Final Friday

Happy Last Friday!

I can't believe the school year is almost over.  It has been a fabulous year! Our post this week is important things coming up for the last two days of school.  Also, a link for pictures from our Lunch Bunch and Writing Celebration.  Thank you to everyone that came today.  We understand that getting away during the day is difficult.  The kids loved getting to show off all their hard work!

Pictures from Today and Yesterday
Lunch Bunch and Writing Celebration
Forts and Flashlights and Sidewalk Chalk


Math Journals and Supplies

• Math Journal 1 and 2 are coming home with your student today.  There are pages that are not complete as we completed some as a group and others we checked for understanding in other ways.  There is also no grading in the journal.  We looked through the journals and did reteaching as necessary.  Any pages that we did not complete in class would be great ways to keep the math they learned fresh in the mind over summer.
• They also cleaned out their cubby tubbies today.  They are bringing home their reading, writing and unfinished work folders and their supply boxes.

Monday

• Rock Bridge State Park Hike
• Please make sure your child is wearing tennis shoes on Monday.
• We will be gone from school from about 8:30-10:30 a.m.
• We will walk to the park, enjoy popsicles and the playground, then return to school.

Tuesday

• Tuesday is the last day of school (crazy!).  We will dismiss at 12:10 p.m.  Please make sure your student knows how they are getting that day.
• If your student is going home a different way on Tuesday, please email us or let the office know by 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday.  Early dismissals can be crazy, especially the last day of school, so we want to make sure everyone gets home the correct way. 
• We will be watching Matilda on Tuesday morning.  We will be comparing the movie to the book.  We are almost finished with the book.  
• We will be signing memory books and yearbooks on Tuesday.  If your student bought a yearbook and would like to have it signed, please send it in on Tuesday.
• We will also have a special treat for the students on Tuesday.  It's our balloon pop, so they don't know about it yet.  :)

We have had a wonderful year this year!  We are looking forward to our final two days with the students next week.  We are planning to shed some tears next week for sure!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Friday!

I hope that you have had a wonderful week!  One of my favorite times of the year is the Variety Show and it was so great to be able to see so many of the students today in their performances.  

This time of year is so different with special events - please make sure that you have all the dates on your calendar.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, May 15: Runge Field Trip
• 7:20-8:15 - Pack coolers (if you selected that you will send a lunch with your child please pack it in a Ziploc bag with child's name on the bag - make sure everything is disposable) & review expectations
• 8:15 - Load Bus
• 8:30 - Leave RBE
• 9:15 - Arrive at Runge
• 9:15-11:00 - Walk the nature trails
• 11:00-12:00 - Food Chain Presentation
• 12:00-12:30 - Lunch
• 12:30-1:15 - Visit the Runge Center displays & restroom
• 1:15 - Load the bus
• 2:00 - Arrive back at school
• Wednesday, May 16: Field Day (11:30-2:10)
• 10:45 - Eat lunch at the pavilion (no recess)
•  Bring a full (undies and socks included) change of clothes in case they get wet
• Friday, May 18: Lunch Bunch & Writing Celebration
• 11:00-11:30 - Lunch Bunch: We will at lunch in the pavilion.  If you are coming please check in at the office.  We understand that things happen, but please try to be on time, when a parent or special guest is late it puts a lot of stress on the students.
• 11:30-12:15 - Writing Celebration in the classroom.  This is an opportunity for all our kiddos to show off their hard work on their Which is Better book and project.  Please come and see what your child has done and then stay to see other students!
• Monday, May 21: Walk to Rock Bridge State Park (8:30-10:30)
•  The students don't know about this, it's a surprise.  We will pop the balloon for this on Friday
• Please make sure they are wearing tennis shoes and comfy clothes for the walk.
• Tuesday, May 22: Last Day of School
• 12:10 - Early Dismissal - if your child is going home a different way than normal please let me know.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Important Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, May 8: PTA Meeting at 6:00 p.m.
• Friday, May 11: Variety Show
• Tuesday, May 15: Runge Field Trip
• If you volunteered to chaperone, send water or a cooler, we will contact you next week.
• If you didn't sign up to chaperone, but your schedule allows you to come, let us know.  The more the merrier.  :)
• Wednesday, May 16: Field Day
• Please sunscreen your students before school.
• Please have them in comfortable clothes that can get wet (no swimsuits).
• We will be having Field Day in the afternoon.
• Friday, May 18: Lunch Bunch and Writing Celebration
• If you haven't returned the form, please do so next week.
• Lunch in the pavilion from 11-11:30 (please check in at the office first)
• Writing Celebration in the classroom from 11:30-12:15 p.m.
• Monday, May 21: Walk to Rock Bridge State Park
• The students don't know about this, so please keep it a secret.  :)
• If you signed up to bring popsicles or walk with us, we will be contacting you in the next two weeks.
• Tuesday, May 22: Last Day of School, dismiss at 12:10 p.m.

Last Week of School

• If your student will not be here the last week of school, please let us know as soon as possible.  

Reading

• We will continue studying poetry next week.  We will be looking at how they rhyme, repeat, have rhythm and create images in our head.  The students have enjoyed getting to read the poetry this week.
• We will then move onto plays.  The students will be in small groups and get to perform a play (using their scripts) for the class.  This will help them to learn about how characters and settings are introduced in plays.  

