March 22, 2015

We're excited that our play is just around the corner! The students have been practicing very hard and are doing a great job with their lines, songs, and dances. Thank you to all the parents who came to help us make costumes and sets on Thursday. Our dress rehearsal will be on Wednesday during the school day for the other grades to see, and the play will be on Thursday at 6:30. Please make sure your child brings his or her costume to school on Wednesday and wears it on Thursday night. All students should be here by 6:00 that evening. Tickets for Thursday's performance are on sale now!

In reading, we've started doing literature circles. Each student chose a book to read, and they're meeting weekly with others reading the same book to discuss, just like they would in a book club. There have been several great discussions about predictions, why characters behave in a certain way, and the morality of different decisions.

We've also been having some great discussions in science. We're exploring energy right now and began by trying to figure out how an energy ball works. Students drew models and then had a scientist meeting about what they observed and inferred. We're going to make circuits, explore positive and negative charges, and find out how electricity is created. We'll be doing a project later that involves a shoebox, so please save any that you have!

In writing, we're working on multiple paragraph essays and introductions that include a planning sentence. Right now, we're writing about Chicago. Students are also doing a great job of blogging, and we've been getting lots of comments from people! In math, we just finished our unit on decimals and will be doing geometry for the rest of the year. Our first unit will be about angles.

Students have been observing Lent through the practices of fasting, praying, and almsgiving. We came up with a calendar at the beginning of Lent with a different activity for each day, and many of the students have been completing these activities. We'll participate in a living Stations of the Cross next week.

Finally, thank you to everyone who came to conferences today. I appreciate having the chance to sit down and discuss your child's progress to far. It's always amazing to look back at my notes from the first quarter conferences and realize how far the students have come. Thank you for all the work you do at home with your child.