What's coming up this week?

• In science, we will begin our Objects in the Sky unit.
  
• Permission slips for the Mission to Mars should be returned ASAP, especially if your parent is interested in chaperoning. The money for the field trip is not due until March 2nd.


• We will be attending the Middle School play Beauty and the Beast on Thursday morning.
  
• On Friday morning, there is an awards ceremony that will recognize all of the students who were on the All A or A/B Honor Rolls in the 1st or 2nd quarter of the year. We will have lots of students to recognize from our class.


• We will be selecting a "big idea" to choose as the thesis statement for our essay.


• We will be staring our new book groups. Here are the covers of some of the books that groups will be reading. I'll put the other covers up on Monday. (Sorry, I can't get them to line up nice and pretty).

Mission to Mars

Our date for the Mission to Mars is Thursday, March 11th. We will be going to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. For more information about the museum, check out their website.

http://kvm.kvcc.edu

You'll be getting more information about this Mission and field trip as the time gets closer.

Next week

Someone posted and asked what we are doing next week. It's a short week - students get Monday and Friday off.

• On Monday, teachers are going to hear a speaker talk about helping kids with reading - I think all the teachers in Eaton County will be there.
• In science, we will have Boy's Day and Girl's Day in reproductive health.
• In math, we will be using protractors to measure angles. I'm not sure if you guys have done that already in 4th grade or not. If you have, it will just be a quick review.
• We will come close to finishing The Sign of the Beaver. I think with the snow day last week, we will have one more day of reading next week to finish all the chapters.
• In writer's workshop, we are going to start a new unit on writing essays. Mrs. Boles and I are looking forward to teaching it, I think you will like writing essays.
• This weekend, I'm finishing up reading your writing prompts (where you wrote about facing a challenge). Good job on those!!
• Tuesday night is the band concert. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing you perform. No one has told me the actual time yet - is it at 7:00 at the High School?

Sounds like a lot of stuff, even for a short week!!

Census website

Today we looked at the census website. Here is the link for the website with Michigan facts. From this link, you can also look up information about other states.

http://www.census.gov/schools/facts/michigan.html


If you want to play games or take a quiz on the census site, check out this link:

http://www.census.gov/schools/census_for_kids/

Snow day

Wow, there's lots of snow out there - I've already shoveled twice.

Have you ever been to Burchfield Park - it is great. There is a toboggan run, you can rent cross-country skis, or you can sled.

What are you doing for your snow day? If you are bored after playing in the snow, I have some suggestions :)
1. Do your homework.
2. Study for your Sign of the Beaver quiz - Chapters 1-6.
3. Read

I'm not doing much today - had a doctor's appointment and am watching some guys put insulation in my attic. I went over and visited Mrs. Collins and her two daughters - some of you know her from 4th grade. She co-taught with Mrs. Welch and Mrs. Fuller.

Happy 2010

Can you believe it is already 2010 and the school year is almost 1/2 over??? It is going by so fast. Sounds like eveyone had a good break. Some things to look forward to in the coming months:

• We have started reading our new historical fiction book - The Sign of the Beaver - it won an Newbery Honor.
• Reproductive Health will start next week followed by a unit on the Solar System and Space (actually it is called Objects in the Sky).
• We are going to do some reading and writing assessments over the next two weeks and then start essay writing. I'm excited to see more of your writing - your personal narratives were fantastic.
• We are learning about the census that will take place this year and then we will move on to Geometry.
• We will be taking our Mission to Mars in March. Look for more information later.