Lewis Elementary
Please join us for our annual Day of Service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, this coming Monday, January 21. We will be working in the garden, doing some pruning and winter clean up. Families are welcome, and feel free to join us for as much or as little time as you can. Look forward to seeing you then!
When: Monday January 21, 2013
Time: 9-11am
Where: Lewis Garden
Students in Ms. Rotwein's classroom have been learning about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. They have also spent time learning about the history of the Civil Rights movement and important milestones in the struggle for equality. On Friday they all wrote letters to Dr. King. Caleb's is highlighted in this post.
Since we have returned from Winter Break, our 4th and 5th grade students have been working with Mr. Jamesbarry learning about animation using a program called Annimation-ish. Mr. Jamesbarry is documenting their work on our student blog.
This week we are holding our annual Parent/Teacher conferences. Monday and Tuesday teachers are working from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. This allows us to provide two evening sessions of conferences and also allows staff to have Wednesday off as part of the Thanksgiving Holiday. The picture that accompanies this post is of first year teacher Abby Rotwein. The cookies are a very nice touch.
On Friday students from Ms. Swan and Ms. Kennedy's classrooms celebrated Caine's Arcade Day. Caine's Arcade is a short film that documents the work of a boy creating a cardboard arcade at his father's auto parts store in Los Angeles. It celebrates the creativity of one child and the encouragement of his father and others in his community who support his creativity.
Students from Ms. Swan and Ms. Kennedy's classroom met in the school cafeteria to work collaboratively to create cardboard arcade games and then to play those games. It was an amazing creative event. Follow the Read More link to view some images from the event.
My school, Lewis Elementary, has a Twitter feed. We have set up a few tools that allow us to automatically post to Twitter anytime new content is added to our school web sites. This morning I noticed via the school Twitter feed, that first grade teacher Anne Logue had updated her classroom blog with information about the silk worms that arrived in the class this past spring. She took them home for the summer and was using her blog to update her students and families about their progress. A nice surprise on a sunny July 4th morning.
New post: Silk Worm Update :) bit.ly/LBExHG
— lewiselementary (@lewiselementary) June 27, 2012
Lewis Elementary is participating in the May Walk and Bike to School Challenge sponsored by Safe Routes to School. This is a friendly competition among our elementary and middle schools to encourage families to use alternative/active transportation to get to and from school. Every day in May students from Mr. Marchyok's 4th grade class will be visiting each classroom to collect data on how students get to school. Students will then analyze the data and display weekly totals on the bulletin board in "The Dip".
On Friday, May 11, 2012 we held a Family Dance at Lewis featuring our very own Lonesome Teacher Treo (Mr. Colvin, Mr. Marchyok, Mr. Jamesbarry and their friend Tim Hahn.) They lead participants in a great evening of music and dance.
This past weekend our Lewis Drama Club performed their production of The Elves and the Shoemaker. I continue to be impressed with the quality of work demonstrated by our students, our staff, and our parent and community volunteers who work to make these productions possible. Under the direction of Tori Padellford, Hannah Welsh, and Debbie Keefer, our young actors put on a performance that was entertaining and inspiring. To see these students come together and work as a team is something I find very satisfying.
This year we returned to having Mr. Jamesbarry's students provide the music and under his direction, and with the help of Mr. Colvin, they added an element, that together with the student actors, made the program very special.
It was also nice to see many former Lewis students and past cast members come back to help with rehearsals, and to serve as ushers during the performances. We greatly appreciate their support and the connection we have with them.
We thank all of our parent and staff volunteers for their help and support with the production. Also a special shout out to Jen Kelly for her work with costumes, Shawn Holenstein for her work with the sets, and to Robert Welsh for his technical and carpentry support.
Photo Credit: Mr. Colvin
On Saturday, April 21, 2012 the 3rd annual Lewis Elementary School Garden Fair and Plant Sale was held. The event is a fund raiser for our garden program and also provides an opportunity to invite the larger community to our school to learn about what we do. It is one of those events that come together because of work of many volunteers. It also seems to be a guarantee of good weather. This is our third year and each of the events have seen sunny skies, which with the spring we have been having in Portland this year, is a very welcome site. 
This year each of our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms at Lewis Elementary School have had the opportunity to work with Rick Weiss and Kate Finn as part of our Song Writers in Residence program. Each of these classrooms were able to help write and record a song. Each student will receive a copy of their class song on a CD, and we will also have available for sale at Art Night, a CD, that includes all seven songs. We also plan to post the songs to iTunes and make them available online...
Last night we held our 25th Annual Lewis Elementary School Talent Show. A great evening of music, dance, feats of strength, and magic tricks...
On Friday at Lewis Elementary we held our Grandparents & Special Friends Day. Traditionally we have used the occasion of Read Across America Day to invite grandparents, extended family members, and family friends to our school so that our students can share the place where they spend a significant part of their lives. This invitation provides these significant adults with a window into an important and notable part of their child's life, their experience at our school.
I enjoyed visiting rooms and watching and listening to the interaction between our students and these adults. I was particularly moved to see children guiding their grandparents and special friends throughout the building on tours. As they walked by classrooms and places such as the music room, the gym, the cafeteria, the library, and the garden, I heard children talking excitedly about those spaces, and the great things that take place in those spaces. The photo accompanying this post shows a kindergarten student guiding her grandmother on a tour of the building. I followed behind and listened as she, with a sense of pride and accomplishment, explained to her grandmother about the work and play she partakes in within these places.
Friday was a good day...
Below are some images from Friday…
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Instructional Technology Strategies Conference in Portland. During that time I was able to attend a session called Constructing Mindfulness: An Invitation to See. The presenters were Pam Moran and Ira Socol. It was a great session dealing with learning spaces and what they can look like. This is something I have long been interested in and enjoyed being able to have the opportunity to learn from Pam and Ira.
On Tuesday, Pam and Ira visited my school and I enjoyed spending time with them and discussing how we can make our classrooms more welcoming and inviting places for learning.
On Thursday at Lewis, we welcomed Do Jump Theater to perform for our students and families.
It's nice to have a sign in front of the school to inform people of upcoming events… It would be even better if I didn't have update it… :-)
I was visiting one of our 3rd grade classroom and spied this image. The students inside are working on reading, while just beyond them, outside the window, 4th grade students are taking in a garden lesson...
3rd grade student recording herself while reading her writing draft….
This year we are working with Songwriters in Residence Rick Weiss and Kate Finn. They have been working with our 4th and 5th grade students. Each class has worked collaboratively to write and then record a song. They also have been working to create album art and liner notes for a CD that will be produced. If we get additional funding, we will also provide this experience to our 3rd grade students.
http://instagr.am/p/lOJzy/