March 4th, 2010

No new dates to report as far as field trips. We're waiting on the bus garage for confirmation of our trip to Kalamazoo Valley Art museum and reg. museum.

Science

Students in science are back to working with motion, velocity, speed and distance. We've done two experiments this week. Have them share with you what they did and what they learned!

Special Days

Friday's in March are Read a T-Shirt Day. There is NO COST for spirit days. However in an effort to help the PTA make money to fill in the gaps, any child who wishes to wear their shirt BACKWARDS can do so if they want to pay $1.

Food Opportunity ( Dinner!)

Two of our classroom students are in boy scouts. Saturday March 13th, their troop will be putting on a "Spaghetti Dinner" for anyone who wishes to come at the Vicksburg United Methodist Church. Dinner runs from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Children under 5 eat for free. Families ( no matter how many family members you have ) can buy a ticket for $25.00 Individual tickets I THINK are $5.00. I'm just going by what the kids told me. There is Spaghetti, garlic bread, "other stuff" as well as an auction. Local businesses who have donated gift certificates, services etc, will have their items there for you to bid on.

Recess

As the weather gets warmer and the snow is melting, many of the kids are coming inside with SOAKED feet and socks! I don't mind if they leave their shoes in the hall... but I can't allow bare feet in my class no matter how soaked their socks! Might be a good idea to send a dry pair of socks for the next month or so just in case!

March is Reading Month!

Our class is currently in competition with every other class in the building now to achieve all three of our reading minute goals before any other class! In our room, I will be tracking individual student reading amounts. At the end of the month, the two students who have read the most amount of minutes will be able to have a Pizza lunch with 2 - 3 of their friends during their regular lunch time. AND if we WIN and beat all the other classes, a parent who makes PHENOMENAL desserts has offered to bake us something extra special to be shared by everyone! All at home reading slips must be signed however, or the minutes do not count. We will also be counting our in class reading minutes. These minutes are verified by me, so these do not have to be signed by a parent. So please encourage your kids to read read read!

Wednesday, February 24th

Sorry so long since the last post!

Thanks so much for your prompt returning of the sexual harassment forms. The kids and I all had a really long, and what I feel was a productive talk about the situation. Hopefully, we've seen and heard our last incident!

Many important dates are coming up. Please see below:

March 8th - 50% reading goal due

Tuesday March 9th

- 100% goal reward at Wings Stadium. NO hockey.... the kids will see "Curling" like in the Olympics.

March 23 - 25th Book Fair

March 25th

4th and 5th grade musical at the PAC 7:00. More details to follow.

March 29 - April 2nd

Spring Break Vacation. NO School.

April 30th

2nd grade Economics Sale (a.m.) Kal. County Rock and Mineral Show ( P.M.)

May 7th

5th Grade field trip to Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery and South Haven. All day trip.

June 4th

5th grade graduation and awards assembly. 9:10 a.m.

June 8th

Track and Field day. Type to Learn and Easy Tech must be completed to participate.

Events not yet scheduled:

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts/Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Nottawa Stone School, Spring OEC.

Class Composites

Class Composite pictures are finally in! They are in your student's mailboxes and should come home today.

5th Grade chocolate Valentine Party

This Friday we will be celebrating our chocolate Caper Who-Dun-it with a chocolate smorgasboard! ( yeah... spell check is no help with this word!)

We are looking for any chocolate contributions for our party. Dawn Phelps is planning to bring in a chocolate fountain, but is looking for parents to help with the dipping items, as well as more chocolate. If you can assist with the chocolate fountain, please contact dawn at 649-3860.
any other contributions can be brought in any time during the week.

Thanks for making our celebration chocolatey!!!

Valentines Day Family Dance

Saturday, February 13th from 6p.m. - 8 p.m. Sunset Lake PTA will be hosting a family dance. Please feel free to attend!

5th grade Valentines Party

To help wrap up our "chocolate caper" extracurricular 5th grade activity, we're asking for donations of chocolate for our valentines day party. Bags of M & M's..... Hershey kisses, Nestle chocolate chips, mini chocolate bars, heart shaped candies.... ANYTHING chocolate! We are also going to have a chocolate fountain for the kids to be able to dip fruit ( strawberries, apples, pretzles) etc... I KNOW we need more items for this, but I'm not sure exactly what. If you can donate some items for the fountain but would like to know what to get, please contact Mrs. Vandermei at 321-1532.

Thanks so much!

Missing Item from Ski Trip!

One of our fifth graders brought a white Ipod shuffle on the ski trip and it is now missing. This is the small square version and it has white headphones attached to it. If you, or your students happened to come across an Ipod without an owner in the lodge or on the slopes, PLEASE have them bring it to school so that we can check and see if it is the same one we are looking for.

Thanks so much!

February 2nd 2010

Day 1 of conferences is over. Looking forward to seeing the rest of you this and next week after school!

Valentines Day

Valentines day is fast approaching. Like our last two parties, Valentines day will be an all 5th grade event. Students will meet in the cafeteria for their party after recess on Friday the 12th. We will eat, and rotate stations of fun! Any parent from any class can donate either a 2 liter of pop or an edible item for our snack table. No need to make 78... enough for one class is fine. We usually get enough variety that there is plenty!

Following the valentines party, we will return to our individual classrooms where we will pass out and open our individual classroom valentines. A class list will go home sometime this week with the correct spelling of each student's names. We're up to 28 now.... so you'll need 27 valentines ( minus your own child!) We'll make our own valentine mail bags in class.

New A.R. Goal

The new A.R. goal began on Monday. Students set their goals with me so they should know what their's is. If you would like to know, email me!

Tuesday the 16th is 25% day. Students need to have reached 24% of their goal by that time.

Science

For the next two weeks in science we will be learning about owl's and dissecting owl pellets. Big fun! Look for their dissection cards and papers to come home to be shared in about two weeks.. Exact times will depend on whether your student has science this week, or next week. They all usually LOVE this unit, so be prepared to be inundated with owl facts in insights!

Ground Hog report just in.... 6 more weeks of winter! Based on what we learned about the seasons with our last unit, several students have already informed me that it wouldn't matter if the ground hog saw his shadow or not.... there is still 6 weeks until March 21st the spring equinox. I WAS impressed by their foresight!

Have a great rest of your week!