May 8, 2014

We've been very busy with science lately! This week was the science fair, and the students' projects look great. I've had many compliments from other teachers about how professional and interesting the projects look. So far, we've shared them with the third and fifth graders, and each other. The students gave fantastic presentations, and I could tell that they had learned a lot. We also had students share their circuit rooms yesterday. Everyone came up with different ways to use the light bulbs and switches, and I think we have lots of future engineers here! Next week, we'll begin studying different forms of energy: heat, light, and sound.

In math, we're working on multiplying by two digit numbers. We're going to do a lot of practice this week and next, and I expect the test to be sometime the week of May 19. In reading, the students are reading The Bad Beginning, the first in a series of 13 books. I told students that I have all the books in the series and if they finish one, they are welcome to borrow the next. Some of them are racing through the books! While we read, we're discussing protagonists and antagonists, how to infer character's thoughts, and the theme and tone of the book.

The students have been doing a great job with their five paragraph essays! Next week, we'll begin working on a research paper. I'm going to bring in lots of books about animals, but I know some students would like to research a different topic. If they'd like, they can bring in at least three books about a person, place, or invention and use that as their research topic. These books should be brought in by Monday.

May is definitely a busy month, and we have some important dates coming up. Next week, on Wednesday, is the walk-a-thon. Everyone will participate, even if the students are not doing it as a fundraiser. It is gym uniform that day, since we will be outside in the park. At the end of the month, on May 28, is the awards ceremony where we will be giving out the peacemaker and effort awards. Each class will also perform a song, and we'll have work on display from all the classrooms.

Finally, we've started our ABC countdown! Each of the last 26 days of school has a letter, ending with Z on June 11. Yesterday was bubble gum day, today is carrots, and tomorrow will be a free dress down.