MARCH!

March is here! And with it Spring is about to be Sprung! (At least we hope!)

With the weather being so unpredictable, please remember to have your student continue to dress for the weather. One day it might be 20 degrees, and the next 55.... but either way they are going outside to recess and they should dress accordingly.

Spring Musical!

The spring musical is fast approaching! Students have been working hard durng their music class each day. Starting next week (14th - 18th) 4th and 5th graders will meet for an hour each morning for practice as a group.

Show Date: March 22nd @7:00.

Students need to arrive between 6:30 and 6:45 for rehearsal.

Late Start Day: March 9th. Students arrive at school at 10:25.

A.R.

50% Day - March 16th

100% Day - March 30th

Records Day - April 1st. No school for stduents!

Upcoming Field trips

April 29th - Kalamazoo Gem and Mineral Show

Location: Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds- Main building

Sunset Arrives 12:45 and leaves at 2:15.

Parents are welcome to attend and meet their students at the fairgrounds. We're sorry but with 75 students the bus will be full.

May 26th - Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery/ South Haven Field Trip

Due to the overwhelming cost of busses, for THIS TRIP ONLY parents have permission to drive their student to and from our destinations.

Time: Leave @ 9:05

Arrive back 3:30 p.m.

Location: Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery Mattaway 9:45 - 11:30

Lunch South Beach South Haven 12:15 ish - 2:30.

More details to follow. Parens are welcome, but must drive or carpool.

Valentines Day!

Valentines Day is Monday. Since we did the chocolate caper together on Friday, teachers will celebrate valentines day in their individual classrooms.

Sadowski's class list went home on Tuesday of last week. We will make Valentine bags on Monday and pass out Valentines later that day.We will also be watching "Percy Jackson" the Lightning Thief" in the afternoon as we just finished reading that book as a class. There are many differences between the book and the movie, and I look forward to the discussion that will follow concerning exactly how different the movie is.

Back in our Groove!

Now that the holidays, the ski trip, the chocolate caper and Valentines day is (almost) behind us, its back to business as usual! Groups A and C have science this week. Groups B and D have Social Studies. In two more weeks we will switch groups again.

Science

In science we have started a new unit: "Objects in the Sky." This unit covers the seasons, how the angle of the earth on its axis and the direct or indirect light of the sun causes the seasons, the cycles of the moon and the planets. Ask you student what the significance of June 21st, December 21st, March 21st, and September 21st is.... They should all know by now!

Upcoming Field Trips

April 29th 11:30 - 3:00 Kalamazoo Rock and Mineral Show

Location: Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds.

This is a great field trip for parents to join us at! Due to $, we don't have any extra room on the bus for this event, but you are welcome to meet us there. We would arrive at approx. 12:30 and stay until about 1:30 - 2:00. There are tables and tables of dealers selling rock and mineral specimens for as little as 10 cents and other for $1.00. There are jewelry makers with real unset gems for sale. If you like rocks, this is the place to be!

Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery/South Haven

May 26th ( Thursday) All Day. More details to follow.

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!

December 1st

WOW! I can't believe November is GONE! Usually I update our blog weekly, but with report cards, conferences, and Thanksgiving this month just TOTALLY got away from us!

So! Here is what is new and coming up!

Science/Social Studies

Groups A & C are back in Science. Groups B and D are back in Social Studies. In science, students are contining to work with motion and forces. So far this session they have explored balanced and unbalanced forces through the building of balloon rockets, and we've been testing Newton's first law of physics through the use of tracks, ramps and different weight and mass marbles.

5th Grade and Christmas

All fifth grade students are working on a "secret" writing assignment for Christmas. If they have younger siblings in the house and you ask them about it, they are only allowed to say "We're working on a research project for Christmas..." Later, we will let them fill you in on all the fun details... but for now... ssshhhhhh!

Christmas Party

Our Christmas party will be held in the cafeteria as a whole 5th grade group again. Students will have "stations" that they will rotate between to complete various activities. Parents are MORE than welcome to come and share in our fun! We always need help serving food, at the stations etc.

Mrs. S.'s class will bring Salty and healthy foods.

