This afternoon our students participated in a service project making fleece blankets for children who are patients at Gilette Hospital in St. Paul. We worked with 3rd grade buddies from Mrs. Deans’ class. Here are some photos from blanket making, and also from our latest leveled reading book projects:

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This week our class wrote notes to Woodland staff members thanking them for all they do to make Woodland such a fabulous school. I was very proud of how thoughtful and conscientious students were while brainstorming a list of adults to acknowledge, writing the notes, and hand delivering them! I am thankful to spend my days with such great young people!

Reminders:
6th Grade T-shirt orders due 11-30
The Food Drive continues
Clothing drive for Liberia begins 11-30

Enjoy the long Thanksgiving weekend, and please know that I am continually thankful for all you do to support your children!

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Our 6th Grade Musical “We Built This City”  will air on cable channel 21 at the following times:

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

10:45 AM Woodland Elementary 6th grade musical: ‘We built this city’, 11/12/09

2:00 PM Woodland Elementary 6th grade musical: ‘We built this city’, 11/12/09

5:00 PM Woodland Elementary 6th grade musical: ‘We built this city’, 11/12/09

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

11:30 AM Woodland Elementary 6th grade musical: ‘We built this city’, 11/12/09

7:30 PM Woodland Elementary 6th grade musical: ‘We built this city’, 11/12/09

Thursday, November 26, 2009

5:00 PM Woodland Elementary 6th grade musical: ‘We built this city’,

Schedule is found here: http://www.district279.org/DistrictNews/CableTV/
and it is subject to change

Enjoy!

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Our class has begun a new science unit on Electricity. Your child will be investigating the properties of electricity.

We will focus on the following process skills:

• observing
• recording data
• inferring
• predicting
• classifying

We will practice these skills with the following content objectives:

1. Observe and record properties of static electricity
theory of negative and positive charges
objects charged with electricity either repel or attract
2.  Compare a wet cell to a dry cell
3.  Light a bulb using batteries, bulbs and wires
4.  Understanding of an electrical circuit:
open or closed
conductors vs. non-conductors
series and parallel
switches
5.  Identify parts and functions of a light bulb

Students have science packets that can come home for studying/review anytime. There will be a vocab quiz this Friday for my homeroom, and Monday for Mrs. Wagenman’s homeroom. Please ask your child what they’ve been doing in Science class, and/or encourage them to try these at home activities:

Static Electricity:

• Describe how and why objects either attract or repel each other
• Give real life examples of static electricity

Current Electricity:

• Draw a closed circuit
• Draw an open circuit
• Draw a short circuit
• Explain how electricity travels in a circuit
• Make a list of conductors and non-conductors
• Draw a parallel circuit. How many paths does electricity have to follow?
• Draw a series circuit. How many paths does electricity have to follow?
• What is the difference between a closed and open switch? Which will light the bulb?

Here are some photos of Mrs. Wagenman’s homeroom experimenting with electroscopes:

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Happy Friday!
I am so proud of our 6th graders for all of their hard work with the musical! What a success! Before you enjoy a few great photos, please note that Project Copernicus starts on Monday, so students who have returned a signed permission slip may bring laptops to school starting Monday. Please email me with questions!

We have a food drive starting Monday – it would be great if each student could bring in at least one item next week!

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Sick of me inundating your inbox with reminders to check the blog? Follow this link for some quick and easy directions to subscribe to this (or any other) blog! I will continue to send email reminders for the time being, until we’re all subscribed!

In other news, students are working on bus safety review projects. They are using their safety knowledge to create a song, poem, narrative or essay that can be shared with younger Woodland students. Projects are due Monday 11/16 for my homeroom. Students have a directions sheet and rubric, and families are welcome to help with editing!

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Our silent auction basket is beginning to come together; many thanks to those families who have contributed games, movies and snacks. We are still in need of more items to fill out our Sleepover theme. Also, I am still looking for a parent volunteer who would be interested in organizing/beautifying the basket, and someone willing to donate/purchase the basket or container which will hold all these goodies. Please email me if you’re willing to help out! millerlaura@district279.org.

Thanks so much for all you do to make Woodland such a fabulous school!

Here are some recent photos of group work in Health and Math Team Time:

using one of our net books to create a PowerPoint for Health

Brianna creating with Tangrams

Hannah's Tangram creation

Mia and Cailee writing their Health skit script

Josie, Emily and Cyndi hard at work

Parker and Mitchell working on their group's PowerPoint

Olivia, Sarah and Alex research for their project

Noodlers - one of our favorite math extensions!

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As a part of Project Copernicus (our laptop initiative) our classroom has received 3 netbooks and an additional Dell desktop computer. It’s been great integrating the additional computers into our classrooms. We used them for book projects last week, and this week we’ll use them for math extensions and a Health group project!

Full implementation of Project Copernicus begins November 16th, when students will be allowed to bring their own laptops and netbooks from home. A letter outlining the pilot project, and a permission slip (only necessary if students will be bringing a computer from home) were sent home a few weeks ago. If you need another copy, visit Mrs. Brown’s blog: http://blogs.district279.org/brownrojanne/blog/2009/10/09/project-copernicus/ 

Another picture just for fun – Josie expressed herself with our etch-a-sketch during indoor recess last week!

Happy November!

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2009 WOODLAND SILENT AUCTION during Turkey Bingo Night

Friday, November 13th  5:00 to 8:00

Woodland is hosting our annual Bingo and Silent Auction Night.  Every year classrooms put together baskets to auction off to raise money for the PTA. The money raised goes to support our children and their education at Woodland.  The PTA supports technology, music, art, reading, DARE, and many other programs at WD!  Our classroom has chosen a theme for our basket and we are very excited to work together to have fun and raise funds for Woodland.  We are asking each child to bring a new item that reflects our chosen theme or donate money to purchase items.  Donations will be collected in our classroom from Monday, October 26 through Tuesday, November 10th.  Please send your item and one dollar to help purchase a basket or container for our theme.  If the container is donated, we will use the money to purchase ‘final touches’ for the basket. Please notify me (millerlaura@district279.org)  if you are able to donate this container. 

The theme for our room is

If you are able to donate any additional items for the auction, it would be greatly appreciated.  All items must be new.  You could donate tickets for sports or theaters, gift certificates for movie theaters, stores, or entertainment venues, craft items,  or any other items.  These donations can become part of a larger basket, added to another class or a basket of their own.  Feel free to create your own basket for the auction!  Perhaps your employer would donate a basket?      Thank you for your participation and your support!    Questions? Email: WDPTA@yahoo.com

Thanks so much for helping to make Turkey Bingo and the Silent Auction a huge success!!

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