Due Dates for Architecture and Science Fair Projects

There are two projects going on in 5th grade that require some parent/guardian participation. These are the Architecture Project and the Science Fair Project.

Architecture Project:
The Architecture Project is due Friday, March 5. The kids are working either alone or in groups to build a scaled model of a building (Empire State Building, Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, etc). The models are typically built at home, and parents can help -- but not too much! If your child is working with other kids in a group, it is good to contact them and work together.

Science Fair Project:
Last week, the kids submitted their ideas for the upcoming Science Fair (ask your child if he/she submitted an idea, or needs to submit one late). Again, kids may be working alone or in groups. This project will also require some work outside class and parent/guardian participation and coordination with the families of other kids in your group. Science Fair projects are due April 20. The projects will be set up in the 3rd floor hallway on April 20, and kids will "present" their project on April 22.

You Got Into Hamilton! (Just One Thing to Do)

The school board voted a couple of weeks ago to allow ALL John Stanford 5th graders to attend Hamilton next year -- no matter where you live in the city. Yay!!

But -- if you live outside the Hamilton attendance area, you will need to APPLY to go to Hamilton during "open enrollment", which is basically the month of March.

If you live outside the Hamilton attendance area, you will receive a letter in the mail with an assignment to the middle school in your neighborhood. The letter will include information about how to apply during the open enrollment period to change your assignment to another school. Once you apply to Hamilton (put it as your FIRST choice), then your kid is assured a seat at Hamilton. But you MUST APPLY. So be on the lookout for the letter in the mail.

Spectrum -- and Appeal by Feb 24

"Advanced learning" notifications came in the mail the other day. If your child got into Spectrum -- congratulations! If he or she didn't, and you want to appeal that decision, you will need to file the appeal before February 24. Ms. Nani may be able to help you with the appeal (and she is a fan of wine -- hint, hint).

You need to mail the appeal or take it to the district office -- 2445 3rd Ave. N. Appeals cannot be filed by email.

Remember -- "Spectrum" is ONLY Language Arts (English) and Social Studies classes at Hamilton. Entrance to honors math class (working at the 7th grade level in 6th grade) is done completely separate from the "advanced learning" application and testing. When I get more information about how kids get into honors math, I'll let you know.

Hamilton Tour Dates -- March

If you missed the tours in February, Hamilton is holding two tours in March for 5th grade students and their families:

Thursday, March 11, 8:30-10:30am
Thursday, March 11, 1:00-2:30pm

The tours are held at Hamilton at Lincoln, 4400 Interlake Ave. N.

5th grade Yearbook

Yearbook message from Tami Oki -- J-5 bookbinding expert -----

JSIS 2010 5th Grade Year Book/Memory Book

The 5th grade usually has a year book or memory book. When my son Akira was in 5th grade (2006), I volunteered to coordinate that effort as I was really interested in bookbinding. I decided that it was possible to teach the kids to make a hardbound book. Carol Nakagawa did a wonderful book design and over 4 months I taught the 5th grade to make a hardback book, about 5.5” wide x 8.5” tall. Carol and I and Heidi Favour have signed up to do it again this year, and we’re hoping that other parents will be interested in helping the kids do this.

Each student has 2 pages in the yearbook. On one page, the student will write something about his/her time at JSIS in English and the other page will be in either Japanese or Spanish. There will be a portrait on one page and a candid shot on the other.

There will be a section of the book for color photos. If you have a particular photo of your student that you’d like to use, we can do that. Otherwise, we have a lot of photos taken at school over the past 6 year from which we can choose. Let me know if you’d like to peruse them.

I will introduce the yearbook idea to the students in class, and they will have some class time to work on their entries for the yearbook. For the Spanish class Isabel D’Ambrosia:

1. Will be making sure that the kids have written and typed up the essays.
2. Making sure that the Spanish language entry has been seen by Japanese/Spanish language editor.
3. Making sure that the student has made a file for their entry and putting it on a flashdrive for Heidi Favour.

While this is going on, I’ll be teaching the kids bookbinding. It isn’t difficult, but it is a bit slow, as we need to wait for the glue to dry between steps. And there are 53 5th graders.

1. Sewing – This is where the kids sew the 6 “signatures” (3 pieces of paper folded in half) to each other to make the “text block.” (30 minutes) 2. Glue spine and end papers (10 minutes) 3. Trim text block (I’ll take them home and do it on my paper guillotine.) 4. Glue headbands (10 minutes) 5. Case in (make the cover, and glue the textblock into it. (20 minutes)

We will be making one blank journal for practice and then we’ll make the yearbook.

Schedule

I plan on being at school from 8:15am – 9:15 am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from February 1 on. Please contact me at via e-mail to schedule your student. Students who are not able to come in before school will have an opportunity to work on the project during class time. I may be able to schedule some time after school if it is necessary.

Feb 1 - Start the writing process – in class Feb 2 ~ March 31 – Start teaching the students bookbinding on the blank book Mar 5 - Turn in text and photos to yearbook designers Apr 5 - Start binding the yearbook Jun 3 – finish

Volunteer opportunities

1. We need a parent in the Japanese class who will make sure all students have submitted entries in 2 languages.
2. We invite all the teachers who have taught the class of 2010 to write an entry. I’d like a parent from each class to keep track of the entries for the Japanese, Spanish, music, PE and other teachers.
3. I would love to have parents who are interested in helping or learning about bookbinding to come in and help. I am trying to do most of this before school, but I can be flexible. It isn’t difficult work, and mostly consists of helping keep kids focused on the task, untangling thread, etc.

Please contact me at via e-mail if you are interested.

Science Fair

Dear Parents,

Ms. Nani and I talked to the 5th graders about their science fair projects today. Now that we're decidedly back from break we want to make sure students are actively working on their projects, which at this stage means coming up with a project idea. The How to Get Started Worksheet is a useful tool. Spend some time with your student going over this worksheet to spark and organize ideas. Their ideas don't have to be fully formed hypothesis, but at this point, they should be narrowing down their interests and coming up with questions they would like to investigate. We will arrange for class volunteers to help the students develop their questions into a workable project.

Your students came home with docs intended for you: (1) A Letter to Parents and General Guidelines and (2) Parent Tips and Science Resources. Please make sure you review them so you know how best to support your students' work. Links to these docs can also be found on the web site at http://jsisweb.com/science-fair.

If at any point you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask us.

Thank you,

Arlene Murray
on behalf of the Science Fair Advisory Committee

Get All Our Kids to Hamilton in the New Assignment Plan

I got email from Tami Oki yesterday (the J-5 PTSA Room Rep) about the challenge of getting all of our current 5th graders into Hamilton next year under the new assignment plan. Tami reports that there are 10 students in Japanese 5th and 10 students in Spanish 5th who do not live in the newly drawn Hamilton “attendance area”.

Those outside the Hamilton attendance area could be assigned to a different middle school and miss out on continuing with language immersion. That’s about 37% of the 5th grade class. If 37% of our 5th graders are not able to attend Hamilton, that impacts the viability of the entire language immersion program at Hamilton.

There is still time to fix the new assignment plan and make sure all JSIS 5th graders can continue at Hamilton. But we need to let Sherry Carr know we want it fixed. Sherry is our district’s school board director. Her email is sherry.carr@seattleschools.org. You can also leave a phone message for her at 252-0040.

OR – be a superhero and join Tami at Sherry’s community meeting – tomorrow morning, Saturday, January 16, 8:00am at the Greenwood Neighborhood Service Center – 8515 Greenwood Ave. N.