Congraluations on a Job Well Done

Core Knowledge Winter Showcase

Next Wednesday, December 18th, is the Winter Core Knowledge Showcase.

Students should arrive at school at 6:15 and be dropped off in their classrooms.  The gym and lunchroom will both be providing seating for families to enjoy the show.  The show begins at 6:30, with a slight lag, as classes are visiting two stages.  Students should wear their 12th night costumes.  The show should be over around 7:15.  Parents can then collect  children from their classroom and have a lovely evening.

Book Swap

Second grade is organizing a book swap for Cascade Heights.  Bring in books you have outgrown and trade them for new-to-you books.  Be sure to get your adults' ok first!  

Bring your books starting TOMORROW.  Bring books December 11, 12, 16, and 17.  You will get a ticket for each book.  Bring your tickets on December 17, and 18 to pick out new books.  The class that brings in the most books gets to go first.  Bring your books first thing in the morning to the Uniform Closet.

If you have questions, ask a second grader!

Play Bills

What a creative bunch we have! Here is a sampling of the amazing play bills created by our 8th grade class.

Free Handwriting Workshop

Save the date for our upcoming free Handwriting Success Workshop in January 2014:

Authors Inga Dubay & Barbara Getty Saturday, January 25, 2014, 10am—1pm Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Kempton Hall 147 NW 19th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209 To promote legible handwriting and celebrate National Handwriting Day Workshop materials provided Children accompanied by parents welcome Books available at special discount Trinity Cathedral Arts presents this free Handwriting Success workshop. Handwriting experts Inga Dubay& Barbara Getty teach everything you need to know to get started. They are co-authors of the popular books on handwriting -- WRITE NOW: The Getty-Dubay Program for Handwriting Success, ITALIC LETTERS: Calligraphy & Handwriting, and the GETTY-DUBAY ITALIC HANDWRITING SERIES for children.  Come early -- this is a free event and seating cannot be guaranteed. Download and print this information at www.handwritingsuccess.com. Suggested donation: canned or packaged food for Trinity Food Pantry.

New Writing Assignment

After the intensity of last week's character analysis, we're going for something a bit lighter this week. This week we will be creating a Playbill for our upcoming production, Twelfth Night. The rough draft will be created on 8.5 x 11. It must include the following elements:

• A picture
• 3 quotes from critics (yes, you'll be making these up) 
• date
• time
• location
• cost
• short summary of the play
• production company name

The final draft will be completed in class on Thursday. 

Winter Recess Policy

The temperature is dropping, so it's time to break out the cold weather recess policy! 

Winter Outdoor Recess Policy for Cascade Heights Public Charter School

It does get chilly in our part of the country, and students and families need to be prepared for it. Teachers will use the following guidelines and their own best judgment in ensuring your child is safe and relatively comfortable during the cold months of the year. You can do your part by sending your children to school with the following: coat, warm hat, gloves or mittens, scarf (ideal), warm boots (ideal). If you are unable to acquire the basics, please contact your child's teacher or Mrs. Denman, and we will happily help you.

Students need fresh air daily, and it helps reduce illness (being cooped up in a room with recycled air is the best way to spread germs), a bad case of the wiggles, and sleepy brains. As such, we will do our best to ensure daily fresh air for students, following the policy outlined below.

Please note:

• Frostbite CANNOT happen unless the ambient temperature (actual temperature+ windchill) falls below 32°F. Fingers may hurt, be cold and numb, but they are not frostbitten.
• Hypothermia can happen under a variety of temperatures and situations. Someone submerged in water that is 70°F for an extended period of time will succumb to hypothermia. Someone ill-equipped for the weather and left outside without movement at 20°F will eventually succumb to hypothermia. Students who wear coats (and possibly hats or hoods) at 35°F or so for 15-20 minutes, and who are (hopefully) moving, have no danger of hypothermia.

This policy was drafted taking into account average activity level, average recess time, and average regional temperatures for Portland, OR (the fact that our children are NOT used to the average temperatures of Fairbanks, AK was taken into account!).

