Saturday, December 20, 2014

Soleil Student Blog Week of December 15th, 2015

BG Reading by Melia and Ava G
In the Bubble Giraffes ( B.G.s) reading this week, we are working on ACTIVE reading: A: ask questions, C: connections, T: track thinking, I: inference, V: visualize, and E: EUREKA!!
Recently, we have been getting together in small groups with Kim and working reading pages.  At Cocoa House we will be reading are memoirs (see it in writing) or a poem.  Cocoa House is on Friday, Dec.19th. Hope you will come! No, seriously, see you there!   
           -Melia & Ava :)

BG Writing by Ava G and Melia
This week we are typing up are final copy of our memoirs. The memoirs are  our first writing assignment of this year. We have been working on them for about 4-5 weeks, and they are really looking good!  The Bubble Giraffes have been really working hard with this project, and it is due, final and first copy, on Dec. 16th.  At our holiday party, Cocoa  House, some of us are going to be are going to be reading our personal narratives!  Hope to see you there!
   -Melia & Ava :)

BG Science by Josh
Over the past few weeks, we were working on pollution. We were polluting our eco-columns with either 1.Salt, 2.Vinegar, or 3.fertilizer. All three can badly harm the ecosystem. about a month ago, We added animals to our other ecosystems. We  ended our observations on thursday and we will see a science experiment next thursday.  

KFC Writing by Giselle and Ezra
For K.F.C. (Kool Fun Cookies), we are working on poetry. Our teacher, M, is having us look at other poets rather than Shel Silverstein to expand our poetry knowledge. Please encourage your kids to read lots of different poetry books (rather than Shel Silverstein) and memorize poems they like for Cocoa House.( Coming up this Friday December 19, 2014)

5th Year Math by Ezra
Right now in 5th year math, we are working on identifying triangle sides, shapes, and width. We are also comparing fractions and adding different denominators. (L.C.D.) We are very lucky to have Cassie and Kim as our 5th year math teachers.

 Art by Ezra

In art, we just finished doing the sharpie/contrast project. Now we are doing a tree art project, using oil pastels. We make leaves on or falling off the tree, and a brownish black trunk. Our branches are long, thick, and beautiful. Everybody is very skilled and are great artists.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Soleil Student Blog Week of December 8th, 2014

Welcome Sunny Friends!

Keep reading to see what Soleil was up to last week. Our student writers and editors did great some work!



BG Science by Isabella
This week we are working on our ecocolumns and adding six droplets of pollutant in them. Every week we put a pollutant like acid rain, fertilizer and salt. It’s fun to see what it looks like.


BG Reading by Saki
In our class for reading we have something called Reading Olympics. Reading Olympics is where you read 3 different books and write an Annotated Bibliography and write a question test to get a medal. For each you will need to do that. For each medal we have an event. For example, Bronze medal is where you interview the main character from your book and write what he or she will respond you. For Silver, medal we a thing called Book talk. It is when you read a historical fiction book and present the plot of the book. For each medal it has different kind of event! Also we have Read Aloud. That’s when you read a page from 3books you read and your partner will grade you and give you some advice, because it helps us read it with really good expression, pacing, and accuracy. Reading Olympics is really fun!

BG Writing by Naomi and Melia
In writing we are doing personal narratives/memoirs. Kim is gone in Florida to see her mom, so we have Cassie to help us and she is doing GREAT!  We have already finished editing and revising and are just starting to print our final copies on the computers. We are having cocoa house and we are going to present them there and do a little of poetry. Hope to see you there!

KFC Writing by Giselle
Right now in KFC (Kool Fun Cookies) we are writing poems for Cocoa House. We have just finished making scientific observations and our science poems. They were due last Thursday, when you are finished make sure to tape it up on the wall. M wants the Cocoa House Poems to be at least 4 stanzas. Remember to practice your poem for Cocoa House until you are ready! It would be great if you can memorize your poem so you don’t have to read off a sheet for Cocoa House. Don’t forget to smile!

6th Year Math by Charlotte
This week in 6th grade math we have been studying Percentages. We have been studying taxes and discounts with money with the Connected Mathematics 2 Bits and Pieces III Computing with Decimals and Percents. We have had three homework assignments and have had an extended day to finish. M has been wanting us to translate english into “Math Language” too.

Art by Amy
Soleil is making pastel tree art! We draw a tree on a blue piece of paper and start drawing leaves and a bright sun using pastel crayons. The fun part is cutting a paper leaf and using the hole to make our leaves! Then, we’re going color the tree to finish.
Advanced 


Advanced Orchestra by Dorothea


In advanced orchestra we are learning Hunter’s Chorus, New Horizons, Caggen Fiddler, and Modal Festival.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

12/9/2014

Welcome to the first completely student written and edited Soleil Blog post!

