Broom Mates!

On Halloween our reading class was able to do some special lessons with the Kindergarten. After I read the awesome book, Broom Mates, our class helped the students sequence the events of the story. Our class had drawn some great illustration of the book. The illustrations were then placed into worksheets that the kindergartners were expected to cut apart and sequence back into the right order! Once students were done with sequencing they were treated to a great board game with comprehension questions over Broom Mates. At the very end all students were treated with a frozen witch's brew (frozen apple juice with gummy worms). Our class did an excellent job!

Moon Phases

Fifth Grade Students will be keeping a journal in their planners of the phases of the moon. I will have students place a small circle on one block for each day of the month of November. They will shade the circle to show the phases of the moon. I know that students will not be able to observe the moon every night due to weather. I will keep track myself every night and will keep track of days where it is not observable. Students will discover the phases of the moon follow a specific pattern.

Flower Dissection

The sixth grade dissected flowers to see the actually reproductive parts of plants. They read articles on plant reproduction and watched a short video on plant reproduction. All students enjoyed this lab. Being a quick thinker John suggested that we take a picture of this interesting lab. Enjoy the great photos of the students doing the plant dissections as well as playing with the left over flowers!

Reading Roosters Update

We are half way to our 100 books goal! Students have been busy reading chapter books, writing summaries, reports and taking Reading Counts tests. Once the students have read 100 books they will be treated to a huge ice cream sundae party. Please encourage your child(ren) to keep up the great work.

Field Trip-Watershed Conference

The fifth grade was privileged to attend a watershed conference. They learned many things about the local watersheds and how they are actually part of the bigger watershed-the world. Students learned everyone lives in a watershed. Students discovered that there are many sources of pollution and that everyone should do their part to help stop it. Many students were excited to see how bank erosion on creeks affects the water quality. Missouri Department of Conservation had an excellent hands on exhibit. The day was wrapped up with The Fishing Magicians. All students thought the presenters were very funny and educational. In the photo is Beverly helping with a magic trick. Matt thought the tricks were great.

Reading Rooster Buddies

Students created wonderful game boards to go along with reading comprehension questions and vocabulary cards. Students read kindergarten level picture books and wrote comprehension questions to help kindergartners gain a greater understanding. They also created cards with vocabulary words from the books. The students read the books to kindergartners in small groups and then played the fun game with them. Both Kindergartners Teachers have reported back that our class did an excellent job with their kids.

Why Read?

Our class answered the question of 'Why Read?'. Many of them displayed great comic strips with disaster results from cartoons who chose not to read. The comics were fantastic. Other students chose to interview friends and family about the topic of reading. Their articles were equally excellent explaining the value of reading. All students realized why they should learn how to read and to increase their abilities.