( Chips, fruit, cheese and crackers, etc)

Mrs. Buell is "Sweet Stuff"

(Cookies, Brownies, Candy, etc)

Mrs. Vandermei is paper products

(Cups, plates, napkins... No styrofoam please! )

Michael Moshun @ Chenery Auditorium

We will be eating lunch at 10:45. Make sure if you chose "home" lunch on the permission slip that you remember to send a lunch with your child that day. Show begins at 12:15. If we return early enough we will be walking to Generous Hands to deliver our cards and our socks from our "Toasty Toes" campaign.

A.R. Goals

50% goal - December 10th.

75% goal January 11th.

100% goal January 28th.

November Newsletter - A Paper copy was sent home today.

Conferences

Fall conferences are November 11 and 18th. By now you should have received a bright pink note asking for your preference for conference night and times. If you have not already sent this home, please send it in asap. Time slots are filling up fast!

For those of you that pick up your children after school, I do offer some after school slots. Please let me know if you would like to take advantage of this. ( Sadowski's only)

2nd Quarter A.R. Goals

25% day - November 22

50% day - December 10

75% day - January 11

100% day - January 28.

Upcoming Spirit Days

November 12th - Team Spirit Day

December 17th - Pajama day.

Student Hygiene

As our children grow and mature, their hygiene needs change with their changing bodies. Some of our students are in need of parental reminders regarding healthy hygiene ( bathing, washing hair, under arms, brushing teeth, cleaning fingernails, wearing clean clothes to school, etc.) We appreciate your help in guiding your child to make good hygiene choices. We want every child to feel comfortable, accepted and ready for a learning filled day at Sunset.

Thanks! Have a great week!

2nd Week of Meap!

Today was grueling! The kids had THREE sections of the Map M.E.A.P. Sections 1 and 1A took from 9:15 this morning until 12:05!!!! The kids were so fried by then that we took them out to run around and play kickball for a few minutes before lunch.

After lunch they started again with the final section. They were done by 2:00. Tomorrow is their LAST day of meaping for this year UNLESS they were absent any of the other days... then they will be meaping until those are made up. Tomorrows test is science.

Sadowski Reward Day

Sadowski's class had their "Reward" for filling their marble jar last Friday 10/15. Kids were allowed to wear pajamas and bring snuggly stuff for spreading out on the floor. The FOOD that came in was AWESOME! We had so much that we couldn't possibly eat all of it! In the past I had as many kids that wanted volunteer to bring in something as usually only 1/2 of it actually made its way in... I think EVERY child who volunteered to bring something did! yay!

OEC

Our fifth grade trip to the OEC was wonderful! We had a phenomenal picture scavenger hunt in the morning and the kids took some great pics! We'll start putting our pictures and our OEC Books together next week. For the afternoon they had a "Trail Rally". Each group had to follow the clues of the station to find the next station and then complete that activity. It was fun watching the kids figure out the clues! Some stations had the kids figuring out how to filter water and make it clean with nothing but a bag of supplies and no directions.... Another had the kids listening and identifying pre-recorded bird calls on a C.D. player. Too fun!

OEC packets are in the process of being graded and will come home soon.

Halloween !!!!

The Halloween party is fast approaching! On October 29th all the fifth graders will have their party together in the cafeteria. A note is going home with students today listing which class will be in charge of what for this party. For instance.. for this party :

Buell - Salty/non sweet snacks(Cheese, fruit, crackers, chips)

Sadowski - Cups and beverages ( Pop, juices and at least 75 cups! No styrofoam please!)

Vandermei - Sweets ( cupcakes, brownies, cookies, candy)

At our next party (Christmas) the class will switch items. So for instance, Vandemei would bring drinks, Buell sweets, and Sadowski Salty non sweet snacks.

Parents are welcome to join us in the cafeteria for our party. We will definitely be in need of servers and pourers!

Party snacks

It is NOT necessary to bring in 75 of each treat. Just enough for one classroom (25 - 30 ) will be more than sufficient. That way if more than one person brings in brownies we don't have 150 brownies and the kids will have more choices.

A.R.

75% day is October 25th. Students who are not currently at their 50% goal have been spending recess in to get caught up on points and notes went home last week ( for Sadowski's) notifying parents of who needs to meet this goal. Please remember goals for all three classes were set with 30 minutes of reading time here at school and a minimum of 30 minutes of reading time at home. If they aren't reading at home, you need to ask them why they are not!

Congrats to Michael H. from Sadowski's class.. he's at 225% of his goal!