On this page, I would like to try to list new or time-sensitive information, and I invite you to
click if you would like to be included on an e-mail to receive these "newsflash" messages.

WHAT'S GOING ON NEXT WEEK IN KATAHDIN-7 (Jan 4) (Cadillac-7 update coming separately for this
week under teacher David Hilton's news)

KATAHDIN:

Social Studies:

In Social Studies students will each receive a textbook to take home, "American Nation." We are pleased to
invite you to keep this text at home for the time being, so that you may examine it along with your child and
read some of the material that augments the learning. We are fortunate to have a second set available at
school - so this will permit the family to enjoy the text as well as reduce wear and tear with the textbook
coming to and from school. (Remember your first serious textbook?) We will be looking at Early Explorers and
examining this through text reading (Chapter 2), in-class discussions and classwork. Homework will also be
assigned to practice and review some of the major points. Ask your child about what book they have chosen for
the next Social Studies tri-mester project -- at this point, students should be well into their selected
book. Please encourage them to talk with you about their book, what they are getting out of it so far and how
it relates to the project.

Health:

In Health, the first half of the week will be devoted to preparations for the Lyman Moore Blood Drive Service
Learning Project. The students needs to finish their "tri-folds" (large poster presentations) on their group
topic so that they are ready to share what they have learned with community members and the visiting public on
this Wednesday. This service learning project Wednesday will be from 1 to 7 p.m. (we do know that not every
student can make it for the full time). Students will be practicing presenting their information before the
big day. A few students still need to turn in blood donor appointment sheets. Remember that not every
student is expected to actually bring in several people to donate blood - but the donor sheet can also be used
to record the other equally crucial elements such as the letter writing, researching the need, and reaching
out to invite people to come to school to see what they have learned. We have not quite made it to our goal
of 140 appointments but your child has learned much about the process thus far. Ask your child about the many
tasks involved in Donation Day including those that have nothing to do with blood!

After the Blood Drive is finished, the students will be involved in the critical work of evaluating this
entire Service Learning project. The will answer survey questions and will share their opinions about what
went well and how it can be improved. they will also provide feedback about how the Interdisciplinary Blood
Drive Service Learning Project can be changed for the future. Ask your students what they feel has worked so
far, what has been fun, what has been challenging and why. Tell them about the first time you ever wanted to
donate blood and what prompted your decision to participate. What makes some blood drives successful? Is it
the amount of blood donated? The number of people seeing and learning about the project? The community
coming into a school to see what students do?


Science:

In Science we are launching into exploration of the human body as a logical next step in our learning after
the integrated unit about blood and the blood drive. We have utilized the student-generated research and
information from multiple other sources as well as everything we have learned from Health class to move now
into completing our cells unit. We are learning about each cell type and how it connects to the human body.
Ask your child about the different types of cells and what they have learned about each type. We have
explored blood cells, muscle cells, liver cells -- can your child remember the names of any of these cells?
(Can you?) We will be gearing up for a new unit soon on major muscle groups.


Math:

In Math we are working on Real Life application of Positive and Negative Integers. Ask your child about how
positive and negative numbers are used every day around us? See how many ways we use positive and negative
integers in daily life, in school, work and home. We plan a day in the snow - what do we need to know about
the temperatures and the negative and positive integers? What about your golf score -- what is PAR? What
about one of our students' favorites: Jeopardy! Game Show!

Language Arts:

In Language Arts we are working on similie and metaphor. We are finding and exploring these in many ways --
reading them, identifying them, understanding the difference between similie and metaphor. Is one more useful
in a certain context? We will be discussing these throughout the week -- see if your child can identify when
you use a metaphor -- ask your child for an example of one used by a teacher today. Look for your child's
yellow similie / metaphor bookmarker and ask them what is the goal behind the bookmarker, what are they
charting about these literary devices?

We will also be editing the content of the display tri-folds in the early part of this week that will be a
part of the public presentation for the Blood Drive Service Learning Unit. Editing skills will be reviewed.

Academic Support:

During Academic Support this next two week session, we have five different choices and each student has been
assigned to one of these sessions for the next two weeks: 1) "Speed Reading" Group; 2) Work Completion Group;
3) Long Term Project in Social Studies Group; 4) Math Extension Group ("Deal or No Deal"!); 5) Aquarium
preparation Room (science).

Physical Educaation:

Our "Fitness Factory" is now open. More on Physical Education coming soon.

Spanish:

Ms. Ornatek's Spanish class will be reviewing numbers - one to one hundred - not new material but a helpful
and useful review in any case. We will also be embarking on a new story about a cat named "Whiskers" who
likes to eat everything in sight. In examining this story, students will learn how to communicate in the past
tense (first person, singular only). They will know the difference between "I eat" and "I ate." (Mr. Roy's
spanish class update still to come...)

French:

This week we will be learning all the vocabulary necessary to understand the story that will begin to unfold
in the next week... stay tuned for this!


Meeting with the House Team of Teachers:

Parents are invited to meet with the team by contacting any one of us or the school counselor,
to arrange a meeting with the team to address any concerns or questions about your child's
learning, the progress report, or any other outstanding questions or ideas.


HOW TO REACH TEACHERS BY E-MAIL: All Lyman Moore teachers have the same e-mail format, that is,
the first five letters of the last name, followed by the first letter of the first name and then
@portlandschools.org for the rest of the address. The teachers for Katahdin are: Lauren
Cormier, Social Studies; Roberta Toothaker, Science; Regina Erskine, Health; John Fabish, Math;
and Trudy Brown, Language Arts. Foreign Language teachers are: Christine Daventry, French;
Anne Ornatek, Spanish and Andrew Roy, Spanish. Special Educators include Kathy Farrell, and
Matt King. Physical Education Teachers are: Phil Darasz, Ed Feeney, SueEllen Hayman, and Mike
Ball. Using the format I described here, for example, the social studies teacher
would be cormil@portlandschools.org

You may also reach the principal, assistant principal, learning strategist, teaching strategist
and all other Portland School employees with this same format.

These individuals are: Lee Crocker, Principal; Cynthia Loring, Assistant Principal; Erin Frazier,
Learning Strategist, and Kathleen Ball, Teching Strategist.