Silverwood Tree House

Treehouse Ape Cave & Tree Molds Adventure!

2011-10-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Treehouse Ape Cave and Tree Mold Adventure on Mount Saint Helens!

October 6th, 2011

The beginning of the Ape Cave, the longest lava tube in the U.S.. "This lava tube formed from an eruption of Mount St. Helens 1,900 years ago. A lava tube formed when the surface of a lava flow cooled and hardened, but the molten lava beneath the surface continued to flow.

Yhe cave averages 42 degrees Fahrenheit. This route that we took was the lower route, 0.7 miles (each way)."

The beginning of the Ape Cave, with no ladder; lovely stairs.

The "Meat Ball": "a block of cooled lava which fell from the lava tube ceiling while lava was still flowing through the cave. Floating on the surface of the lava flow it was carried downstream until it became wedged in a narrow spot above the present cave floor."

Next set of steps. No ladder, again.

Coming out!

The tree molds:

"Discover the molds or impressions of an ancient forest engulfed by a lava flow nearly 2,000 years ago, and an emerald forest that has risen from the black basaltic lava. If you bring a flashlight along, there is one opportunity to crawl throught the mold of a tree that stood at this site 2,000 years ago."

Students crawling through one of the tree molds.

Thank you to all of the drivers and parents for driving and picking up the students at a late hour. The students had an amazing time!

(facts found on USGS web site)

Talk & Dress Like a Pirate Day! Sept. 19th

2011-09-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

Ahoy, Mateys!

Septmeber 19th is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. Miss Ashley and I will be your captains on the ship the Treehouse. Arrrrgh!

Please feel free to dress and talk like a pirate at school. We will be doing pirate themed activities that reinforce what we are doing in math, social studies, science, and literacy.

So batten down the haches me hearties it will be a Jolly day!

Captain,

Miss Cindy & Miss Ashely

Welcome Tree House Friends!

2011-09-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hello 3rd & 4th grade families!

Our first day was a huge success! This going to be an outstanding year in the Tree House! We have a few housekeeping things to share:

The folder that says "Take Home Folder" will be brought home every night with home work items. The assignments will be written down in your child's planner. The planner and folder should come home each afternoon and return to school each morning.
Please check this daily for any notes or homework that may be sent home. A weekly "clean out" is highly recommended.

We have a water cooler in our classroom and each student should have a water bottle (with a lid) at school. Don't forget to write your name on it.

We will have a morning snack break each morning and your child should have a HEALTHY snack each day. Fruit, crackers, cheese sticks, and yogurt are a few ideas. Any chips, cookies, or sugary treats will be saved for lunch.

Another suggestion for each student's backpack is an extra pair of socks; we had many soggy ones last year.

If you have any questions, please let us know!

Activities of the week:
Keys to success: Miss Ashley and I have asked each student to come up with 5 ways/ keys that will help them be successful in our classroom. The students took a kind of test to help them figure out what kind of learner they are and this test aided them in figuring out their keys. The keys range from: "I like to work in a small group," to "I need a list to complete many tasks." This is some deep self awareness and the students really are happy that we plan to honor their way of being successful.
Math Assessment: 3rd & 4th level math started an assessment to recall what we learned last year. This gives Miss Ashley and I chance to see which topics need to be reviewed before we move on. Many students did practice multiplication tables, addition, and subtraction facts this summer and it shows! Keep up the great work!
PE: Cooperation Games: We played many games in groups that the students were challenged to work together to complete a task. They did great!
Volcanoes: We will be going on a fieldtrip to Mount Saint Helen's October 6th. We will be leaving at 7:30 in the morning and returning later in the evening, 7:00pm. We will be stopping to go to dinner.

We look forward to seeing every one at curriculum night Wednesday, September 28th.

Please check the calendar for upcoming events.

Have a great day!

Miss Cindy and Miss Ashley

Pioneer Village

2011-05-24T22:53:00.000-07:00

Pioneer Farm

As we wind up our studies about the Oregon Trail, we took a field trip to Pioneer Farms in Eatonville.

The students got to be pioneers for half of the day. They experienced life as a pioneer child.

Jake the Black smith.

A lovely sheep that gave us a bit of wool to make a little piece of yarn.

Off to school. This was the school bus back then.

Dress up. Some items that the young girls would have worn.

2011-05-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

4th Level Math Forts:

Day 1

Construction

Salmon Safari 2010

2010-11-14T09:11:00.001-08:00

Salmon Safari 2010!

