Congrats to Marathoners!

Kids fighting for position at the start of the 2015 SVMMCongrats to all our students who completed the Sams Valley Mini-Marathon last Friday! All our Roadrunners did a great job. Our own Haylee B. finished first among the girls, sixth overall, and first among CPE kids. Her time of 21:18 is a new course record for girls! Additional congrats to Abbie N. who won a third place medal, as well as to Ethan J. from Mr. Kuhlman’s room and Jeromy G. from Mr. Hadley’s homeroom. Ethan and Jeromy earned 6th and 7th place medals respectively, and Ethan was the highest placing 4th grader. Six-hundred and two students completed the race.

The unacceptability of 38-student classroom has resulted in some relief during reading and math class. Beginning Monday we’ll be adding a third teaching position to our program. Mrs. Challman and Mrs. Lewis will be job-sharing this position. Mrs. Challman is well-known to CPE families due to her time teaching 1st and 2nd grade, but she’s also taught intermediate grades at other times during her long career. Mrs. Lewis has taught 1st grade in Eagle Point and 5th and 6th grades in Medford. Students will remain in their “Llama” and “Alpaca” homerooms and afternoon groups, but will be redistributed for language arts and math classes. They’ll cycle through all three reading classes over the next nine weeks.

We’ll be undertaking our first Adopt-a-Street clean-ups later this week. The Llamas will be cleaning up 2nd Street on Thursday afternoon, while the Alpacas will clean-up Hopkins Street on Friday afternoon. The kids will head-out immediately after lunch recess and return before dismissal. We need adult chaperones for this activity. If you’d like to join us, please let us know.

Finally, check out a snippet from the Lava Beds trip. In this one, Josiah is wearing the Go Pro as a group of kids climb out the secret “back door” of the Indian Well cave.

 

Big Friday!

2015svmmgSpecial thanks to all the adult-volunteers who joined us for the MacGregor Park field trip last Friday. The kids learned a ton about the salmon life cycle, tree biology, and fire science. This Friday is an even bigger day with both the Mini-Marathon and the non-Halloween party on the same day!

Our Big Friday starts first thing in the morning. The kids don their Mini Marathon shirts and race tags, jump on a bus, and head out to the country roads of Sams Valley for the annual 5000 meter run. This is our 41st Marathon, and it never fails to impress. If you’ve never witnessed one, make the drive out to SVE and take a gander. It’s a blast! The race starts at 9:30, but you’ll want to get there early to find parking.

The Llama group will spend the afternoon in an electronics and PJ party. Kids may bring school-appropriate electronics provided they can take responsibility for their welfare. They can also change into school-appropriate PJs, slippers, and the like. We hope to be watching the movie, “The Witches.” We’re just finishing up reading this hysterical Roald Dahl novel in class, so we’re excited about seeing how closely the movie lines up. Note that the movie is rated PG, so if you don’t want your child watching it, please let me know and we’ll find some alternative activities for them. We’d also like to scarf down a few tasty morsels, so if you have some snacks you’d be willing to send in, please do so. Thanks!

 

Student Council Results

student_councilThe results of our student council elections are in!

Congrats to all the students who ran for office. Each of them delivered a fine speech. They’re all leaders, and we’re certain they’d all make fine representatives. The voting was exceptionally close, too. For example, in the Llamas groups, just two votes separated the third through sixth place finishers.

From the Alpacas, Ryder, Allie, and LaKenya came out on top. For the Llamas, Abigail, Sidney, and Jorden were elected. Emma will serve as the first alternate, meaning if a representative is removed from office, she will assume his or her duties. Note that all representatives are expected to demonstrate good attendance, be excellent citizens, and maintain good grades. Students who fall behind in their work or get a referral will be subject to impeachment (removal from the council).

The Student Council will be holding their first meeting soon. Let’s show them our support and help make CPE an even better school!

Walk ‘n Bike to School Day

Click on the picture for more infoWednesday, Oct. 7, is Walk & Bike to School Day at CPE. Kids can meet at American West Bank on Pine Street or at Van Horn Park on Freeman Road to travel with a school-supervised group. Of course, they can also just walk or bike from their own home. The purpose of the event is to encourage kids to walk and bike to school on a regular basis.

Kids are bringing home their Lava Beds permission slip this week for our trip on Oct. 16th. If they paid for the cancelled Crater Lake trip, they needn’t pay for this one. Otherwise, the cost to attend is $3 (which covers transportation). We need numerous chaperones for this trip. If you’d like to join us, please be sure you’ve completed a Volunteer Application within the last two years. Chaperones will be expected to supervise small groups of students going in and out of the caves. Also keep in mind that this includes some rigorous physical conditions such as climbing ladders/stairs and squeezing through tight spaces.

Be watching for the Mini-Marathon registration forms, which will also be sent home later this week. Kids can also beginning collecting on their sponsorships for the Jog-a-Thon, which they ran on Friday. Finally, the Llamas and Alpacas switch Language Arts classes this week. Mr. Lewis will have the Alpacas and will focus on a new set of plays (performances will be Oct. 29th), vocabulary development, Super Sentences, a perfect paragraph activity, and some short reading work. Mr. Hadley will have the Llamas and will focus on a literature group using the book Frindle, a perfect paragraph, a set of spelling lessons, and a handful of short reading tasks.

Feel free to email either of us with your questions: charles.hadley@district6.org; mack.lewis@district6.org. Thanks.

Crater Lake This Thursday!

2000px-Mount_Mazama_eruption_timeline_4.svgWhat a pleasure it is to have this group for another year. As I’m sure the kids have mentioned, our 5th grade program is much different than fourth grade. Mr. Hadley and I are “team teaching” all 74 fifth graders, deploying them in various groupings and to various sites throughout the day. We’d like to tell you all about this approach, our new, supplementary report card, and much more at Back-to-School Night on September 24th. 

