hopefully finding someone who will lead the class for the remainder of the year. When we do hire someone, I will let you know -- and invite everyone to meet the new teacher before he or she starts work. Thanks for all of your support through this process!

Balarat!

From Balarat

Well, we all survived our Balarat adventure, and I think everyone had a wonderful time overall. Sure, there was some moaning and groaning, especially when we had to get up at 6:30 for a sunrise hike, or make it to the top of the hill before we could eat lunch, but I was really impressed with how well all the students followed directions, paid attention, and learned new things, including four types of trees, how to bake biscuits in a wood stove, and how to assay ore samples! Highlights of the trip have to be the solo night walk, the low ropes course, and the Big Swing. To find out more about our trip, read the articles below, all written by fifth graders, and visit our photo album!

History of Homesteaders, by Kory
My favorite part of the [homesteading] activity was making biscuits and cleaning the house. The reason why I like the biscuits is because you get to actually make it step by step. The biscuits tasted really good. The reason why I liked the cleaning is because you get to wash the dishes old-school style. You also get to wash, sweep, and wipe off the tables.

CSI Balarat: Microscope Station, by McKinley
At CSI, we had to solve a "crime". There was a person who built a fort and we had to find out who did it and what animal the person killed. At the microscope station, we looked at the samples they collected from the sleeping bag and collected four different hairs from people. You had to match the hair they found in the sleeping bag to the hair from the other people. And they found some fiber from the sleeping bag the person slept in, and you had to match the fiber from the sleeping bag to fiber from the shirts of the four suspects.

Solo Night Walk, by Monique
The solo night walk was the scariest walk ever because you would have to walk by yourself in the dark. There were five landmarks to follow so you wouldn't get lost. Also, you can just follow the road and you won't have to look at turns because the road will turn you.

Ropes Course, by Lety
The ropes course needed us to work together a lot! We all needed to support each other just in case one of us fell and they needed to get us back in place. The ropes course was really fun. The best part was working together and getting to know people!

Native Americans, by Angelica
When we went to Balarat, we learned about how the Indians made their tipis. Then we learned that the Indians had to make sure that the door to their tipi faced the same way as the others [to the east]. We had to work together to make it right! Lany (our highschool counselor) helped us too.

Giving thanks and going to the mountains

It was such a short week that time really flew by -- we managed to fit in some writing ("easy essays" about our favorite time of year), some science (ask about our smoke box, which models how wind travels toward heat), some math, and some reading. The big excitement, after Thanksgiving break, of course, is the upcoming fifth grade trip to Balarat. Balarat is Denver Public Schools' outdoor environmental program, located up in the foothills above Boulder. It's been open for almost forty years, and provides every fifth grader in DPS with the unique opportunity to spend some quality time up "in the mountains". This year we are lucky enough to be able to spend two nights and three days up at Balarat. Both fifth grade classes will be going up together, and we will mix up students and teachers so everyone will have a chance to get to know new people and see friends in the other class. My fourth graders will stay at school with a sub, but they are already looking forward to going to Balarat next year (and having three whole days without those annoying fifth graders around....)!

Enjoy your break, and if you are (or have) a fifth grader, remember to pack warm clothes and a sack lunch for Monday. The Balarat bus will leave at 9:15, so don't be late! We will return around 3:30 on Wednesday.

Molecular what?

Molecular gastronomy, that's what Chef Ian showed us today, with his amazing concoctions using liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Everyone was amazed by the flavor of the super-smooth ice cream he mixed up, and making your own soda by adding CO2 to water (and lots of sugar) was pretty neat, too. Frozen popcorn or marshmellows, anyone? I only wish I'd had my camera, to capture the waves of smoke pouring out over our desks! It's wonderful what you can do with science these days....it was a great kick-off to a week that includes the Science Fair on Wednesday night. Here is a link to Chef Ian's blog, where he mentions visiting our class.

For anyone who wants more, more, more.......Chef Ian works at O's Restaurant, in the Westin Westminster. The address is 10600 Westminster Boulevard, and here is a map. If he sends me any recipes, I will be sure to post them!

Election Results

Results from Palmer's voting: 89% of students cast a vote for Obama, with 8% voting for McCain and 1% of votes for third party candidates. In DPS overall, almost 16,000 students voted. The vote percentages were very similar to Palmer. To take a closer look at the national results, both state-by-state and within individual counties, check out this map!

Halloween Carnival

From Halloween

Our annual Halloween Carnival was last Friday, since we are now in the middle of our Fall Break. It is always a fun time! Each classroom sponsors a booth, which means lots of activities, from bowling to mini-golf to scary stories and the haunted maze. Thanks to all the parents and older brothers and sisters who helped out with volunteering in a booth, donated a cake or other baked goody for the cake walk, or served our pizza dinner. Of course, costumes are the best part! Some pictures from the evening are here.

Hope everyone is enjoying their fall break -- I am spending mine finishing up report cards, sorting through baby clothes, and sleeping in!

Buddy time!

