Week 32

Weekly Greetings!

The fourth quarter has begun, and we are now on the home stretch of the school year. After the last round of tests that are coming up in April for the state PEAKS requirements, I hope to get the class out for a few field trips in May to wrap up our year. As I discussed with many of you over Spring Break, one of the field trips will be a fun day to Fort Greely to go swimming. I wasn't able to contact everyone, but all the families I did talk with were open to doing a bake sale Saturday, March 31 during the adult basketball games at the school. I am thinking we can start at 1pm and stay until we sell everything donated. Please contribute what ever you can to help out, and hopefully we will only have to do one fundraiser.

As for a recap from the week before break, it was very full of special activities. We started the week with the Science Fair, and the class did really good explaining our experiment to the judges. They also flew the Magnus Gliders to show how the magnus effect worked. Hopefully, a number of the students will want to do their own experiment for next year's fair.
Wednesday was a very full day. The class was able to have art with Ms. Shauna Lee and created some beautiful spring pictures. The new STEAM room is so nicely set up and there is plenty of room for the students to spread out to work.
 
 
 Later that same day, the reading incentive program awards were presented. Everyone received a certificate of participation if the had turned in a log during the program, and two students from our class got the individual 2nd and 3rd place spots for most hours of reading.
 
 Congratulations to Anna for 2nd place and Dawson for 3rd place awards.
After lunch on Thursday, Laurie (our classroom aide) brought in her baby rabbits to show the class. They were adorable, and the students were so gentle and caring with the sweet little creatures. Shortly after the baby rabbits were in to visit, Laurie's pet rabbit had five more little ones. Maybe when they are a little older we can have another visit with those ones.
 
Unfortunately on Friday, my husband had a setback with his three broken ribs and I had to be out that day. I had planned a number of special activities to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with the class, but left some alternative activities that the substitute could carry out in my absence. I think the goodies I left for the class were a hit, and it was nice to walk into the room on my return to see such a sweet note left on my whiteboard. 
On returning from break, we will do some special hands-on fraction activities on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Thursday, we will spend some more time learning about the STEAM room options for learning. I also plan to start a new Language Arts unit, so there will be regular spelling homework nightly for the next five weeks.

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown


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