HOLY JUNE!! Can you believe we're here already?!? Though our time left is brief, we have MUCH do to!

June 2nd is Field Day!! As of today (Saturday) the weather is predicted to be mostly sunny with a high of 89 degrees. PLEASE make sure your child is sent to school wearing sunscreen, bug spray, and comfortable shoes. Please send a water bottle in as well - preferably with his/her name written on it somewhere in permanent marker. Hats and sunglasses are allowed and highly recommended for this event. There will be games involving water, so please send in a towel and a change of clothes for your child in a plastic grocery bag (to put the wet clothes in afterwards). Mr. Wiles and Mrs. Schmidt have done a great job planning this event - we're looking forward to it!

Friday, June 4th, will be our Author's Tea! The students are SO excited to share their writing anthologies! They have so much to be proud of, I am HIGHLY impressed with how far they've come. :)

As you can see, the homework for the remainder of the school year has been posted! The last spelling quiz will be this Friday, June 4th, as well as the last Mad Minute Quiz :)

Thank you so much for your continued support - hope to see you Friday!!

Thank you so much for the birthday card and DELICIOUS strawberry bread!

So, I'm sure you've heard by now, but next week is FINALLY our turn for the Morning Announcements! The kids are super-stoked! They will be on the announcements in groups of 3-4. The script is typically as follows: (this is posted on cue cards for them, no memorizing involved!)

ALL: Good morning, Urbana! We come to you today from Miss Phelps' class.

Students introduce themselves individually

Student: Today is (Day of the week), May (date), 2010.

Student: The weather today is _________, with a high of ________ degrees Fahrenheit. The current temperature is _________ degrees Fahrenheit.

Student: For lunch today we are having (student reads today's lunch menu).

Additional announcements are added in as needed.

ALL: Have a great day, Urbana!!

The schedule for the morning announments:

Monday, 5/24: Jude, Sydney, Akshaya, and Alex
Tuesday, 5/25: Aakanksh, Sneh, Ashley, Christopher P.
Wednesday, 5/26: Julia, Sophie, Caitlin, Christopher W.
Thursday, 5/27: Dante, Jackson, Sarah
Friday, 5/28: Jamie, Andrew, Soujanya.

I hope everyone has/had a great time at the Strawberry Festival, and a wonderful weekend!

A Very Berry Bummer :(

Well, better safe than sorry! The Strawberry Festival has been postponed to NEXT Friday, May 21st. I still have all the permission slips indicating the dismissal preferences. I will assume that these will apply to your child for next week as well. If the case is different - please let me know - if it's the same, then we're good to go! Thank you!

We finished up division this week and will be moving on to lines and angles next week. The extent of this includes: perpendicular lines, parallel lines, right angles, obtuse angles, acute angles, intersecting lines, and points. If you have a protractor at home that your child could bring in that would be greatly appreciated! This is by no means a requirement, but just an opportunity for extension! Thank you!

Have a great weekend!!

Oh WOW, Pow Wow :)

What a wonderful day we had!!! The students had such a great day - and behaved SO well - at the Great Heron Wetlands 10th Anniversary Celebration. Thank goodness the weather held up as well - what a gorgeous day! Thank you all for sending your children in with sunscreen and a snack. (I think they would've had a tough time if they had to go without the snack until 12:15 today) The students spent the first part of the day traveling about to seven different learning stations. They learned about the drainage and flow of water to and from the wetlands, composting, the various fossils on the fossil wall, the observed organisms under microscopes, snakes, frogs, butterflies, bees, and learned how solar energy works. This was all before lunch!
After lunch we watched the Native American performers dance - complete with regalia! Some of the students were able to participate in the Snake Dance, and all of us participated in the circle dance at the end of the presentation. Students were given the opportunity to ask the performers various questions, as well as travel about to displays of Native American artwork, craftsmanship, even a REAL tee pee! What a great experience!

This coming week we will be continuing our study of plays/drama. Students had their first round of mini-performances this week and they did SUCH a great job!! Their expression and intonation in their voices was on point. Volume and speed are still a minor concern, but will come with practice and time. Students expressed an interest in performing for their parents, so please be on the lookout for an invitation!

We are in fact going to be continuing division through this week, and have the division post test on Friday, May 14th. We will be moving on to angles and lines afterwards. Thank you!

Thank you again for all your continued support (and appreciation!!!) I hope you and your families have a great weekend!

:)

Thank You

I am blessed to have you, and your children, in my life. I have been so fortunate over the past two years to be a part of a reciprocal learning environment. Just as your students have learned from me, I have learned SO much from them. I am amazed, on a daily basis, by their levels of intellect, enthusiasm for learning, and appetite for success. I am equally amazed by their consideration for others - they are as kind as they are brilliant! Thank you so much for supporting your children in all that you do - it makes my job that much easier :)

Speaking of "Thank you"...

Thank you so much for the surprise shower you threw for me and Matt!! Thank you for the food, the laughs, the gifts, and the time and effort you put into keeping it a secret. I LOVE the binder full of marriage advice - not only hilarious, but very practical, wise advice! Just when I thought this year couldn't be any more unforgettable... :) Thank you.

Whew! Now that I've gone through half of a box of tissues...let's get down to business! :)

We will be continuing our Drama/Plays unit this week. The students have REALLY gotten into this!! They've expressed an interest in learning about SHAKESPEARE - so we will be having a small lesson on him this week. We will also be focusing on the elements of plays (cast of characters, narrator, scenery, dialogue, monologue, props, costumes, stage directions, etc.). There will be a new center introduced this week - the Rehearsal Center. Students will be able to practice the lines of their plays with their group members. The primary goal of this center is to give the students a chance to practice, thus giving them experience with dialogue and fluency!

We'll be having our spelling quiz this Friday - this is the Free Choice Spelling list the students created. Next week we will be studying PALINDROMES!!! Palindromes are words and phrases that have the same sequence of letters when reading from right to left, and left to right. Some examples include - Wow, Mom, race car, Madam I'm Adam, etc. I will be providing students with a list of words that are considered palindromes to select their words from. After palindromes, students will have one more set of Free Choice spelling words - and that will be the last of spelling for the year!! WOW! :)

We are continuing our study of division solving skills this week. Students will be taking the division post test on Friday, May 7th before the Wetland Celebration. Please check out some of the new division practice links that have been added to the "Helpful Links" section of the blog - they're really fun! Our next unit will be studying angles and lines, and then finishing up with a review of the whole year!!

The Wetlands Celebration is essentially an all day affair. Please be sure your son/daughter is wearing sunscreen, sneakers with socks, and has a water bottle to carry around with him/her. We will begin the day in the classroom until 10:30. The rest of the day is Wetlands stuff!! Lunch will not be until 12:15 that day - so please send in a small snack for your child. We will take the time to eat before we go outside. The celebration goes until 3:25. It is my understanding that there are some forms that are being created for parents to fill out to allow their child to stay through to that time. Please understand that if this is what you plan to do, the shuttle buses will not be available for transportation at 3:25 - only at 2:30/3:15 as usual. I'll be in touch as I am informed as to what exactly the plan is here :) Thank you!!


Thank you again for all your support! Have a wonderful weekend!