Mt. St. Helens Here We Come!

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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!