Students got to see the life cycle of the salmon right in front of them in the stream.

4th grade Totem Making & 3rd grade Rattle Making

2010-10-26T15:12:00.001-07:00

4th grade Northwest Native American Totem Pole Making with the Queen!

AND

3rd grade Northwest Native American Rattle Making with the Queen!

Queen Helen is reading the fourth grade class a Native American myth to entertain them while they're carving totems.

The third grade class is coloring their Native American rattles so Queen can put them together. Jake completed his bob cat rattle.

Avery and Josie love horses so they made horse rattles.

Rachelle and Mia made a wolf and a horse.

4th grade

Jack is carving his beaver.

Conner is carving an eagle face.

Makailee is carving a bear.

Tyler is also carving a bear.

By: Makailee

Point No Point Field Trip

2010-10-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Point No Point Field Trip

We took another trip to the beach and a beautiful day it was!

The students looked at the sea life and plant life at this beach too.

The students will be comparing their perspectives of this beach to those of our Scenic Beach field trip.

Lighthouse on at Point No Point

Bald Eagle watching over us or maybe he just enjoying the nice day too.

Kassie curious about these huge sea plants???

Evidence of sea life.

Students taking a break in a wonderfully huge drift wood fort!

Hermit crab:

Come out please, we want to see you.

The hermit crab was camera shy. It came out after we moved the camera.

This big rock had lots of sea life attached to it and we got to play in the water.

We all took some great pictures and now we will begin our comparisons of the two beaches and make information cards for the animals that we found.

Thank You to all of the families that helped make our trip possible!

Scenic Beach Field Trip

2010-10-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

Scenic Beach Field Trip

We had a lovely day at the beach exploring the sea life of Scenic Beach State Park near Seabeck.

The students walked around and looked closely at the sea life which we photographed.

We will be making cards that have the aniamls/ plants sceintific name and common name as well as uses for this animal for our present day and uses that the native populations would have had for this animal. This goes along with our story path: Northwest Native Americans and our study of Washington this year.

Thank You to all of our drivers for our field trip!

Welcome to a New Year in the Tree House! 2010

2010-09-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

It is going to be a fun filled year in the Tree House. We are planning some great adventures to go along with our learning. Miss Vanessa and Miss Cindy have planned a couple of fieldtrips to the beaches to in our area to accompany our study of Washington state sea animals, wildlife, trees, and plants.
We will be studying the Native Americans of Washington and then after our winter break the students will be pioneers; getting different perspectives of some of the same time periods and perspectives of different groups of people.
It's going to be a great year!

Spring Musicals

2010-05-25T20:44:00.001-07:00

Phantom of the Music Room!!!

Just for fun: Anna and Jasmine being banana slugs; this was after they helped one of their fellow slugs cross the sidewalk. Thank you to Liam (2nd) for making the slug crossing.

Young Authors

2010-05-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here they are, your Young Authors!

Great reading and writing Authors.

Tristan pulling his hair out before his reading/ performance.

Actually, he is just getting into character.

Islandwood 2010

2010-04-17T10:20:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Islandwood, Silverwood students!

See video at the bottom of the page.

Islandwood a school in the woods.

Oh what a great school!

Here we all are in a long line, hauling all of our gear in carts to our lodge, Mammals Den.

A beautiful trail to haul our things into camp/ school.

Home Sweet Mammal Den!

Friendship Circle :)
We were at Islandwood with 3 other schools. Two were small independent schools and one was a public school that is our neighbor in Poulsbo.

Making a group contract and writing down the agreement. Team Wind with Mr. Mike.
Flat Zoe came with us on our trip as well. Miss Cindy's little sis hitched a ride on Miss Cindy's backpack.

Scavenger Hut in the garden and green house.

Map reading skills using our books and the 3D map. The students lead us down to Blakley Harbor with a compass and their maps!

Team Bog

Garden Fun! Compost!

Team Bog with Miss Lily and Mr. Zach.
Nettles, Yum! Miss Lily was preparing the green poky leaf for the students and explaining the chemistry and botany behind the plants defenses.

Most of the group had some to try. Tastes like spinach.

Suspension Bridge!

Oooooooo! Aaaaaaaaaa!

Mr. Zach explaining the mechanics and engineering of the suspension bridge.

Team Rain,

Bush Whacking, a rare treat! No trails used here!

Most of the time instructors do not go bush whacking or off roading with the students, but team rain's instructors felt that they had a team that could work together and handle the challenge!

Fish prints using beautiful Salmon.

