Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year!!

Wow! How has a week of school already gone by? We are off and running and really looking forward to a great year with your children.

This year we will really focus hard on writing skills. The first language arts unit has a focus of expository writing. Most students in our school come out of 2nd grade already strong writers in expository writing therefore we can build 3rd grade skills within a style that they are already comfortable.

Ms. Whalen's class will be starting the year with Science- Muscles, Bones and the Nervous System.
Ms. Wetzel's class will begin the year with map skills and then will travel on to Canada and World Rivers.
Ms. Miles' class is beginning with her readers and writers workshop.

Thank you for supporting us and your student as we travel through this year together!

End of the year

Ms. Wetzel and I would like to take a minute to thank you all for an amazing school year!! We are so grateful that you share your children with us. Your partnership with us this year has truly helped your child be so successful. They are all better readers, mathematicians, and are incredible writers! We hope you enjoy your summer and remember to keep your child reading!!

Ms. Whalen and Ms. Wetzel

PS: don't forget to work on those summer packets!

love and logic

The Crippling of America's Youth
Weekly Tip from the Love and Logic^® Experts

Dear Tara,

I just received this email from one of our wonderful customers:

Dear Mr. Fay,

I have been to many Love and Logic trainings and have been passing along the lessons for some time. I just wanted to share with you a personal story of something that happened today which just proves what you have been teaching all this time. I thought of you instantly. I will keep all details out to protect the business and the person involved.

At a current place of business, which is a corporate/professional level, highly skilled type business, a young (meaning twenty-something) gentleman showed up for an interview today with his parents. Yes, they really did sit in on the interview. No, he did not really need them there.

Apparently, they were to help with his nervousness and morale, and they wanted to help him with the discussion regarding salary.

Now here is the very definition of helicopter parents that do not have a grasp of boundaries and have enabled their "baby."

Needless to say, this particular candidate was not the one chosen.

Hope this story may help you during some presentation to get the point across that we are crippling our youth.

Sincerely,

Marlene, a loyal Love and Logic advocate

The audio CD, Helicopters, Drill Sergeants, and Consultants has been one of our most popular audios for many years, but never before has it been so important for parents to understand the damage that can be done out of love. If you don’t own it, get it today. Listen first for the laughs and several more times for the skills. And, yes, it’s great for your kids to hear it with you in the car. If you're interested in learning more skills to raise responsible kids, come out to our Summer Conference.

Thanks for reading.

Jim Fay

Our goal is to help as many families as possible. If this is a benefit, forward it to a friend.

©2012 Love and Logic Institute, Inc. All copyright infringement laws apply. Permission granted for forwarding and/or for a single photocopy or electronic reproduction of one email tip only. Please do not alter or modify. For more information, call the Love and Logic Institute, Inc. at 800-338-4065.

Ecology study guide

Ecology Study Guide…..Test Tuesday May 29 (Ms. Wetzel’s class) or Thursday May 31 (Ms. Whalen’s class)

What is a food chain? Transfer of energy through producers, consumers and decomposers that creates the balance of nature.

The members of a food chain

Sun: the first step in the food chain- gives energy to producers

Producer (plants): They make their own food from the energy they get from the sun.  (bushes, trees, grass, weeds, veggies, fruits, etc)

Primary Consumer (herbivores): They eat the Producers which gives them energy. (bunnies, squirrels, deer, caterpillars, etc)

Secondary Consumer (Carnivores): They eat the Primary Consumers which transfers the energy to them. (foxes, bears, cats, mountain lions, dogs, wolves, birds, people, etc)

Decomposer (fungi, bacteria, worms): They break down the dead bodies’ of plants and animals which in turn transfers the energy back into the soil.

Things we can do that help the environment

Reduce- use less water, turn off lights or TVs when they are not being used

Reuse- clothing- donate or hand down, water bottles, plastic containers

Recycle- paper, cardboard, steel, aluminum cans, plastic containers, newspapers

Why is it important to have a balance in nature?

It is important to have a balance in nature because when there is more of one resource such as deer and not enough of another such as food, all the food will be eaten up which in turn will cause the deer to die out. It is important to have enough food to feed the deer, wolves to help keep the herd sizes down, which in turn will allow more food to grow.

Other Vocabulary:

Water pollution: To make water dirty from harmful liquids, trash or gas.

Air pollution: To make the air dirty from harmful gases such as exhaust from a car or smoke from a factory.

Land pollution: To make the land dirty from harmful trash not being thrown away properly.

Ecosystem: A specific community of living and nonliving things interacting in an environment.

Environment: The natural surroundings of a living thing

Compost: Adding nutrients back to the soil through old food and grass clippings

Recycle: Use again

Pure Stream: Sorting things so that like things being recycled are together

Help!!!

In science right now we are studying Ecology. One service project that I like to do with the classes is an environmental cleanup. My plan is to walk over to the Highline Canal walkway on Thursday afternoon (2:30 to 3:15ish) with Ms. Wetzel's class. On Friday, I will take my class (also 2:30 to 3:15ish).

If you are available to walk with us to help keep us safe and on task I would love, love, love you to come!!! Please email me twhalen@highlineacademy.org to let me know if you can come. Thanks!

Quiz 1 Southern Colonies

 Test Wetzel’s 5/21 & Whalen’s 5/22

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement.

John Smith said that colonists that did not work could not eat.

Jamestown almost did not survive The Starving Time.

Maryland was begun as a refuge for English Catholics

The first cash crop in the colonies was tobacco.

South Carolina’s cash crops were rice and indigo.

The Middle Passage was the trip from Africa to America.

Slaves did most of the work on plantations.

James Oglethorpe tried to start a colony for poor people in Georgia.

Many of the colonial settlers were from the continents of Europe and Africa.

Be able to Label the five southern Colonies on a map.

Thank you!!

Ms. Wetzel and I want to take a moment to say thank you so much for all the wonderful ways that we have been appreciated this week. We have been fed all week. Gifted with chocolates, honey and flowers. Given lots of love and hugs.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us!