Hello Readers,
I will not be posting on this blog for a while. This year we are writing a fifth grade blog as a team. I certainly miss the personal touches and anecdotes I can add on a personal class blog. But for now, this is the end.
I’d like to start the kids blogging on their own blogs. When that happens, I shall return to this space, I’m sure.
Thank you for reading. Check back later.
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Hello everyone!
Wow! We had a spectacular beach weekend. The water was so incredibly warm and clear. I hope some of you had the opportunity to go swimming.
Our class reunion is Tuesday, August 18th from 10:30 to 1 at New Castle Commons. I hope to see you there! Please bring your beach stuff and a lunch!
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I’ve just heard from a few students from last year. It sounds like Serena had an amazing trip around Europe! I hope she’ll ask me to share in her pictures! I’m free after August 1st. Hint, hint…
And the other kids are having fun with friends, at camps, at the beach, with family, etc. The weather hasn’t been wonderful, making for a few boring days. However, it sounds like the kids are keeping their creative minds busy and finding some fun wherever they look!
I’ve had some requests from students to have a class picnic before school starts again. I’m thinking that August 12th looks like a good day for a get together. Email me or comment on the blog to let me know if you can make the 12th!
In the mean time, enjoy, rest, stay healthy, and smile!
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I look forward to September for many reasons, one of them being that my “old” students, now 6th graders, come back to visit.
I said goodbye to all my students on Friday. I know that goodbye isn’t forever, but it’s for now. We enjoyed a year full of learning and fun. We overcame some obstacles as a team. We laughed. We disagreed. We problem solved. We remembered to forgive and be kind. This will be a class that stays close to my heart. I’m sure I’ll watch them grow as I read community news and receive emails. I know they’ll all have a very successful 6th grade year.
I hope that all my families enjoy a wonderfully happy and healthy summer vacation!
Keep in touch. I’ll miss you.
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The fourth graders amazed us today as the performed their play “School Daze!” I cracked up laughing so hard because they were making fun of teachers and learning. I love it when we have the opportunity to laugh at ourselves! In general the play showed how students are so capable of pulling together to work as a team. As they sang their songs, changed scenery, and took turns talking, you could really tell that they had worked hard to “get it right” and listen to each other and their cues. I’m looking forward to learning with them next year.
However, that also means that I soon won’t be learning with my current fifth graders. That makes me sad. I’ve greatly enjoyed their dedication to learning, their incredible personalities, many laughs, hysterically funny moments, and of course, some sincere acts of kindness.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost summer vacation. I’ll certainly miss my 19 treasures. I hope they make their way back to visit me in the years to come. They are all fabulous people with whom I hope to stay connected as they grow up.
We have one more big work day tomorrow, and then…Water Country! I hope the weather holds out.
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Although our spirits were disappointed this morning, with the cancellation of our field trip, the kids turned it around and worked hard! They had a bit of fun as well as they “sneaked” a few gumdrops into their mouths! And, they thought I didn’t notice. Laughing…
Today we continued with building our gumdrop structures. Some kids are using other materials to build a 3-d structure to represent their 2-d drawing. Kids are learning how to measure the area and perimeters of squares, triangles, and rectangles. Our classroom is quite messy, showing the signs of learning and creativity! I’m sure our wonderful custodian will appreciate our ingenuity!
Today we also finished up editing and formatting our multi genre writing projects. These pieces of writing are already to be mounted on poster boards tomorrow! I look forward to watching the kids be creative as they make their poster boards turn into an object that represents the topic of their writing
I can’t wait for all of our families to hear the kids sing their two graduation songs! Their voices are very powerful as they belt out Good Riddance by Green Day and The Time of My Life by David Cook. I encourage them all to continue practicing with the Youtube karaoke videos.
For homework tonight, I asked the kids to do some reflecting upon their education here. I hope they take the time to be thoughtful and thorough. I’m sure they will.
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The end of the year is approaching quickly! And, cowboys…we need to hold onto those reigns tightly! The foals are buckin’ as they get ready to head off to the big rodeo in September, aka PMS.
Today we typed up most of our pieces of writing for our Multi Genre Writing Projects, drafted the final plans for our Math Area Projects, and made final adjustments to all materials lists. We’re making a big push to keep those hooves busy, working hard. We begin production of our final pieces tomorrow. Some young foals have asked me to buy materials, and I am. Some others say their parents are buying materials. Please make sure all materials are here on Tuesday at the latest, but tomorrow would be best!
Well, I’m off to practice my lasso techniques. And…finish up our final progress reports. They’ll be handed out on June 19th.
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Those are 3 words I would use to describe most students’ behavior this week! We began 2 new mini units. One in writing and another in math. We also took 2 major assessments in reading and math.
On Monday, a solemn mood lingered in the air as students longed for their environmental school counselors and learning activities. They sang tons of camp songs, reminisced about memorable events, and wished for 3 o’clock to come. Sitting in a seat, doing “real” work was boring. Although I was well aware of their dislike for “real” school, I pushed on.
After introducing the new units and a few reminders of quality effort, the kids began to brighten up. They started to remember that “real” school isn’t all that bad. Joking. With renewed spirits, they tackled their assessments with confidence! The end of the year math tests proved to be challenging. They overcame those challenges!
Our multi-genre writing project sparked their interests and energies. The students started brainstorming and writing like crazy. They are required to choose a topic, develop a thesis to prove in their writing, and then write 6- 10 pieces to prove their thesis. These pieces of writing can be of any genre at all. We have kids writing poems, conversations, recipes, songs, programming language, cartoons, you name it….they’re writing it.
Likewise, our new math project is allowing the kids to use their creative minds to draw and construct a structure. This structure must include at least the following shapes: square, rectangle, and triangle. We’ll be doing lots of measuring and calculating of area and perimeter. Their structures must connect to their MGWP writing topic. So, we have kids building basketball courts, guitars, stoves, the Twin Towers, mythical creatures, baseball bats, bananas, etc.
For both projects, the kids might be asking their families to purchase a few items. We’ve discussed the need to keep our building materials inexpensive. I will provide materials, too.
I look forward to sharing in the kids’ enthusiasm, learning and creativity next week! I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun, yet accomplish our goals as well!
Please view the homework and events calendar. I’ve posted some upcoming important dates there. More information will be sent home on Monday regarding these events.
Enjoy your weekend!
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Here’s the video from the boys’ perspective on day one at Environmental School.
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We enjoyed a beautiful beginning to our week. The skies were bright blue, with a few clouds, a light wind, and a ton of flying bugs! Smiles and laughter filled the air! The kids went on a stream walk, walking in the water up to their arm pits- yuck! They tried the canoing to the marsh to study that ecosystem, but the whitecaps were too strong. After a wonderful, yummy lunch, they hiked around in the forest to learn about that ecosystem and the acronym, ECDCICA! Ask your child what those letters mean. The evening ended with a campfire, counselor skits, and fun singing!
View the attached videos to see how the enjoyed their day!
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