End of the Year

Thanks to all the parents who checked the class blog regularly this year. I haven't updated it in a long time because I was gone and have been extremely busy since I have been back.

CRT tests are completed and we will work on finishing up some lose ends from now until the end of the year and we will complete a Civil War Interact, which is one of my favorite things for the entire year! Students always seem to love this and learn so much about the Civil War.

I am still expecting students to be at school and on time for the rest of the year as we will continue to do academic work up to the last day of school.

I want to thank everyone who bought gifts for my baby. That was really sweet of you.

I won't likely be updating the blog anymore this year. Thanks for following it and making it a success.

Science Fair News

Congratulations again to Ethan and Nate! Nate got a runner up ribbon for his science fair project at district level, and Ethan got a blue ribbon and will be going on to compete at state! Congratulations to both of them and I am so proud of them! They did such a great job!

Congratulations!!

A big congratulations to Ethan and Nate for being our science fair winners. They will compete at district level on February 12th! Good luck to both of you!

SCIENCE FAIR

We are finally finishing up science fair! Phew...what a relief! The kids have put in so much hard work and hopefully learned a lot about their project and also about the scientific process. Our science fair will be on Frida from 9-10. Feel free to come browse and ask the kids questions about what they learned!

Science Fair

This week students should be completing their real world situations. Then next week we will organize our binder together in class and complete a table of contents. Students will also need to put together their boards. I will show numerous examples in class so they understand the quality I am looking for in these boards. Boards can be purchased at Walmart, any office store and many other places. If you would rather make your own board, you can go to gas stations and ask for a large box and cut it. It has to be self-standing and have two sides that fold in. Students will know what it needs to look like.

JA Biz Town

The field trip to JA City Biztown will be such a great experience for our students. If you would like to know more about the experience you could log on to their website. I have put the link on the blog for you.

March 5th, 2009 is when we will be going to Biztown. We need several volunteers. We will be sending a letter home next week giving you all the dates for training, so you can let us know then if you are interested in participating.

Service Project

Our service project was very successful today! It was so great to see the students work so hard on the blankets we made. They did a great job and had a lot of fun. They will be donated to Primary Children's Hospital. Thank you to everyone who could come in and help and to all the parents who donated fleece. It was a very successful project!

I hope everyone has a great holiday season and I will see everyone on January 5th! Be working on any missing science fair work and science fair graphs over our break!

Science Fair experiment and conclusion

This week students should complete their actual science fair experiments and type all their data and their conclusions. These should be turned in on Thursday. They will have an assignment over Christmas break to make a graph of their data. This can be nicely hand made or done on the computer. They will need two copies - one for their journal and one for their science fair boards. We will finish up with a couple assignments when we get back and science fair will soon be over. (thankfully).

Variables/Service/Book Report/push-ups

Next weeks science fair project assignment is variables. Students will be asked to determine their controlled and experimental variables and type them up. There should only be one experimental variable in each experiment.

Please read the Christmas volunteer note I sent home on Friday. We will be making blankets for Primary Children's Hospital as our Christmas service project. I need volunteers to donate fabric and to come help with our project. Thanks for helping!

Our book report this month is due on December 19th. Students should be reading a choice book that is on their reading level.

Push-ups is our current presidential fitness activity. This next week will be the last chance for students to pass them off, so remind them to be practicing at home!

Science Pictures

Yesterday we saw a demonstration of how weathering and erosion works. Then we talked about how water effects weathering. We put a water balloon in plaster and students were to take it home and freeze it to see what happens when water freezes when in the cracks of sidewalks and rocks. Here are some pictures!

Science Fair/Spelling

This week, students need to work on their list of materials and hypothesis. These are due, typed on Thursday. Most of the class didn't get their research turned in yesterday, so please help them get that completed this week.

We took our spelling test today. Make sure to look for personalized lists coming home for each student tonight. They should practice these words so they can spell them as they write and they will all be on upcoming tests.

Thanks for all your help!

