Week of May 18-22

It's our last full week of school! I hope you are as excited as I am!

Thanks to all of you who donated $1 for the Wildlife Presentation from Prairie Park Nature Center. The kids really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

State Parade - This week is our state parade. It will be held at 3pm on the black top. Please meet us out there at 3pm for the parade. It's really helpful for parents to not come to classroom before hand, as it takes a lot of work to line up 50 floats and 84 students. You may take your child's float home directly following the parade, so please make arrangements to do so. We ask that if you are not coming to the parade, but picking the float up after school that you park and load the float, instead of going through the pick-up line. This can really jam up traffic. Thanks for all your cooperation. You really help make this fun event a success.

State Reports - State Reports are due Tuesday. We are finishing typing them today in class. Students may need to bring them home to finish their cover, so please look for those tonight. Help make sure your student has their work here and turned in Tuesday.

Math - This week will be the last week for math. I will be giving an End-of-the-Year Assessment. This will be a cumulative test that contains problems from tests through out the year.

50 States and Capitals Test - Students will be tested over all 50 States and Capitals on Friday morning. Please make sure your child is studying a little each night.

Field Day - Friday is field day starting at 1:30. Please make sure your child dresses appropriately and brings sunscreen. A hat and shades might not be a bad idea either.

50 States and Capitals Challenge

This week I announced the 50 States and Capitals Challenge. Next Friday, May 22, I will be testing my class on the 50 States and Capitals. This test will not be for a grade, however, awards will be given out at Blue and Silver for those students who know the location of all 50 States and Capitals. Please encourage your students to review a little each night for this test. There will be no study guide provided, so students will have to find maps on their own. I have put a link to a website on my blog that is a good place to practice naming states and capitals. Good luck and thanks for supporting our classroom activities!

Week of May 11-15

We are very busy this week beginning our state research. Today students were assigned a state and a partner they will be working with on collecting information as well as building their float. The partners will research together, sharing books, but taking their own notes and writing their own reports. My rough time line for this project is to take notes Monday and Tuesday, write the rough draft Wednesday and Thursday, and type our final copies Friday and Monday. Reports will be finished on Monday. Students must have their report finished before they can participate in the state parade.
Floats - Students will work on their floats with their partner. On their float they are required to have 3 fast facts, resources from their state, tourist attractions, and landforms from their state. The float must be on wheels of some sort. Wagons work best, but if you can not locate one get creative! Mrs. Stogsdill does have some scooters we can borrow if need be. Please don't send any float materials to school until week.
Reports Due Monday May 18
State Parade Thursday May 21 @ 3pm on the blacktop. Parents are invited to attend the parade. Please meet us on the blacktop.

In other news . . .
This week we took our final MAPS test in Math. Our reading scores were fantastic last week and I am looking forward to seeing the results of this test. You will receive the scores with their report cards at the end of the year.

Math - We are continuing with fractions this week.

Science - We continue to study Ecosystems. We will end the week with a presentation from Prairie Park Nature Center. Thanks to all of you who chipped in!

* If you haven't already please answer the poll on the side of the blog post about blog usage this year. I would really some parent feedback. I really feel that the students have utilized and enjoyed it, and I have parents have found it helpful as well. Thanks!

Science Experiment - May 5

For this experiment students will dry two of the same slices of bread on the counter over night. In the morning place the bread in a ziploc bag. One of the slices wet with a teaspoon of water. The other slice should be left dry. Label the bags damp and dry. Be sure to note the type of bread that you are using for your experiment. (All types are fine: white, wheat, sourdough, cinnamon, hamburger buns)

Week of May 4-8

Only 17 school days left...is anyone else counting!

This week we will have Jr. Achievement in the morning. Our presenter is Leslie Holtzen of Lawrence Paper Company. We are very excited for this fun and educational experience.

MAPS testing on Monday afternoon. This morning I had students look at their scores from the beginning and middle of the year and set goals based on those scores. This should help students have a little more buy in to the tests! I am looking forward to seeing how they progressed this year. The results will be sent home with report cards at the end of the year.

Science - This week we will begin learning about biomes.

Health - We continue learning about nutrition.

Math - In math class we are reviewing some concepts from the last unit that we didn't do so well on (i.e. measuring to the nearest cm, elapsed time, conversion of cm and dm to meters). We are practicing these skills and will correct our tests before they come home. When we are finished with that we will begin on fractions.

Reading - We finally finishing our Summary projects. I anticipate those to be completed tomorrow.