Friday Fun

It's Friday!!!!





On Fridays we start the day off in P.E. Today was a kickball day. It was a close game with a few home runs and a few exciting catches. Afterwards, we all headed back to class to take our spelling and reading test for the week. Then it was off to math followed by lunch and recess. After recess we came back together to continue our series about civilizations. We have been talking all week in Social Studies about what it would be like to start our own colony and what it would be like if we were in charge. Today we watched the first episode of the CBS television show Kid Nation and discussed different techniques and strategies on how they started their town. Later in the day, we met up with our 1st grade study buddies. Each Friday, in the auditorium, we pair up with students from Mrs. Muehlings first grade class and help them with some sort of math or reading activity. Over the past couple weeks the 1st graders have been learning and doing activities involving apples. So today we colored a picture of Johnny Appleseed together while our 1st grader buddies told us what they had learned. Afterwards it was back to the room to finish off our video and and call it a day. I hope that everyone has a great relaxing weekend. See you on Monday. (To enlarge a picture all you have to do is click on it.)

NWEA Coming Right Up

I just wanted to thank everyone for your help with getting ready for ISTEP test. It was a big help that we had great attendance and that everyone seemed well rested and ready to test. I am proud of the way the students stayed focus throughout the week.

Now that we have that behind us and we are starting our normal schedule we run into NWEA testing. This is the test that we take a few times each year in the computer lab to monitor our progress in the different subject areas. We will be having three test over the next two weeks. One next week and two the following week.

I also wanted to share my excitement about the Social Studies activity we have been working on this week. We have been exploring ideas about what it would be like to start our own civilization. We have talked about what it would take to survive, rules we might need, necessities that we might need to deal with, and hardships we might need to overcome. I am excited to see where the discussions take us and what sort of society we can create.

This week I will hopefully be taking pictures of the class in action. I am hoping to get some shots of us working in the room as well as playing in gym or at recess. Be on the look out this weekend for those shots. I will also be posting a new survey questions please check it out and vote.

After ISTEP

We are cruising through the ISTEP test. I am proud of how each student has really focused this week on the job at hand. It can become a long week in a very short amount of time but everyone is doing great. The sixth grade as been testing in the mornings while the 5th grade, because of the Science test, has been testing both in the morning and then in the afternoons. Thankfully, the weather has been great. We have had the chance to go out a few extra times to stretch our legs and get some of the jitters out of our system. We have one more full day tomorrow and then we coast on into the weekend.

Starting next week we will be getting into our normal weekly routine. We are going to be starting Science and Social Studies as well as Literature Groups soon after. I will also be sending home Midterm Grades at the beginning of next week, hopefully on Monday or Tuesday. After checking those out if you could please sign them and send them back to me. Thanks.

Finally if you haven't noticed I added a couple things to the side bar to your right. There is a fun poll question you can vote on as well as our new scrolling marquee.

Assignment Books and Newsletter

As the beginning of the year hustle and bustle is starting to settle down and students are getting in the flow of their daily routines I want to make sure that everyone remains up to date on their homework. With all that goes on in the course of our busy day it is sometimes easy to forget an assignment or two. To help minimize this as much as possible I encourage any parent, who feels this would be beneficial to their son or daughter, to pick up an assignment book. This is a great organization method and will help you to know what is going on here at school. At the end of each day I will remind the class what homework they might have so that they can write it down and take home the necessary books.

I will be sending home a Newsletter this Friday with information about ISTEP testing. If you would like to send in a small healthy snack please let me know before sending it in. This way we don't have all of our snacks arriving on the same day.

Another Good Week

I just wanted to throw a couple comments on here before we officially close out the week and get ready to enjoy the weekend.

Even though it was a shorter week we were still able to get a lot accomplished. We were able work through a story in our reading book, go over a few lessons in our spelling, worked on writing, and continued to review our test skills in the afternoon. Overall I would say it was a very successful week.

If I could pick one thing for us to continue to focus on as we strive to become better inside the classroom and out is to use our time wisely in class. The way our schedule is set up each day we tend to have a few minutes of transition time between subjects. It is very important that we use this time. I encourage everyone to be productive and not just waste your time away.

Thanks again for a great week. Enjoy your weekend and we will all be ready to do it again come Monday.

Book Reports

This is just to let everyone know that the first book reports are due Monday October 1st. Everyone in here has chosen a book that they would like to read and we have been working on this now for about 3 weeks. When finished reading the book, each student is responsible for completing a "General Book Report Form," which I have hanging in the room as well as one of the ten activities on the Book Report bulletin board. I have been trying to monitor how well everyone is coming with their books. With this being around the half way point for the time allowed to read the book, please help me make sure that your son or daughter is on pace to finish the book on time. Thanks

More news on ISTEP coming soon.