Not accounting for windchill factor:

Children will eat outdoors and may make the choice about coats, etc.: 41°F and above

Teachers will require the wearing of coats (for activity time of recess): 40°F and below

Teachers will require the wearing of a hat and gloves/mittens (students without will not participate in the activity): 35°F

Eating (snack and lunch) will occur indoors with outdoor recess following one of the below guidelines: 40°F and below

Normal outdoor recess: 26°F and above

Shortened outdoor recess (5 to 10 minutes): 18°F-25°F

Indoor recess: 18°F and below

What you can do to ensure your child's comfort and health with the above policy:

• Send them to school with a coat, hat, mittens/gloves, and scarf
• Tell them they must wear the coat, hat, mittens/gloves, and scarf
• Send them with plenty of quality-calorie food for snack and lunch, as well as fresh water
• Tell them about the children in Fairbanks, AK, who go out to recess like normal unless it's colder than -20°F!).
• Teach them how to zip or button their coats
• 
  

Rube Goldberg Project

Today we began our physics project. Working in groups, students will be building a Rube Goldberg machine. This is an in class project but I'm sure you'll be hearing all about it at home!

Today we established the ground rules. The class created the rubric that will be used for scoring. This included what the machines should look like, how they should operate, and what scientific concepts it must demonstrate. It also included team work, an essential skill for the 21st century! You can see the rubric below. Tomorrow, each small group will work together to decide on their goal; what is it they are going to try and accomplish. In the past we've seen everything from lamps turned on to a glass of water poured. The idea behind Rube Goldberg is to create a long and intricate machine that completes an ordinary and simple task. Wednesday they will plan out their machine and turn in a written engineering plan. Thursday they begin to build.

This project is due on December 19th at 10:00 AM.

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish you all a joyous Thanksgiving. May your long weekend be filled with family, those you've chosen or those you were born with, laughter, and fun. 

In order to help facilitate this, there is minimal homework this weekend. Students were assigned math and memorizing their lines for 12th Night. Keep up the great work and I'll see you on Monday. 

November Happenings

It's been a busy few weeks and the fun never ends! 

History: 

We have concluded our unit on Government. Our next unit is on the decline of European Colonialism. We will be talking about India and Ghandi's role in ending colonialism there. 

Science: 

We are still working on physics. This week's lab (#10 of the year) will be on density and buoyancy. We will also be writing our hypothesis, materials, and methods for their science fair projects. Everyone should have summarized their 6 - 8 research sources on their science fair topic. 

Riggs: 

Students have learned over 200 words now. Vocab tests continue every Monday with games like Pictionary happening in class to help reinforce understanding. 

Writing: 

Last week we worked on writing a succinct paragraph that conveyed everything we needed to share. These were returned today with feedback. If students scored below a 2, they must edit and resubmit. The biggest errors I'm seeing at this point are failure to follow directions. Many students are not using a proper heading, double spacing, giving their work a title, etc. If your student asks you to edit for them, please look for these things! This week we will be writing our first character analysis. Students will be comparing and contrasting Olivia and Viola from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. 

Literature: 

We have completed our first reading of Twelfth Night! We are now working on memorizing our parts and staging it. If you have any free minutes during the day, we could use lots of parents to run lines with students. We'll take help anytime! Students with larger parts 100+ lines, should have a minimum of 50 lines memorized by now. I'm going very easy on homework so that students have plenty of time to work on their parts!

Important Dates:

Monday, November 18th - Board Meeting

Tuesday, November 19th - Language Usage MAP test for 8th grade

Wednesday, November 20th - Math MAP test for Course 3 and Advanced Math

Thursday, November 21st - All School Assembly 8:00 AM

Friday, November 22nd - Field Trip to CMC

Saturday, November 23rd - FACTS Class 8:00 - 4:00

Monday, November 25th - Science MAP test for 8th Grade

Tuesday, November 26th - Last day of school for Thanksgiving

Christmas Tree Fundraiser

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me already about signing up for the fundraiser. Here is the Sign Up Genius link to claim your spot!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0D4FA5AF23A20-8thgrade

Community Lecture - Millionaire and the Mummies

Here's another community lecture that you may find interesting! 

The Millionaire and the Mummies: Theodore Davis’s Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings

By John M Adams, Author  

Director Emeritus, Orange Co. CA Public Library                                                                            

Egypt, The Valley of the Kings, 1905:  An American robber baron peers through the hole he has cut in an ancient tomb wall and discovers the richest trove of golden treasure yet seen in Egypt.  At the start of the 20^th century, Theodore Davis was the most famous name in archaeology in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science.

