Wednesday, April 29, 2015

NO HOMEWORK...MANDATORY TV & ICE CREAM TONIGHT!

Hello Parents,
 Your child worked his/her tail off today for the MATH portion of GMAS! Please reward accordingly! :)

Thursday, April 23, 2015

It's the Final Countdown!

       It's here.....the dreaded week of testing. I use the word 'dreaded' because there really isn't a better word for it. For both teachers and students, it is filled with a disruption in the regularly scheduled program, grumbling tummies (hunger and nerves), headaches, and exhaustion. But don't worry, we will all make it through the week well. We are ready. I've been prepping the students and reviewing all week. They know this stuff and they remember everything I taught them throughout the year. It is amazing really. I don't even remember some of it myself!

     We had a little life lesson today about struggle and perseverance. I shared a quote with them and we discussed our interpretations. I thought I'd share it with you so you can talk about it with your child as well.


Here is our week at a glance! 


We didn't spend all week reviewing...we did an experiment on heat transfer using tap water and ice cubes. 








We made books on RAZ kids for our book buddies in Mrs. Wertz class. 


















 We explained our persuasive ads and determined the methods used by advertisers to get a consumer to buy a product.



Lastly, thank you for sending in snacks for next week and for supporting us each day. I am very proud of all the students' accomplishments this year. :) 

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Welcome Back!
  I heard all about the fun and exciting trips and stay-cations y'all had over the break! I planted some flowers and took a long weekend in Chicago with my husband. I am a little jealous of your trips and I'm actually looking forward to some heat in Atlanta!
  Before I share what we've been up to we need a few items for the classroom next week.
1. Please send in an aluminum can or two for your child to use in art class next Tuesday.

2. If you'd like to volunteer to send in a box/bag of snacks that I can give to the students after testing ends each day, I'd appreciate it. The students will be eating lunch early the week of April 27th and they will be testing in the afternoon. (There are 18 friends in our classroom)


Spring Break Planting






Science Experiment: Who Can Melt the Ice Cube the Fastest?
Students worked in pairs to plan a strategy and then went to work. As you can see we stomped on, squeezed, produced heat with friction, stuffed our shoes, used light sources.....etc.
It was insanity! Ask your child to tell you who won and how.













Elapsed Time Stories
We learned how to use a number-line to calculate elapsed time, then we wrote time stories complete with questions. Today and tomorrow we are solving each other's story problems. 






R.A.C.E : We learned how to construct short answers for testing. We practiced answering questions and checking to make sure we used each component of R.A.C.E



Have a great weekend! 




Thursday, April 2, 2015

Spring Break...Here we come!

Happy Spring Friends!

  In case you didn't know...... we will not have school next week. We will all be enjoying a much deserved Spring Break!! The students have been working really hard the last few weeks to complete all of their work and I am happy to say...we've only got 1 more Science standard and 1 more math standard to cover in April!!!
    Thank you all very very much for all of your support over the last few weeks. Between field trips, basketball, and biography projects, we've been very busy!
 Here's what's been happening:

Field Trip to The Dekalb History Center













Economics Projects 
Students became small business owners and determined the types of resources they'd need for their business. 




Time
Students made clocks to show their understanding of hours & minutes & their placement on the clock.







The ART of persuasion! 
Students played opinion tug of war in order to learn how to cite evidence and create a convincing argument. 





Popcorn Sale! 
We supported Ms. Stone's class by buying popcorn from them on Wednesday! The proceeds will be used to purchase books about diversity and inclusion.





Calling All Actors! 
The Alliance Theater sent over Ms. Baran to work with the children on collaboration. They created a freeze tableau and wrote an original song about collaboration to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"
Stay tuned for the performance of the song ......









Elapsed Time! Students are learning how to use a number line to solve elapsed time problems. 



See you tomorrow! :)