January 2011

Ski Trip

5th grade students had a wonderful time at our ski trip. Thank you so much to the parents and chaperones who attended. All your help was appreciated!

4th /5th Grade Musical

Our spring program will be Tuesday March 22nd at 7:00 at the highschool PAC. Mrs. Heintzelman will be sending home information regarding costumes and details. There will also be a few speaking parts the kids can try out for. Information should come home with the kids from music class. Kids will need to arrive between 6:30 and 6:45 for warm up and practice.

K Wings Hockey Game

Those students who earn 100% of their reading goal for the 3rd marking period will attend a Wings Stadium hockey game on March 30th. There is no charge for this event. Students are welcome to bring money for souveniers, lunch etc.

It is our home that all 5th grade students will be able to attend. Please make sure that your student is reading the required 30 minutes a night. Their goals are set based on the assumption that they ARE reading each night. If they are not, they cannot possibly meet their goal.

Valentines Day

As with all of our other parties, we will have a joint party on Friday February 11th. The party will be a Chocolate Celebration for solving our "Chocolate Caper"... a project that we have been working on for the last few months. We have plenty of plates, napkins and beverages... what we DO need is chocolate! We would like to have a Chocolate Smorgasborg. Anyone interested in sending in a chocolate treat is encouraged to do so. You can never have too much chocolate!

As individual classes we will be passing out and opening valentines on Monday February 14th. A list of your student's classmate names will come home this week.

Parents are welcome to come to our chocolate party on Friday from 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. If you can come, please let your classroom teacher know.

Conferences

The 5th grade teachers look forward to seeing all families at conferences February 3rd and 10th. Scheduling notes went home last week and should be returned asap if they have not already been brought back.

Happy New Year!

Mrs Buell, Mrs Vandermei and I all hope that you had nice and restful holiday break! Now that we're all back... its time to update you on all of our upcoming events.

Ski Trip

Our 5th grade ski trip is next Friday, January 14th. All permission slips were due yesterday the 4th of January. The cost for students is $6.00... parents who wish to chaperone or ski with their child need to pay $12.00. This cost covers both the lift ticket and ski rentals. If you have your own skis, you still need to pay $12.00 for a lift pass. If you already have a season pass ( I know some of you do) you do not have to pay this fee.

Students were to select whether they wanted a school lunch, a home lunch or a lunch bought at Timber Ridge. If you are packing them a lunch PLEASE include extra food. I'm always amazed at how much they eat on this trip! The cold weather and the exercise really burns the calories out of them.

Chaperones

If you have decided to ski and chaperone, please remember that you have to have had a background check to attend this trip. If you have not yet done so, please contact the office for a form. Parents of children who have ski experience can pass on the lesson and take their children right to the lifts. Keep in mind however, that the black diamond hills are off limits to the kids on this trip, no matter how able your child might be at negotiating these big hills. We would appreciate you sticking to this rule as it makes our job so much more difficult when we have to explain why some kids get to go on the black diamond hills while the others cannot.

Also... for the first time EVER, I ( Mrs S.) will not be able to ski this year. I have two bulging disks in my lower back and I don't DARE mess it up more than it already is. SO! That means that all of you parents will have to take over my job of lifting up the fallen masses all over the hills. Start building up your arms now, because they WILL be sore!

Ski Equipment/Snowboards

Ski equipment cannot be transported on the bus. Arrangements must be made to either transport it yourself, or to carpool it up with a friend. Snowboards ARE allowed as long as they are official snowboards with the metal edge, AND the students who are using them have had formal lessons and previous experience on them. If you have just gotten them a snowboard for christmas and they have never snowboarded before, they will need to ski on this trip.

Science / Social Studies

Groups A and C are in Social studies for the next four weeks. Groups B and D are in Science. Groups B and D received their graded science books ( pages 1 - 9) back today so that we can finish the second half of the book. Grades were given for pages 1 - 4, 5 - 6, 7, and pages 8 - 9. The highest grade they could receive was a 3.0. I did give a few 3.5's and two 4.0's for students who went above and beyond with extra detail and explanation. Please ask to see these pages and ask what they are working on in science now.

That's all for now! See you on the ski trip!