(Flat Zoe watching Brandon create a masterpiece)

Welcome to Islandwood Video.

Sorry I could not move it to the top.

Museum of Flight

2010-04-17T10:01:00.001-07:00

3rd and 4th grade at the Museum of Flight in Seattle!

Thank You to all of the parents that drove us on the field trip.
The students were split into 2 groups: robotics and rockets. Each group explored different challenges that NASA takes into consideration for each project that they work on. The robotics group was given only a certain number of pieces that they could work with and they had to problem solve using only what they had. The challenge was to make a robot that moves back and forth, side to side, and can pick up an object and have a place that the object could be dropped into and taken back to the shuttle.

The rocket group worked on challenges dealing with launching rockets, rocket design, parachute design, and thrust v.s. weight. This group will be using the skills that they learned at the Museum of Flight to help teach what they learned to the rest of the class in early June when we study rockets.

Mars Rover

Robot Challenge! Get as many pieces of a wrecked shuttle out of the blue box in 3 minutes.

All of these robots were built by the robotic group and one is the chaperone's!

Testing! Testing!

Problem solving.

We also got a rare treat; the new 787 was taking off during our session!

Straw Rockets!

Wax Museum

2010-02-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

Wax Museum February 26, 2010

This years wax museum was a great success!

All of the students worked very hard on all parts of their notes, reports, poems, speeches, portraits and bibliographies.

A special thanks to all families for working on getting the great costumes together and working on parts of the project at home.

Here are some pictures from the day!

Great Job Everyone!

P.J.'s & Pizza! Thank You Families!

2010-02-16T22:22:00.001-08:00

The Digestion System: The End (aka poop cookies!)

2010-02-16T22:00:00.000-08:00

Poop Cookies!
The end of the digestive system! Yummy in all of the digestive system!

Families Thank You for the helping is win the P.J. and Pizza Party!

Thank You for supporting Silverwood School and our students!

3rd & 4th Digesting Digestion Skit

2010-01-25T20:01:00.000-08:00

Chomp, Chomp, Chomp!!!

Chew up that food.

Nutrients are left behind (the coats that Trinity, Tristan, and Lily are shedding). Then to the esophagus and on to the stomach where the food is broken down more being squeezed by a huge pink muscular bag. The Liver extracts nutrients and sends the food onto the small intestine.In the small intestine the food is broken down farther and absorbs nutrients. The large intestine is next. This is where the remaining food particles makes the journey out of the body, hence the toilet at the end.

Credits:

Food: Trinity, Tristan, and Lily

Mouth an teeth: Cooper, Erasmo, Aidan

Esophagus: Robert & Ali

Stomach: Jasmine & Susie

Liver: Brandon & Connor

Small Intestines: Alexis & Anna

Large Intestines: Zak, Makailee, & Joe

Rectum/ Anus/ Toilet at the end: Katie, Jack, & Tyler

Special thanks to everyone for letting the food borrow their coats to be left behind as nutrients in our digestive system!

Great Job Everyone!

We will be studying the byproducts of our digestive system as a close and for a bit of fun after taking the MAT test. Watch for poo cookies, coming home Thursday or Friday!

Lego + Math = Fun & Learning!

2009-12-08T21:02:00.001-08:00

Lego Math Time!

Have you ever noticed that Lego's have dots on them and they may be great for making multiplication and fraction Math problems?

This was the question that was posed to the students.

They all had 10 minutes to build and then had to make a drawing of their creation and make a Math problem that went along with the blocks and the number of dots on the blocks.

Like if their are four dots on the top of block, two by two, this would be two times two.

As you can see from the creations the students had their work cut out for them.

The students came up with great multiplication and fractional problems for their creations.

Many of the students found that this helped them to see the multiplication problems!

In the end:
Lego's + Math = Fun and Learning!

Pop Goes the Volcano, Mount Silverwood

2009-12-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

Stand back everyone, Mount Silverwood is getting ready to blow her top!!!!

Queen Helen and Miss Cindy thought of one last, fun way to wrap up our study of volcanoes and add a little Math into Science.

We placed an air pop corn popper in the center of a huge paper and made geographical landforms around Mount Silverwood.

The Students were in groups and made towns in their section of the volcanic landscape.

Each group made a prediction about how much "ash or hummocks," popcorn would fall in their section.

Then each counted their "ash/ hummocks," popcorn, recorded their data, and ate the findings.

Next we did this process all over again on the same sheet, but this time Queen Helen of the Winds turned on a huge box fan.