BG Reading by Saki
In BG’s reading we are doing reading olympics. Reading olympics is where you read 3 different books and write an Annotated bibliography and write a question test to get a medal. Writing an Annotated bibliography and writing the question test help us understand the  plot of the book more. For each book you will need to do that.

BG Writing by Naomi
In writing, the BG’s (bubble giraffes) are writing personal narratives/memoirs! So far they are going great and Kim is being the best helper someone could have. We have been editing to make sure they have a “grabber beginning”. Also, to make sure we use synonyms  like changing run to dash, also to make sure the story makes sense when it is put together. We have read a few and they aren’t

BG Science by Cassie
This week we are continuing to pollute our eco-columns.  Students pollute by watering their eco-columns with one of three solutions every day.  We make observations and measure the soil and water pH twice a week. We are looking forward to finishing the experiment and seeing if our hypotheses were correct!

KFC Writing by Giselle
So far, the KFC’s latest  writing project is the Mini Poster.  It was due this tuesday, December 2 (the final draft). M asked us to use big letters. So that the poster stands out so people can see it. The people who are walking by in the hallway need to be able to read the whole thing within 5 seconds!

KFC Science by Sydney P
In KFC science, we just finished up doing our last observations before we pollute our eco-columns,(a model terrarium on top of a model aquarium.) Now, we have started polluting them with salt solution, vinegar solution, and fertilizer solution. We our polluting the eco-columns every other day, and are observing what happened to the eco-columns on the other days. I can’t wait to find out how the pollutants affect the eco-columns!

4th year Math by Ben
In 4th grade math, we have been learning a lot of new things. We learned 3 different ways to multiply,the shortcut way,the window way and the mini shortcut way. and we are doing a calendar grid for each month with a different pattern/subject. We also play fun math games, such as closest to 100. Time tiles are also fun- we have to solve problems like, “what time is it 2 hours after 3:30?”We are about to start geometry!  

5th year Math by Jacob
In our 5th grade math class we do a “Calendar grid observation” that changes every month.  We are (for now) using fractions. Like the kind of problem: is less than 8/9. During fractions, we learn short ways to solve fraction problems like now, we’re doing LCD (Least Common Denominator ) find the lowest multiple of the denominator. (About) Every 4 weeks, we switched to something new!

6th year Math by Emma, Grace, and Sarah
Sixth Grade Math is currently learning on how to work with percentages (multiplying, dividing etc...) We are usually assigned homework or class work in our math books everyday. Previously this year, we learned to divide and multiply decimals. We are also learning to describe our strategies for solving our homework problems in “math language”. For example, instead of saying what we did to solve a problem,  we would say what we need to do to solve this type of problem. Monica Wellman, or M, teaches us this so that we can become successful and grow as a “math meister”. After a period of time working on a strategy or problem, M will give us a short quiz to test how much we know about what we have just learned. M will later grade  these quizzes and hand them back to us. When students need support on some problems, M uses her time after a lesson to help them. Before sixth grade math, we have math practice. Math practice is during fourth and fifth grade math. During this time, we go on math websites such as, mobymax.com and tenmarks.com. The rest of the Soleil Center uses these websites as well. Mobymax.com is not only used for math but also for  language and vocabulary. Mobymax has you take a test to place you in the skill level that you belong in. On the other hand, Tenmarks gives you assignments that M assigns us. Sixth graders are so fortunate, proud and thankful to have such an amazing math teacher like M.

Art by Liam
This week my class is drawing pictures of trees in fall with leaves falling down. With the sun in the background. We are also using pastell.                  ART IS FUN!!!!!!!

Advanced Band by Charlotte
Advanced band is for kids who work hard in music and reach a more advanced level in band. We commonly play 7th grade music which is one-two years above our grade level as fifth and sixth graders. This semester we are playing three pieces, In The Hall of The Mountain King, Gypsy Dance, and Atlantis. We leave in the middle of olympics time for an hour before lunch on Fridays. We do miss part of olympics, but it is a lot of fun!

Orchestra by Ezra                                                                                                            
This year in Orchestra we will be doing a few concerts. For intermediate and advanced orchestra, our closest concert is on january 14, 2015. In intermediate orchestra, we will be doing a few songs, such a New Horizons, Cripple Creek, and a few other songs out of our music books (Essential Elements Book 1). Every time advanced, intermediate or beginning orchestra has a concert, you will need to be there at least 30 minutes earlier to tune and be ready to preform!

Monday, December 8, 2014

Welcome to the Madrona Soleil 2014 blog!

Welcome everyone to the Soleil Blog for the 2014 year.  This is a place for students to post their blog entries.
The address of this blog is madronasoleil2014.blogspot.com
--webmaster, 2014/12/15.