Author John Adams chronicles the rags-to-riches tale of a poor country preacher’s son who, through corruption and fraud, amassed tremendous wealth in Gilded-Age New York and then atoned for his ruthless career by inventing new standards for systematic excavation.  Davis found a record eighteen tombs in the Valley of the Kings and, breaking with custom, gave all the spoils to museums. 

A confederate of Boss Tweed, friend of Teddy Roosevelt and rival of JP Morgan, the “American Lord Carnarvon” shared his Newport mansion with his Rembrandts, his wife and his mistress! 

Adams focuses on six of Davis’ most important discoveries, including the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s sarcophagus and the exquisite shawbti statuettes looted from the Egyptian Museum in 2011.

Drawing on rare and unpublished archival material, the first biography of Davis ever written rehabilitates a tarnished image through a thrilling tale of crime, adventure, and history.    

         Wednesday November 13, 2013 at 7:30 pm     

        Room 294

        Smith Memorial Student Union                 

          Portland State University

          Free admission and open to the public. 

          Park Free in PSU parking structures after 7:00 pm  

John Adams has served on the Board and Executive Committee of the American Research Center in Egypt and was both a founder and president of the Southern California Chapter of ARCE. He is a regular contributor to KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt.  He also edited the Egyptological newsletter Sedjem for five years. His book, The Millionaire and the Mummies: Theodore Davis’s Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings was published in 2013.

Science Fair So Far...

Our science fair projects are moving along at a slow but steady pace. At this point students should have completed the following steps: 

1. Purchased a journal strictly for science fair use. This needs to be a stand alone notebook. A composition journal or a 100 page spiral notebook are optimal. 

2. Created a title page for their notebook. The title page includes the title of the their project (added after selection), the researcher's name, the month and year, and the school. 

3. Created a table of contents page for their notebook. This will be added to as they add information. For now it should have "Table of Contents" across the top. 

4. Created the selection process page. We covered this in class on Thursday. It is a list of ideas they considered for their project and why each one was accepted or rejected. 

5. Listed the initial resources they searched for. This is the assignment that was due last week. They can print it out and glue it in or they can hand write it, but it should be in their journal. 

This weekend and all of next week, they will be completing step 6, which is to summarize 6 - 8 of the most useful resources from their list of 25 possibilities. Each resource should get its own page. The page will include the name of the resource, author, publisher, and copyright date. For a website they will need the title, author, URL, and date accessed. After reading the resource, they will be write a one paragraph summary in their science journal. If the student finds quotes they think they would like to use, they should also note the page number in their journal. 

Next week we will be writing the hypothesis, materials, and methods. 

Twelfth Night Cast

Curious about the cast list for our 12th Night Production? Here it is!

Character                    Matinee Performance                Evening Performance          Video

Orsino                           Colleen                                         Shak

Sebastian                       Avery                                           Kash

Antonio                         Isaiah                                            Scott

Captain                         Kipp                                             Kipp

Valentine                       Kevin                                            Brandon

Curio                             Evan                                             Isaiah

Sir Toby Belch              Savannah                                      Dimitri

Sir Andrew Aguecheek  Cassian                                        Jessica

Malvolio                        John                                              Jackson

Fabian                           Nadia                                            Tianna

Feste                             Olivia                                            Kasha

Olivia                            Megan                                           Megan

Viola                             Sierra                                            Sierra

Maria                            Gretel                                           Gretel                                   Kayla

Priest                            Alan                                              Alan

First Officer                  Kevin                                            Kevin

Second Officer             Evan                                              Evan

Servant                         Nadia                                            Nadia

Narrators:                   Nadia                                            Nadia

                                   Avery                                           Avery

                                   Kevin                                           Kevin

                                   Alan                                             Alan

                                   Kipp                                            Kipp

Milwaukie Academy of the Arts Open House

Milwaukie Academy of the Arts is a public charter school that provides college preparation for students who think like artists. It is located in Milwaukie, Oregon and was founded in 2005. We are pleased to be offering two upcoming Open House events for families who would like to know more about us. If you know of a student who is interested in the arts and project based learning please let their family know about these events:

Thursday, November 14, 2013  4:00pm to 7:00pm Open House followed by the opening night of our musical (with MHS) of Thoroughly Modern Mille at 7:00pm. The open house is held in the Fine Arts Auditorium at 11300 SE 23^rd Ave, Milwaukie OR 97222.