In the meantime, we’re already preparing for our first field trip THIS THURSDAY. We’ll be returning to Crater Lake National Park. If you recall, last year we hiked up Garfield Peak. This year we’ll be climbing The Watchman, which is much easier. We also focused on Native American history and lore last year, whereas this year we’re focused on geology.  The bus to the lake leaves at 8 a.m. and will return between 4 and 4:30. If you’d like to join us as a chaperone, please let me know.

Crazy New 5th Grade Coming Soon!

Mr. Hadley and I are pulling out our hair* trying to plan our new team-taught 5th grade program, but rest-assured it’s going to be wild! CPE 5th graders will be sharing two rooms, Room 15 and the Musicless Room. The groups will move between these rooms as they get their learning groove on. Mr. Lewis’ “homeroom” students will begin the day in Room 15 and Mr. Hadley’s will meet in the Musicless Room. What happens from there remains to be seen. Stay tuned!

We’re already underway planning a variety of field trips. Even though we’ll be returning to places we visited last year, we’ll viewing them through a different lens with all new activities both in class and in the field. Here are the fall trip dates so far:

Sept. 17th — Crater Lake

Oct. 2nd or 16th (tentative) — Lava Beds

Sept/Oct date TBD — Adopt-a-Street Clean-up

Oct. 23 — MacGregor Park

Oct. 30 –Sams Valley Mini-Marathon

*If you know Mr. Hadley, you already know the meaning if this asterisk

Report Cards & Summer Break

Report cards went home today, Tuesday, June 9th. If you have any questions regarding your child’s performance, please feel free to email me at mack.lewis@district6.org. We can arrange a phone conversation as well.

This summer, all students need to review and practice their multiplication and division facts, read regularly, and stay active (we have a rigorous outdoor-oriented curriculum planned for next year). I’m also encouraging students to keep a daily journal. In this way they’ll improve their writing skills and handwriting. Students who would like to share a paragraph and photo from a vacation activity can get it posted on The Daily Platypus simply by sending an email (with pic attached) to mack.lewis@district6.org. Finally, online math practice via Moby Max and IXL are both accessible from home all summer. Students took home their log-in info today. Visit The Platy (dailyplatypus.org) regularly for updates about 5th grade, especially before buying school supplies.

I’m looking forward to having this class for 5th grade. Until then, enjoy your summer!

And So It Ends.

What a marvelous school year. Despite our large class size and our hectic schedule, this year’s Room 15 kids did a fantastic job. They spent their year acting out plays such as Peter Rabbit and reading great literature including all those Roald Dahl books. They studied a timeline of history from pre-Columbian to Lewis and Clark. They conquered a variety of math skills including all those complicated fractions, the “bank robber” method of long division, and using a protractor. We also filmed a couple episodes of CPETV (with a third one still to come). What a year for hiking, too! Room 15 kids explored the Lava Beds, conquered Garfield Peak and Lower Table Rock, donned snowshoes at Crater Lake, and picked up nearly a hundred pounds of trash during our Adopt-a-Street clean-ups. They also collectively logged 5,745 miles during our morning fitness run. Jaden F., our champion, had the most, running nearly 300 miles by himself! Molly wrote and directed a play, Yuri starred in the high school’s Mary Poppins musical, and Brayden and Yuri won Fact Car Rally. Haylee B. finished third in the Sams Valley Mini-Marathon, Hailee H. went to the regional finals for the Elks Hoop Shoot, and Sophie Q. and Sidney had the highest totals in our Checkbook Project. Kara introduced us to tarantulas and see-through eggs, we messed around with mealworms, and researched endangered species. And so much more! This is what elementary school is supposed to look like. I can’t wait to see what these kids do with 5th grade!

We’re finishing the year with Roadrunner Day, yearbook signing, 5th grade vs. staff softball, and the Year-in-Review and 5th Grade Baby Picture Slide Show (click here to view and/or download it). Come join us, won’t you!

Year’s End

Congratulations to our Students-of-the-Month for March, Sidney L. and Peyton K.; for April, Diego E. and Molly S.; and for May, Emma Z., Jazmine H., and Jonathan Q. Sidney, Peyton, and Diego received the award for their class leadership throughout the year. Moilly received the award for her exceptional writing, including the creation of a class play (which we’ll be performing this week). Emma, JB, and Jazmine received the award for their tremendous growth as readers. Kudos also to Yuri G. and Braydan C. for being Fact Car Rally co-champions. They’re tops in the class when it comes to multiplication and division facts. Aiden B. and Mya B. also completed the course. Congrats to Jaden F. for being our Fitness Champion. Jaden ran 264 miles during daily fitness this year! Ricky, Jesse, Symphony, Kara, Diego, Julian, Braydan, Josiah, and Haylee B. all also met the standard of 175 miles and will receive fitness medals at our final awards assembly.

We won’t be sending home anymore printed homework. The kids have just two tasks to complete at home: a nightly entry into their Lewis & Clark journals, and completion of the Endangered Species Research Project (if they’ve fallen behind in class). The final draft of the Endangered Species Project is due Wednesday.

In-class events this week include the enacting of Molly’s play (time to be determined but it will probably be Wednesday). We’ll also be presenting our research projects on Thursday and Friday. June 8th is Roadrunner Day, which includes a variety of outdoor activities including the bounce houses and the 5th grade vs. staff softball game. Finally, Tuesday, June 9th is the last day of school. It includes the Year-in-Review and Baby Picture Show at 8:45. Report cards, for whatever they’re worth, will go home on Tuesday as well. Standardized testing? Yeah, there’s more of that this week, but let’s not get into that.