The students predictions and explanations of what they thought would happen with the fan blowing were great!

They recorded their findings and shared with the groups that did not get as much to record.

We will return to volcanoes a bit latter in the year when we study the planets and moons of the planets!

Great job everyone on your volcanoes for the volcano party!

If you have any pictures that you would like us to post from the party please email them to Miss Cindy or Miss Vanessa.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll! Seismographs

2009-11-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

We have been gearing up for our Volcano Party (Nov.20th, 2009) by learning about how we can predict an eruption. One way is measuring the vibrations and movements of the earth.

We had a whole lot of shaking going on in our room!

EARTHQUAKE!
We leanred how a seismograph meaures the movements of the earth and how it shows up in a reading.
We predicted what would happen to the reading from the table being still to the moving of the table. (no tables were hurt in this experiment)

Please look around the classroom for the seismographs. We have put them in different areas to measure the movement/ vibrations of our traffic patterns.

Potions Class

2009-10-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

Miss Lisa and Miss Kat organized a wonderful treat for our class today! We had a little potions class making some delicious Stone Soup. Miss Jill entertained us with a Stone Soup story set in China. We added all the ingredients as she read. Each student wrote down the recipe and we had a little introduction to fractions

YUM! Lunch was out of this world! Our minestrone soup was a huge hit and we hope you enjoy making it at home soon!

Water Bottle Volcanoes

2009-10-29T18:37:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we did an experiment comparing a volcano to the reaction that takes place when vinegar and baking soda mix. Many groups learned that it is crucial to quickly get the tissue full of baking soda into the bottle and tightly seal the top with your hand before shaking. We had a great discussion about what we could do differently to make a larger eruption. I think our scientists have some great ideas on how to make their own volcanoes even better for our Volcano Party on November 20th! Erasmo, Trinity, and Jasmine had the most spectacular eruption of the day.

Volcano Science

2009-10-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

What happens to a river and lake ecosystem when a volcano erupts like in the case of Mt Saint Helen's?

Anna and Jasmine are building the river and lake ecosystems out of sand and the other out of dirt. Will the outcome be different?

Lets find out...

Sand

The eruption has taken place and there is a huge amount of water, rocks and lava that come rushing down the mountain. The sand river and all of its vegetation have washed away.

Dirt
Another eruption.
The students wrote a hypothesis and drew what they thought may happen from their knowledge of the eruption of Mt Saint Helen's.
Afterwards, students wrote and drew their observations from our experiment.

Flashback before the eruption...
a peaceful stream of water trickles down our student made banks.

A note went home today, Monday, explaining the Volcano Party that we will be having on November 20th, 2009; at 2:30pm.
Each student in the 3rd and 4th grade will be making a volcano at home and bringing it to school for the wrap up to our volcano studies. It will be an explosive time!
How to make a volcano links will be in the links section on the side of the blog.
If you have any questions please email Miss Vanessa or Miss Cindy.

Our Trip to Mt. Saint Helens!

2009-10-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful trip!

Thank you to all of the parents that joined us on our trip and drove us to and from Mt. Saint Helen's!

3rd and 4th graders at Coldwater Lake getting ready to head out on the trail and work on a lesson about habitat near a volcano. We looked at landforms, water changes, plants, animals and how they all were changed by the eruption of Mt. Saint Helen's. Coldwater Lake before the eruption was a creek and became a lake and a kind of dam after the melt water came down during the eruption.

Students practiced their climbing skills to get on top of this building (it is built into the side of a hill, but they all thought that it was great)!

Mt Saint Helen's as the clouds cleared away, for a moment.
We were very lucky to see the mountain, the lava dome inside of the crater, and the steam rising from the lava dome!

Gate to Mt Saint Helen's, rest stop for us.

Here are the 3rd and 4th graders at the Johnston Ridge observatory. Mt. Saint Helen's came out for a couple of minutes while we were taking the picture.

We went into Johnston Ridge Observatory and watched the movie "Message from the Mountain." The students had an activity to do as they looked around Johnston Ridge Observatory learning about the stages of the Mt Saint Helen's eruption.

We hiked a bit around Johnston Ridge taking in the beautiful sights and cute little squirrels and frogs.

Mt. St. Helens Here We Come!