From Kindergarten Buddies

Something we look forward to every Friday is the time we get to spend with our kindergarten buddies. Each fourth and fifth grader is matched with a kindergartener -- at the beginning of the year, we helped them get to know the cafeteria, and now we meet on Fridays to work on projects and to read books together. The pictures in our photo album are from two weeks ago when the students drew portraits of their buddies. The portraits are hanging in the hall downstairs. Yesterday we had our first reading time -- first the kindergarteners proudly read their first books to their buddies, then the older kids read aloud from more advanced picture books while the kinders followed along. It's fun to watch, and it benefits both children! Older students practice fluency and feel proud of themselves as readers, while the younger children get some one-on-one attention and an excellent role model not that much older than themselves. I'll try to take more pictures this week to add to the album.....in the meantime, ask your child to read aloud to you!

Weather or not.....

We started our new science unit today -- and it's all about weather! We won't get into the real meat of the topic for a few days, though, since we're still learning about what science really is and what scientists really do. (If you're curious, they ask questions, investigate, use tools, share ideas, record data, develop explanations, and ask more questions! And that goes for scientists and students studying science....)

As we begin to learn about weather -- what it is, how it works, and what factors influence it -- please pay special attention to weather reports on the news, or the weather page from the newspaper. Help your child notice that temperatures vary widely from place to place, and encourage him or her to wonder why. Talk about the weather outside, and make a prediction about what tomorrow might be like. Remember, scientists are always asking questions!

SPREE trip

The fourth and fifth graders recently got to go on a great field trip, hosted by SPREE, the South Platte River Environmental Education group. This group organizes trips to the river for kids in all grade levels, and focuses not only on river issues (clean water, healthy environments, etc) but also on bringing history to life! For lots of great pictures of the fourth grade trip, check out our photo album, or go here for pictures taken by parent volunteers. For fifth grade trip photos, click here. Parent chaperones, we really appreciated your help with pictures, gold panning, and general organization!

Thanks to fourth grader Natalie C for the following article about our trip!

Today my class went on a SPREE field trip. There were different stations. One of the stations is the gold mine game. They have yellow balls. They either have c, g, or d on them. D stands for dynamite. They elected one person, way back when, to go check if the dynamite all went off. If it didn't, you have to light it and run to safety! C stands for cave-in. If one happens, you try to run for safety. [G stands for gases. Harmful gases were found in mines that could kill you.]

The next station is the spirit of the winds and sky station. There they tell you a story. It goes like this: One day the sky thinks she needs more stars. So the wind goes to the cottonwood tree, where all the stars are caught on the branches. The wind blows the tree until the stars all fall out. Then the sky is happy. We made necklaces with branches [from the cottonwood]. At the tip of the branch is a star!

The next station we went to the the Ghost Town. PS: it's not scary. When you walk in, you get to push the log to launch the bucket into the air [using an old winch]. That was pretty cool. Next, we saw the log house. We talked about how different it is from our houses now. The floor was dirt, and the house was short. The house was dusty! Last but not least, there was no electricity. Those were interesting things to compare. Next, we saw the wagon. It was very interesting to see that it didn't have electricity either.

Next, we saw three trees. The characteristic of a fir [needle] is flat and friendly. [Spruce trees have sharp and square needles, and pine needles come in packets.] After that we ate lunch. Later we went down to the river. First we learned about how to pick out the gold [from our gold pans]. We got in groups and the lady told us if we found any gold. After that we got to look for shells, crabs, and crawdads. Then we had to grab all our things. The time we did not want to come came -- it was time to leave. So we said goodbye and thank you and got on the bus. That was one very fun field trip!

Benchmark testing

We've finished our first big round of testing for the year -- only three more to go! Benchmark tests were designed by the district as a quick and easy assessment of students' skills and readiness. They are graded by teachers in schools, so the turnaround is much faster than CSAP. This makes them much more useful to us! These tests, in reading, writing, and math, help teachers know right away what our students' needs and strengths are, which helps us plan instruction. Ask your child about how they think they did! Feel free to talk to me if you have specific concerns. Otherwise, I will let you know the testing results at conferences in October.

We'll take these tests twice more this year, as well as taking CSAP in March. Expect to see substantial growth! It's always amazing how much learning we can pack into a single year.

Ms. LaVenture

Welcome!

Welcome to a brand new school year, to Room 204, and to News from Room 204, our class journal, or 'blog'. I will post news on this page about important upcoming events as well as notes about homework, behavior expectations, and class projects. I would also love to have students contribute articles to this site. Hopefully this blog can become an information source for your family that is even more reliable and easy to access than Friday Folders! Imagine how much paper we could save.....

This page is also linked to our online class photo album (see link to the right, or click here), so students and parents can quite literally see what is going on in class. You'll notice photos from last year's Shakespeare Festival, and soon there will be new albums from this year.

I hope you enjoy using this site as a tool. Please feel free to check back frequently, and don't forget to leave your comments or questions!

Thanks for your support,
Ms. LaVenture and the students of Room 204