Buddy Tangrams....

High School Geometry students focused on similarity, angles, and the relationships of lines for the past few weeks and, as a final project, made giant tangrams to share. The students measured the angles and sides of small tangram pieces, then made calculations to cut larger scale pieces out of corex weather-proof board. The largest piece is a triangle with a hypotenuse over five and a half feet long.

As a cumulative project, the high school students taught the Tree Swallows the different shapes and puzzles of small-scale tangrams based on a lesson plan written by the Algebra 1 students. Two days later, Big Buddies took the Tree Swallows to try out large scale tangram puzzles on Pacific University's track.

We concluded the collaboration with a sprint down the track.

Geometry students will be presenting this project with Tree Swallow buddies during the next all-school meeting, February 5th.

What's Been Happening...

"Critter Cafe" opening soon....

A resident of the backyard, Ely Earthworm, has announced his desire to open a eatery that will cater to each arthropod "character." He has invited the other residents (students) to create a menu that will appeal to all. In order to do this, the Tree Swallows needed to learn about insect mouth parts and food sources. Using objects representing siphoning, piercing, sponging, pinching and tearing mouthparts, the students experimented with a variety of food sources to match the form and function. This week, pairs will research specific critter diets (what and how) and create detailed descriptions and clay models of a Critter Cafe menu item.

Oh, Buddy...

The Tree Swallows and their literacy buddies, the Merlins, are in the final stages of a really cool project: Recorded books for emergent readers (Adelante Mujeres preschool). Over the past several weeks, the buddies have been working on expressive and fluent oral reading in order to create audio recordings a a chosen book. This past week, the buddies began creating supplemental materials (word search, retelling puppets, coloring pages, word-picture matches) to accompany the recorded books.

We think it is a girl!

Shhhhhhhh!!!! Our new "Tree Swallow" is here! The trip over to the school and the excitement of her first day has worn her out. Oh, but she is in good hands with the Tree Swallows who promise to be stewards of this young chinchilla. Our young friend, soon to be named, has already hopped her way into our hearts. Watch for Swallow updates on her adjustment to being with us.

Pacific University MLK Day Celebration

Jan 18, 2010, 11:00 AM
Rogers Park & Fireside Lounge (U.C.)

"Where Do We Go From Here...?," is the theme for this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration to take place on the Forest Grove Campus.

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Pacific university’s 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration Is scheduled for January, 18, 2010 beginning at 11 a.m. with a community march from Rogers Park, (18^th & Elm St.) to Marsh Hall. Students, staff, faculty and the community are invited to join in the march and the noon program in the University Center’s Fireside Lounge (Washburne Hall).

This year’s keynote speaker is Steve Hanamura, president of Hanamura Consulting, Inc., a firm he founded in 1986. Mr. Hanamura is a recognized and widely sought trainer and speaker in the areas of leadership development, managing and leading diversity initiatives, team building and managing organizational change. He has facilitated diversity training for the College of Health Professions and for staff at Pacific University.

Master of Ceremonies will be Bob Van Dyk, Professor, Department of Politics & Government. Dr. Van Dyk’s Civil Rights Class will help bring the event to a joyful close by leading the audience in singing Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing accompanied in the piano by Ingrid Unterseher, Executive Assistant to the VP for Student Affairs. Closing remarks will be offered by John S. Miller, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost.

For further information please contact Alfonso Lopez-Vasquez, at lope9075@pacificu.edu, or by phone at 503-352-1457.

Look Again....

Tree Swallows and Level 4 Photography buddies worked to create this collection of images and riddles inspired by the book, “Look Again,“ by Tina Hoban.

Buddies devoted an hour of class time on October 12^th, 19^th, 21^st and the 26^th to travel into Forest Grove Community School’s sunflower garden, across main Street downtown, through Pacific University’s campus and back to take photos for this book. Buddies also worked together to create riddles for the 2-3 images they picked and edited for the book.

Big buddies taught their little buddies about texture, pattern, framing, symmetry and a simplified version of the Law of Thirds when taking and editing images. Little buddies taught their big buddies about the value of different perspectives.

We are proud and pleased to announce that we are again offering this spectacular collection of photos and riddles for purchase at cost! Let me know if you are interested to review and/or purchase this one of a kind keepsake.

On this day (January 11th), in 2007, author, JK Rowling completed the 7th novel in the harry Potter series. You think that is interesting, wait 'till you find out what the Tree swallows are up to this week:

Once Upon A Time...

We are so excited about what is happening in our Backyard Storyline. The students have completed their character portraits and have composed biographical descriptions to introduce their critter’s personality and lifestyle. Character diaries begin this week, documenting the experience of the character and supporting the Tree Swallow writer.

Last week, the Tree Swallows researched the habitat of their mini-beast in order to create a “magnified” view, and then employed their imagination to design the inside of their home. These houses belong on the Street of Dreams!

This fictional home will be the inspiration for a descriptive writing assignment.

Later this week, students will participate in a hands-on exploration to investigate mini-beast mouth structure and diet to make generalizations about each function-diet relationship. This information will “feed” their menu creations for the Storyline, “Critter Café.”

RETURN TO NANA’S…

This Wednesday is our Out and About back to Nana Cardoon. This local garden/farm is like the Tree Swallows’ backyard. We have developed a strong connection with this place and our hosts, Richard and Charlene.

This Wednesday, students will measure a meter square of earth and observe and document living and non-living matter found there (Square of Life). We will use this data to make generalizations about what lives there and comparisons with data from Ash Street field (our local wetland) and our developing FGCS garden site.

Next week, we will collect data from the FGCS site.

Dear FGCS families,

We are delighted to share with you that our students will participate in a “Pennies for Peace” campaign through Feb. 28 2010. “Pennies for Peace” is a service-learning program designed to broaden our students’ cultural horizons while teaching them about their capacities as philanthropists – one penny at a time.

“Pennies for Peace” is a program of Central Asia Institute (CAI), founded by Greg Mortenson – author of the book, Three Cups of Tea. CAI is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. Founded in 1996, CAI has built nearly 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which serve more than 28,000 students – over 14,000 of whom are girls.

How can a penny bring peace? It doesn’t buy much in our community; however, in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, a penny can buy a pencil, start an education, and transform a life. The “Pennies for Peace” program goal at FGCS is to encourage our students, who are ultimately our future leaders, to learn the value of philanthropy by collecting pennies and to highlight the transformation small change can inspire. Our students will join others around the world who are participating in the “Pennies for Peace” program by working together as members of a global family dedicated to peace.

If you have any questions about this “Pennies for Peace” campaign, please contact the Tree Swallows’ teacher, Rachel Weil or the Kestrels’ teacher Charlie Graham at 503-359-4600. Look for collection jars at school. How many pennies can your child recover at home? Our students are eagerly looking forward to making “Pennies for Peace” a success!

Sincerely,

Rachel and Charlie