Ainsworth School

Joni Dolan- School Secretary

Hours - Tuesday - Friday, 7:30 -4:00

Ginny Sachs- Principal's Secretary

Hours - Monday - Thursday, 7:30 -4:00

Terri Passch - School Nurse

Hours - Wednesday 8:00 - 3:00

Ganeen Fischer- Cafeteria Manager

Hours - Monday - Friday, 7:30 - 2:00

Head Custodian

Hours - Monday - Friday, 7:30 - 2:00

 

7:30 School Office opens

8:00 First Bell

8:05 Tardy Bell

11:05 - 11:30 Kindergarten Lunch

11:00 - 11:30 First Grade Lunch

11:35-12:00 Second & Third Grade Lunch

12:05 - 12:30 Fourth & Fifth Grade Lunch

2:15 Dismissal Bell

4:00 School Office closed

February Updates:

Testing continues!  Wednesday, Feb. 22 in the afternoon we will be doing math testing.

Testing time has arrived!  We will be taking the reading test Thursday morning, Feb. 2 at 8:15.  PLEASE be on time and get a good nights sleep the night before.  I have sent home handouts that have talked about the new policies around testing.  If you have questions, let me know.  It is pretty much the same. We will be taking the math test on Feb. 22, in the afternoon.

I am working on updating pictures and videos that I have taken in the classroom.  I am behind with those.  I have pictures of the salmon releasing and I have videos of more wonderful music making that your children are doing with Ms. Wright.  I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Report cards will be going home on Feb. 10.

Valentines Day is fast approaching!!!  The rule in our classroom is that if you choose to bring valentines, you need to bring one for each child in our class.  If you choose not to participate, I will find some community service for you around the school to do as we have our party.  The children can make valentines and if they need paper, let me know.  They are also welcome to bring in a treat to go with the valentines, if they wish.  Here is a list of all the children in the classroom:    Alexis, Amy, Anna, Arya, Charlotte, Chelsea, Frank, Ivan, Joe, Julia, Lily, MC, Michael, Russell, Sam, Sara Grace, Sienna, Teddy, and Zoe.  PLEASE BRING IN A SHOE BOX OR ANY EXTRAS FOR THOSE THAT DON'T HAVE ONE!!!!

We are in the middle of our Colonial America study and we will continue this until Spring Break.

BIZ Town is just around the corner.  We have started our BizTown lessons in class.  We will be sending home information sheets that will keep you updated on what we are talking about.  Right now we are learning the difference between rights and responsibilities.  The kids will love this.

Samba news:  By now you have all heard that we will not be participating in Samba this year.  WE are sad that Brian is not able to be part of Samba this year.  But his life with Pink Martini is very important and is going so well that it is exciting for him.  We are working on something that will be fun and exciting to do in the Spring.  Any ideas, send them my way.

We had a wonderful author visit on Wednesday, Jan. 25.  He is offering his book, authographed, for $10.  I sent home order sheets and they are due back to me by Tuesday, Jan. 31.

BOOK ORDERS are out there!  The are due by Feb. 1.  You have the option to order on-line or send in the form to me.  On-line orders need to be done by Feb. 1 as well.  This is a great time to get books for valentines day or to get your children interested in another type of genre.  If you need recommendations, let me know.

 

 

Biz Town is coming up on March 19th!  We are in need of parent volunteers.  You have a very important role, you help the children in each of the businesses and help them have a successful day.  BizTown is run by Jr. Achievement.  It is an opportunity for the children to run a town.  We study economics, business prep, how to write a check, what banking is, what jobs businesses have and how to get a job.  Lots of information will be coming the students way so that they can run BizTown on March 19. I think it is one of my past 5th graders favorite activities they do during the year.  If you are interested in volunteering, you will be required to go to a training.  Information will be coming to you soon with the details about this.

In social studies, we are starting a unit on early American history, Colonial America!!  Ask the kids about Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth!

I am so excited so many of the students in our class are on OBOB teams!!! Way to go!  We definitely have a class full of exceptional readers!!  The OBOB night is coming up quickly.  January 24th at 5:30.  It will be an exciting competition!  If your child signed up on a team, I do expect them to be there to support their team, even if they did not get all the books read that they were to read.  Please check in with your child to see how they are doing with their books.  Each team member was assigned 4 books.  The books are great this year.  Most of the kids are enjoying them very much. 

NOVEMBER UPDATES:

Our salmon eggs have started to hatch!!!  We have alevins.  An alevin is a small fry that has just hatched, sometimes they are called sac-fry and they will grow to be fry.  The alevin is still attached to their sach and they get nourishment from them until they have consumed it all.  We have calculated that the alevin will be at the fry stage by Dec. 10.  (We hope!) That would make the release date the following week, Tuesday or Wednesday, Dec. 13 or 14.  I am planning to use parent drivers to go out to the Columbia on Sauvie Island and release them.  If you are interested in driving and have your insurance on file, let me know.  I figure we need 4 or 5 drivers.  We will then have a picnic out there as well (weather permitting:).  Come on in and check out the alevins!  The children were very excited to see them start to hatch!

THANK YOU TO THE WONDERFUL PARENTS IN CHARGE OF OUR HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION!!! IT WAS AWESOME!  The kids had a great time and enjoyed everything about the day.  Thank you again for your help and all the goodies and fun games!  It was calm and so much fun.

 November is a short, full month.  We have conferences during the week of Thanksgiving.  I will be sending home reminders with your children next week as to the time and date of your conference.  I look forward to chatting with each of you about your children.  PLEASE let me know beforehand if you have something special you would like me to address, a concern, an observation or a simple question.  I will be covering the basic topics, academics, classroom behavior, areas of concerns on my part and goals we have for the year for your child.  I will also let you know all the wonderful things your child is doing and participating in.  I always invite the children to attend the conferences.  I tell them in class, I have nothing to say to your parents that I would not say to you.  So, if you would like them to accompany you to the conference they are welcome.  If you are not comfortable with that, or want to have a more private conversation with me, I am fine with either way.

In November, we will be starting a unit of study on Explorers of the New World.  We will also be working hard on our writing skills, and starting a new book group. 
In math, we will start a unit on Geometry.  We touched on division at the end of October and I am not by any means finished with that. 

We have reading buddies this year.  Our buddies are the 2nd graders in Mr. McKie's class.  They have visited us in our classroom and we have gone to their classroom once.  We do many different activities with them, not just read.  We wrote Halloween free verse poems with them and we drew haunted houses.  There are many more things to come with our buddies.

 

 Old News:

I have downloaded some pictures of our salmon eggs and some videos of your children playing some pieces of music composed by them in honor of the planets.  Take a look!  It is under class photos!  They are great.

If you have any questions please email me at: rmann@pps.net.  The email is new this year.  Portland Public school changed our system to make the emails addresses shorter and easier to remember.