Week of December 8th

We have a tradition at Washington School in which each class does some research and creates projects about a winter holiday. We put all our projects together and then display and discuss them at the celebration. Our holiday is the Buddhist holiday, Bodhi Day. We have been working hard on our Bodhi day projects and using lots of glitter for our jewels. Next week we are going to decorate cookies shaped like the Banyan tree leaves. In math we learned a silly new song about being rounding heros. Ms. O's singing voice isnt so good. In social studies we finished watching a video about the american revolution. During reading time we have been working on reading graphs and completing cause and effect charts. Next week we are going to make our own ginger bread houses to bring home for winter break.

Mrs. Choudhary had her baby last Friday night. Anthony Nicholas was born December 5th at Loyola University Medical Center. He weighed 9 lbs. 5.6 oz. and measured 20.5 inches long. She and Anthony are resting and adjusting to the new life at home.

The fish!

If you move the mouse over by the fish tank, you will realize that the fish follow the mouse! They are hungry! Just click on the mouse, and it will drop little green food in the tank for these little colorful creatures. Thanks for keeping our fish fed!

December Mix

Enjoy some winter music to get into the holiday season!

Week of November 24th

This week was very short. We only had school for a full day on Monday and then a half a day on Tuesday because of Parent/Teacher Conferences. Both days we worked on some researching of the first Thanksgiving. We performed a Reader's Theatre play and really enjoyed that. Tuesday, some representatives from the American Cancer Society came to talk to us about the dangers of smoking. We also started our reserach on our Winter Celebration, Bodhi Day. Each classroom at Washington School is given a Winter Holiday to research and create a display for the rest of the school. Our celebration will be December 18th. Members of the Schiller Park community are welcome to come out and see what we have learned. Bodhi Day is a Buddhist holiday in which the Buddhists celebrate Buddha's enlightenment. We started to think about how we want to present this information to the school and what we want to create. It will be a fun project to work on in December.
Ms. Olszewski will be our new teacher from now until April as Mrs. Choudhary is ready to start her maternity leave. We will still keep you updated with what's happening in our classroom. :) Happy Thanksgiving!!

Week of November 17, 2008

This week was a very hectic week for us at Washington School. It was a week that was very abnormal. We took Common Assessments, so we did a lot of reviewing in math and reading all week. On Monday we met Ms. Olszewski who will be taking over for Mrs. Choudhary when she has her baby. Ms. Olszewski stayed with us all day and worked with us in small groups to get to know us better. Thursday we had a very special day. All morning we had special guests who came in to do Junior Achievement with us. They taught us about geography and having a small business. We learned about profits and costs and we were even able to play some games that went along with our businesses. In the afternoon, Kennedy School (where we went to preschool-3rd grade) welcomed us back for an ice cream treat. They told us we did so well on our ISAT's last year that they wanted us to come back so we could celebrate. We had vanilla ice cream with all kinds of toppings: chocolate chips, m&m's, whip cream, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, and sprinkles. We really had a treat! Today we are at the Lincoln Park Zoo studying our animal groups and animal adaptations. If we have some good pics, we'll post them so you can see what we were up to! It's chilly out there, so we are glad we came in our winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves!
Next week we have a really short week. We will be here all day Monday and then only a half of a day Tuesday because of Parent Teacher Conferences. Wednesday-Friday we will be on Thanksgiving Break. If we do not post next week, you'll hear from us in December!

The Week of November 10th

On Tuesday, we celebrated Veterans' Day. We were celebrating all of the Veterans who help keep the United States free and safe. The Chorus of Washington School sang in the gym for a special assembly. Many important people, including some veterans from Schiller Park came to our assembly.

Last night was Sports Night. We played badminton and had a fitness challenge. We had pretzels and graham crackers for a snack because we played so hard.

Some people received a Frank and Iggy Bronze brick for earning 50 points on their AR quizzes, and were able to read with Ms. Kopta's dogs today, Frank and Iggy. Our first two earners of Bronze Frank and Iggy bricks were Riya and Albi! Congratulations to them both and we hope to have more students reading with the pups soon!

In Science, we are writing about different animals. We are reporting on an animal's group, habitat, if they are an invertebrate or vertebrate, 6 or more interesting facts, and all of their adaptations. We were able to choose our own animal to reserach and then study about it. We are now choosing our own project to create about that animal.

In P.E. class, we are learning how to play basketball. We were shooting and dribbling the ball around the cones in stations. In Art, we were using water colors to paint pictures of whatever we want. In Music, we are learning how to play the keyboards. Gerardo tells us that he is learning how to play Batter Up on the keyboard. He thinks it's easy! :)

In Reading, we played on Study Island today. We were working on drawing inferences with the text. We can play different games while we answer questions such as Sling Shot, Bowling, and Ski Lift. If you check out our website, you can link to Study Island. Sorry...you'll need a password and a username to get in!

In Writing, we started doing essays on what we observe and what we realize. We wrote a whole class on essay how raising our hands in school gives everyone a fair chance. We also wrote an essay on the story, Teammates by Tiki and Ronde Barber. We learned to stretch our thinking by using sentences that start with "For example...", "I realize...", "Many people think...but I think", and "This is important because".

In Math, we are learning about factors, primes, square numbers, and multiples. We are using square inch tiles to help us see this clearly. Yesterday we learned how to make prime factorization trees to find the the prime factors of a number. We are also continuing our multiplcation time tests! Some people are really studying hard for those!!

In Social Studies, we are watching a video about what happened during the Boston Massacre. We learned that a gun accidently went off and killed someone. This led to the French and Indian War. The colonists needed to be taxed on the tea, paper, and ink. They taxed them on these things so they could pay for the war. The colonists were dressed like American Indians during the Boston Tea Party and dumped all of the tea into the sea.