2009-09-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Our first field trip of the year is next week! Here is a packing list for our day at Mt. St. Helens:
backpack

rain coat

warm jacket

comfortable shoes (we’ll be doing some hiking along a dirt/gravel trail)

an extra pair of socks (if the forecast is calling for rain)

bug spray (it was pretty “buggy” when we visited in August)

water bottle

lunch

“car friendly” snacks (nothing sticky or juicy)

Books, drawing paper, etc. for the car ride

If you choose to bring an I-pod or video games you are responsible for it. It will only be used in the car. If it becomes a problem, the adult in the car will keep it until we return to Silverwood. Please make sure your electronics are charged.

Our car caravan will be departing Silverwood promptly at 7:30 a.m. We will return to school at approximately 6:00 p.m. If we are delayed because of traffic, we will contact parents via cell phone.

SCHEDULE FOR THE DAY:

7:30 a.m. Depart Silverwood

11:00 a.m. Arrive at Coldwater Lake Recreation Area
Exploration Activity

12:10 p.m. Lunch

12:40 p.m. Depart Coldwater Lake Recreation Area

1:00 p.m. Arrive at Johnston Ridge Observatory
Meet with park ranger and view exhibits at the visitor’s center

1:40 p.m. Message from the Mountain theater presentation

2:00 p.m. Hike along the Eruption Trail

2:30 p.m. Depart Johnston Ridge Observatory

6:00 p.m. Arrive at Silverwood

Writer's Notebook

2009-09-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

This morning we got our Writer's Notebooks. We'll be filling these with many stories, poems, and thoughts throughout the year. We spent about 20 minutes outside using our 5 senses and writing descriptions of our surroundings. The Writer's Notebook is coming home today. Please decorate and return it to school by Monday (21st). Enjoy the pictures of our writers.

First Week!

2009-09-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

We are off to a terrific start to our school year! Everyone seems to be excited to be back in the routine of school. :) We started our first 2 novels, How to be Cool in the Third Grade and Fourth Grade Rats today. It was a beautiful morning to sit outside in the grass and enjoy a great book. In math, we've been doing some assessments to find out where everyone is and we're going to do some review of telling time next week. Yesterday was an introduction to volcanoes and today we located some of Washington's volcanoes and began talking about the different types of volcanoes. Miss Helen joined us for Geography this morning and we took a little quiz on geographic landforms to see where we need to start. Archipelago seemed to stump most of the class. :) Before lunch we brainstormed a list of the 50 states. Putting our heads together, we came up with 41 of them. Next week we'll start our regular schedule, kicking off the week with art and environmental science.

The First Day of School!

2009-09-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

Our first day was a huge success! This is going to be an outstanding year in the Treehouse! We have a few housekeeping things to share:

The red folder your child brought home is his/her Take Home Folder. This folder should come home each afternoon and return to school each morning. Please check this daily for any notes or homework that may be sent home. A weekly “clean out” is highly recommended.

One change you might see from last year is there is no parent/teacher communication sheet in this folder. If you have a message for us, please contact us by email (cindy@silverwoodschool.org or vanessa@silverwoodschool.org). If you’d like to write a note, please tell your 3rd or 4th grader that there is a note in his/her Take Home Folder and it needs to be given to Miss Cindy or Miss Vanessa.

We debated on what kind of folders to use as Take Home Folders this year. The plastic folders are stronger but papers do not stay in them. We went with the cardboard folders, realizing that they will probably have to be replaced throughout the year. We’d like to recommend that you reinforce this folder with some clear packaging tape.

We have a water cooler in our classroom and each student should have a water bottle (with a lid) at school. Don’t forget to write your name on it.

We will have a morning snack break each morning and your child should have a HEALTHY snack each day. Fruit, crackers, cheese sticks, and yogurt are a few ideas. Any chips, cookies, or sugary treats will be saved for lunch.

Another suggestion for each student’s backpack is an extra pair of socks-we had many soggy ones last year.

If you have any questions, please let us know! We look forward to seeing everyone at our curriculum night on Tuesday, September 29.

Back to School Night

2009-09-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

It was wonderful seeing everyone this evening at our Back to School Night! It's very exciting to see those empty cubbies fill up. We heard from many of you that supplies were few and far between at a few stores. No worries, we'll take them when you can get them.
Thank you to the SPA for all their hard work coordinating the evening. If you brought something for dinner-thank you! It was delicious!
See you tomorrow! ;)

Mount St. Helens Here We Come!

2009-09-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

We are very excited for our first field trip of the year: Mount Saint Helens! On Thursday, October 1, we will have an extended school day visiting the Johnston Ridge Observatory and Coldwater Lake Recreation Area. Here are a few pictures from the scouting trip we took last month. Our travel companions, Camden and Gavin, taking in the awesome landscape!