Week of April 23rd

    Chris Vandermei just shared a phenomenal new website with the kids today.  One of my biggest beefs has always been that at the elementary level we have no books.... nothing to look to when you your child is having difficulty or when they've missed school due to illnesses, etc. This website is literally a giant text book with every topic your child will ever encounter through their school careers.  My highschool helper was here today and asked me a genetics question for her A.P. biology class... I wasn't sure so I looked it up and the site and there it was!

    All topics are listed alphabetically. So Algebra is going to come before biology, biology is before chemistry etc.

Each topic you click on is a 5 - 15 minute video of someone talking AND showing you about the topic, how it works, the forumla... whatever you need.  Its very user friendly! (Meaning if I can do it, anyone can do it!) All the basic math concepts the kids have worked on this year are there..... so if they were having issues with story problems, or decimals, have them watch the video clip with you to tweak their understanding.

The website is   khanacademy.org     If you don't have internet, i'm checking with the computer lab right now to see if we can get this site put on our computers so that parents and kids could come use it here after or before school if needed.

Walk-A-Thon

The walk-a-thon is tomorrow. Please have your students dress appropriately for the weather. Its supposed to NOT be raining by this time, but it is supposed to be quite windy.  If pouring rain persists through the afternoon, we will postpone.

 it.

Rock and mineral show

  Next Friday (May 4th... where did April go???) The 5th grades will travel to the Kalamazoo County fairgrounds for the rock and mineral show. According to the letter I got from them today, we will only be allowed to enter from the new entrance. I haven't been there yet this year so I don't know what that looks like, but they stated that signs will be posted to direct the busses.

    WMU will again have a presentation at the show. The room for this can be found off the back hallway. At the far end of the main exhibit are is a door leading to the hallway... signs out in the hall will lead you to this room.

   In addition to all the displays, kids can buy tickets to some of the booth activities.  I think they're 50 cents per ticket or 5 tickets for $2.00..... but don't quote me on that!  Hope to see you there!  We should arrive by 12:45.