Easiest entrance is off of Lake Road onto Willard street and then the parking lot next to the Auditorium

Thursday, December 12, 4:00pm to 7:00pm Open House followed by the Winter Choir Concert at 7:00pm

Students, staff, board members, and parents will be available to discuss MAA’s unique approach to learning and tours of our facility will be given.

Twelfth Night

I'm sure you've heard, we have begun our Shakespeare unit! Yesterday we handed out roles and talked about drama in Shakespeare's times.

The class is very excited to put on this production and the energy level in the room is contagious. The next six weeks will be full of joy, laughter, and tears. We will be studying not only this particular story, but the craft of play writing, blocking, set design, costuming, and elocution. You can expect a lighter homework load so that students can focus on mastering their parts and their science fair projects!

FACTS Class

On November 23rd we will be holding our annual FACTS class for middle school families. FACTS was written in conjunction with Northwest Family Services in 1989. It is a program that focuses on opening communication between parents and students in dealing with topics pertinent to their age. These topics include but are not limited to dating, refusal skills, peer pressure, high risk behaviors, etc. 

In order to allow parents and students to attend together, we hold this essential class on a Saturday, beginning at 9:00 a.m. and finishing no later than 4:00 p.m. Lunch and snacks will be provided. We strongly encourage both parents to attend with their child but we understand if only one person can be there. In the event that neither parent can attend, another adult that is important in their life is welcome, and in the worse case scenario, we'd rather have the child with no adult than not at all. 

Parents are more than welcome to come in and preview the material and everyone will be provided with take home materials as well. 

If you have any questions, Mrs. Denman or I am happy to answer them. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Please RSVP so we can order the correct amount of food. 

Good Earth

Today we finished The Good Earth. This weekend they will be writing their summary paper. Students were allowed to choose one of the following questions to write on:

1.  What does Wang Lung’s family’s gradual disconnection from the land say about their moral position and their hopes for future success? Explain what you think happens to Wang Lung’s family after the close of the novel.

2.  How are Wang Lung and his oldest son alike? Given the similarities in their characters, why do they come into conflict?

3. Why does Wang Lung decide to move into the Hwang family’s house in town? What does such a move signify for him?

If they forget their book, here is a link to find it online http://www.gobookee.org/good-earth-by-pearl-s-buck/

Their essay should be long enough to fully develop the topic. This will be at least 5 paragraphs. I'm looking for deeper thought and citations from the book. In order to get a 3, they must cite the book a minimum of 5 times. I encourage families to talk through possible ideas and help students articulate their ideas. I discourage families from writing the paper for them!

If you have any questions, please let me know/

November Field Trips

We have not one, not two, but THREE field trips this month.

Our first trip of the month is on November 6th, 2013. We will be going to the Oregon Primate Research Center to learn about the scientific process. The bus will leave school after math at 10:00. We will be back by 1:30. Please let me know if you can join us!

The following week, November 12tth,  we will be joining the Classroom Law Office founders downtown for a courtroom tour. We will learn all about the local justice system and get to sit in on several cases. Because we will be in the justice building, we will have to go through security. Parents that would like to chaperone should dress for easy security checks! We will leave at 8:15 and return just after lunch.

Our last trip of the month will be on field trip Friday, November 22nd. It will be an all day trip. The morning will be spent touring Clackamas Middle College and the afternoon will be spent at a local university. More details for this one will come later in the month.

If you can join  us for any of these three trips, please let me know as soon as possible.

Fundraisers

We have two amazing opportunities to raise funds for graduation and our end of the year trip!