Science Fair Research

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to spend time with your families.

Please remember we have Science Fair Research and Bibliography due on Monday morning. This should be about 2 typed pages (14 font) Stuents need to have science fair turned in ON TIME to go to Fabulous Friday. We will have another small science fair project this upcoming week, so try hard not to get behind.

Thanks for coming to conferences! I was able to meet with everyone and enjoyed talking to all of you.

Conferences

Today I am sending home a schedule for your conferences. Conferences are next Thursday and Friday (the 20th and 21st). Please have your child bring this back to me as soon as possible. If the suggested time doesn't work for you, leave a phone number where I can reach you or put some times on there that do work for you and I will see what I can work in.

I look forward to meeting with all of you next week!

Science Fair

The time has come to begin science fair. I love science fair and put a lot of time and effort into getting students ready to begin their projects. I will send home a time line and many more details on Monday, November 10th.

Each week, students will have an assignment due, that is part of their science fair project journal. I will send home a half sheet of paper explaining each assignment and I will go over each weekly assignment in class, with the students, in great detail. These will usually be due on Thursdays and must be turned in to go to Fabulous Friday. These must be typed. If students can't type it at home, there will be computers available at school that they can use. I will also have some adult help that will help type these, if needed.


Due Nov 13th:
1. Bring a 1" three-ring binder with 8 tabs for your journal. The eight tabs should be: purpose, research, hypothesis, experiment, analysis, bibliography, due dates and notes. Let me know if you cannot provide a binder for your child and I will take care of them.

2. Get parent's signature on the packet slip.

3. Write a proposal on an project you would like to complete (do NOT start the project yet, I need to approve these and will walk students through this process, step-by-step).

Book Report - Historical Fiction

Our next book report genre is historical fiction. A historical fiction book is a book about times in our history and stories that take place in those times. The times are real, but the stories are partly made-up or completely made-up. Some of the people in the book may have been real, but the author used his or her imagination to tell the story.

This book report is due November 26th.

Please remember these books need to be AT LEAST 100 pages and need to be on the student's reading level. There are numerous great historical fiction books and many that are also award winners. Please make sure students have their books and are reading.

Thank you for your help and support with book reports!

Presidential Fitness

Our new presidential Fitness activity is going to be push ups. Here are the requirements for students:

Boys 10 years old: presidential - 22 national - 14
Boys 11 years old: presidential- 27 national - 15
Girls 10 years old: presidential - 20 national - 13
Girls 11 years old: presidential - 19 national - 11

Their chance to pass off push ups will be December 5th.

Welcome Back!

Just a reminder to parents that we come back on Monday, November 10th! Students need to remember to bring back their reading minutes and they must be SIGNED by a parent. They can't be turned in late so please remind them to bring their minutes!

Short Week!!

The week of the 13th is a short week. We have school Mon Tue and a short day Wed. There is no school on Thurs or Friday. Then we are off track after that, so kids won't be back until November 10th. I hope everyone has a fantastic break.

Kids can start working on push ups during their time off if they would like and they can also keep practicing their math facts. We also have a reading challenge from the principal to see who can get the most reading minutes before Noveber 10th, so we have an advantage being off track because kids will have more time to read! They need to keep a log of the date and the minutes they read and parents need to sign it. Kids need to bring this back to me on Monday, November 10th! They can read whatever they want and are interested in and could even get their next book for their next book report read! Happy reading!

Obert Sky

Obert Sky came and did an assembly for us today. He wrote the Leven Thumps series (great books for 5th graders) and also has a new book out called Pillage. He will be at Barnes & Noble tonight starting at 6 to sign books if you buy or have his books. What a neat experience for your kids to meet an author! I will be at the book signing! Hope to see some of you there! These would be great books to use for our December choice book reports or for our January Fantasy book reports. They could get a head start on reading them now.

Donations

Our class is currently running low on hand sanitizer and we are completely out of Kleenex tissues. If anyone is able to donate either of these to the class, it would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!