Week of March 24

In social studies, we have been learning about the Southeast. Students were asked today to bring in a product from the Southeast, such as something made from cotton or peanuts, or oranges or rice. Look around your house for these items and others, like pecans and peaches, to show students how items from their home come from the Southeast. Since the Southeast also has coal and oil, explain how these resources are used to provide electricity and heat our homes. While studying the Southeast, the students have needed to memorize the location of the states and the names of the capitals. They have a test each week on five or six of the states. From looking at the test grades, one can see the difference between those who studied and those who did not. The easiest way to study would be to have your child learn one or two states each night, then put them all together at the end of the week.

We are also getting ready for our science fair, to be held on April 3. The entire school is participating. Please help your child to gather the materials necessary for his or her group's experiment. The students will be given time to complete the experiments in class.

Above are pictures from our trial about the book Shiloh. Students divided into two sides: those saying that Judd deserved to have the dog Shiloh, and those saying that Marty should keep him. Students then had to call up witnesses, question and cross-examine them, and were then allowed to give closing statements.

Five paragraph essays

The class is learning how to write an essay that is multiple paragraphs. We began today by taking an introductory paragraph that was provided, deciding what each paragraph following it should be about, then breaking into pairs to each write a paragraph. This is a composite of some of the paragraphs students wrote, following the introduction provided.


At the beginning of the school year, none of us thought we would become the close-knit group that we are. Now we work really well together on project and put whole- team effort into everything we do. We encourage one another and treat each other the way we want others to treat us. We even come up with terrific new ideas for our whole school to try. There’s no better team anywhere!

Today, our class puts a lot of effort into everything we do. We worked together to put an electromagnet together and saw how an electromagnet works. We have fun in everything we do instead of fighting and not getting any work done. Our class did stations of chemical changes and physical changes. We work really well together on big projects and our class work. We worked on the Stations of the Cross. We put north, south, east, and west around the room.

We help people and treat them the way we want to be treated. We help people so they could help us, and we treat them nice so they could treat us nice. We also help people so we can be peaceful people. We help moms do chores and we help Ms. Galecki by cleaning after some people, so Ms. Galecki doesn’t have to clean it up. I help my friend read and with her homework. We all treat everyone nice. We help them learn. We help them around the school.

Our class tries to come up with new ideas for our whole school. Once, our class went outside to clean the front of the school and went to plant plants. The school helps with St. Jude’s hospital and classes give money to St. Jude. Our teacher is happy for us that we come up with ideas to try for the fourth grade. If you have ten or more beads, you get to do activities. One of the bead activities we have done is the roller coaster, another activity is painting with our buddies.

School is fun because we work together and do cool projects. Our teacher is nice because she lets us meditate and use our imagination.


The students did an excellent job staying on topic and providing supporting details for the introduction!

Two important dates are coming up. First, we have a science test on electricity and magnetism on Tuesday, March 17th. Students received the study guide for this today. We also have a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry on March 25th. Permission slips and money are due on Friday.