First is the annual fall sock hop on November 7th.  8th grade is in charge of making it happen, and we get the proceeds to use for our end of the year activities. That's a pretty great trade off. We started today by promoting it in all of the classrooms. We'll be making signs on Monday to put up around school. Here's what we need to help make this as successful as possible:

1. All 8th graders should plan to attend and help work the Sock Hop. Students will need to be here until 5:30.
2. Parents to help facilitate clean up.
3. Healthy snacks to sell. I would REALLY like to NOT do popcorn. It turns into a huge mess. If you have great ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

Second is a Christmas Tree Sale. A Cascade family has recently purchased a house with property that contains a Christmas Tree farm. They did not intent to have a tree lot but decided that if 8th grade would come and help work it for the weekend, they would open it for one weekend and give us 50% of the proceeds. We will work the stand the weekend of December 7th and 8th. I intend to have groups of 4 work 4 hour shifts. Each group will help people find a tree, help them tie it on (if they're tall enough), and work the bake sale table. We get 100% of any proceeds from the bake sale table. Please let me know if you have certain times that would work better for your student. We'll have flyers soon so families can ask family and friends to get their tree from us!

Buoyancy Lab

Today we completed our 9th science lab of the year. Students discovered how mass , surface area, and buoyancy are related. They also learned to use balance scales and graph their data. Students are more comfortable writing up science labs and using correct terminology for their topics.

Government Study Guide

This is the study guide for the Government test on Tuesday. Students are more than welcome to take notes in their history notebook on anything they are not sure of!

1. Name 5 different forms of government and explain each one. (ex. Democracy...)
2. What documents were essential to the forming of the United States?
3. Who was Thomas Pain, what did he write, and why was it important?
4. Who were the framers and what did they do?
5. Explain how the Constitution came to be and what it covers.
6. Name the parts of the Constitution.
8. How is the US government set up?
9. Name the three branches and tell what each does. What are the responsibilities of each branch?
10. Name the head of each branch.
11. Map how an idea becomes a law.
12. Identify the departments in the presidential cabinet and what they are in charge of.
13. How many levels of federal courts are there? What does each do?
14. How are Senators and Representatives chosen? How many of each are there?

Conferences

Date	Available Slot
10/30/2013 (Wed. 4:00PM - 4:30PM)	Wednesday   Kayla
10/30/2013 (Wed. 4:30PM - 5:00PM)	Wednesday   Tianna
10/31/2013 (Thu. 4:00PM - 4:30PM)	Thursday   Kevin
10/31/2013 (Thu. 4:30PM - 5:00PM)	Thursday   Gretel
11/1/2013 (Fri. 8:30AM - 9:00AM)	Friday   Mary Catherine Albanese
11/1/2013 (Fri. 9:00AM - 9:30AM)	Friday   Colleen
11/1/2013 (Fri. 9:30AM - 10:00AM)	Friday   Kash
11/1/2013 (Fri. 10:00AM - 10:30AM)	Friday   Avery
11/1/2013 (Fri. 10:30AM - 11:00AM)	Friday   Joell Hamersly
11/1/2013 (Fri. 11:00AM - 11:30AM)	Friday   Megan Dodson
11/1/2013 (Fri. 11:30AM - 12:00PM)	Friday   Scott
11/1/2013 (Fri. 1:00PM - 1:30PM)	Friday   Shak
11/1/2013 (Fri. 1:30PM - 2:00PM)	Friday     OPEN
11/1/2013 (Fri. 2:00PM - 2:30PM)	Friday   Evan
11/1/2013 (Fri. 2:30PM - 3:00PM)	Friday   OPEN
11/1/2013 (Fri. 3:00PM - 3:30PM)	Friday   Tanya Elkins
11/1/2013 (Fri. 3:30PM - 4:00PM)	Friday   John
11/1/2013 (Fri. 4:00PM - 4:30PM)	Friday   Jessica
11/1/2013 (Fri. 4:30PM - 5:00PM)	Friday   Kasha White

Out of Office

This weekend I will be in Tulsa, OK with my daughter, who will be playing in the USARS Derby National Championships. While I'm gone, business will carry on as usual at school.

Thursday and Monday Mrs. Ellis will be subbing for me. I have left her detailed plans which include lots of reading and time for court cases. There will still be math homework, Riggs, and a vocab test on Monday. I'm confident that my 8th graders will be model students and will take care of what needs to be done.

Chances are excellent that I won't be checking email very often. Feel free to text in case of emergency and I'll get back to you as I can.

Physics in Action