Math

• We will continue working our way through Unit 9.  This week, we worked on partitioning shapes.  The students were also introduced to measuring to the nearest half inch.  We discussed how an inch can be partitioned into smaller parts to make the measurement more precise.
• Next wee, we will introduce subtraction with regrouping.  They will learn how to use base-10 blocks for subtraction and then how to show the trades/regrouping with numbers.  Then we will work on find equivalent amounts of money being shown different ways.  We will wrap the week up with a re-engagement lesson that focuses on mental math.

Writing

• We finished up our Which is Better projects this week.  The students enjoyed being creative with their projects.  We talked about the importance of the project adding to their book.  
• Next week, we will working on our presentation for our Writing Celebration.  The students will write up a short "script" to practice.  They won't have to memorize their information, but we will practicing the presentation so they are comfortable with their presentations when parents come in.  
•  We will also be discussing opinion writing.  We will review the importance of valid reasons when supporting your opinion.,  The students will get an opportunity to write some short opinion pieces.  

Science

• This week, we did our final observation about what plants need to survive.  On Monday, when we did our observation we realized that the plants with water but without soil were actually looking better than the plants with water and soil.  This led to a conversation about hydroponics and the pros of this type of gardening.  We also finished up talking about food chains by making a food pyramids from different ecosystems.  We actually made these pyramids 3-D and they are displayed in our classroom - when you come in you should check them out!  
• Next week, we will talk about seed dispersion and flower pollination

Social Studies

• We talked about the what the Pledge of Allegiance means and today we illustrated the pledge.  We will be making a Pledge of Allegiance quilt.

Countdown to Summer

• Starting on Wednesday, we will be doing a Countdown to Summer in the classroom.  Each day, we will pop a balloon and it will have a small celebration/activity/treat for the students to enjoy.  If the students need to bring something for the activity from home (board games, art supplies) or need to wear something special (tennis shoes), we will pop the balloon the day before and send an email to parents.  

Review Expectations

• As the end of the year comes around, students often get bit by the "summer is almost here" bug.  We have been reviewing expectations at school. Please reinforce the expectations at home.  Students are expected to be safe, respectful, learners.  Some of the areas we are struggling are following directions, keeping our hands to ourselves and using a respectful tone and kind words with classmates.  

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

What a wonderful last full week of April we had! :)  We had great weather for Outdoor Classroom Week!  The students worked so incredibly hard on their writing, we finished up our Earth changes unit by discovering what humans can do to effect our ecosystem, we started taking about food chains, and we finished up our Unit 8 in math.  Whew!  We had a busy week!!

As the school year comes to close, there are a lot of special activities make sure to check out the Upcoming Special Dates to make sure that they are on your calendar!

 

Upcoming Special Dates

·         May 8 – PTA Meeting

·         May 11 - Variety Show

·         May 15 - Runge Field Trip 

·         May 16 - Field Day

·         May 18 - Lunch Bunch (11:00-11:30) & Writing Celebration (11:30-12:00)

·         May 18 - Wear Your Favorite Color Day

·         May 22 - Last Day of School (early dismissal) 

Lunch Bunch & Writing Celebration

The kiddos are working so incredibly hard on their Which is Better books - make sure to read the "Writing" section below to see what we are doing.  As a celebration of all their hard work we will be having a Lunch Bunch & Writing Celebration on May 18.  Lunch Bunch will start at 11:00 and we will be eating at the pavilion, and then at 11:30 we will come back to the classroom for our Writing Celebration.  For the Lunch Bunch, you can either bring a special lunch from home or a restaurant to enjoy with your child or you buy lunch from the cafeteria.  At 11:30, we will come back to the classroom so that you can see all the awesome Which is Better projects!

 

Look What's Been Happening in Moss World!

Math

• What we did this week: We completed our Unit 8 in math.  There are only nine units...we are SO close to being complete with our Everyday Math lessons!   The focus of Unit 8 was geometry and arrays and we took our post test on Wednesday.  The kiddos did so great on this test!  This assessment came home on Thursday.  If you did not review it with your child, sign it, and send the test back to school with your child today - please do so on Monday.  We ask you to sign & return just so that we know that you are seeing how your child did.
• What we will do next week: We started Unit 9 today with partitioning a square, rectangle, and circle into halves (2 equal parts), thirds (3 equal parts), and fourths (4 equal parts),  Next week, we will continue to talk about equal groups, and then move on to measuring to the nearest half inch and expanded form.

Writing

• What we did this week: We have been chugging along on publishing our Which is Better writing.  This is one of our bigger writing activities, and the students will have an opportunity to make an additional project to go along with their writing.  We talked about different project ideas today and a paper is coming home in your child's Friday Folder (or you can click here to view the paper).  We will have some arts supplies at school, but your child's project idea might require an additional item from home.  We have told students that they do NOT have to bring in materials and that there are plenty of fun and creative projects that they can do with what we are providing.  Over the weekend, please have a conversation with your child about what project s/he is wanting to do.  If materials from home are needed, we are asking for all materials to be at school no later than Tuesday, May 1.
• What we will do next week: Any students that have not completed their publishing of the Which is Better book will finish publishing,and students who have a completed book will start their project.

Reading

• What we did this week: We started talking about cause and effect in literature.  We read If You Give a Mouse a Brownie and saw how one action led to another action, that led to another action, and so on.  We also read Chrysanthemum and realized that one person's actions can effect another person in either a positive way or a not so positive way.
• What we will do next week: We will finish up talking about cause and effect and then start talking about poetry.

Word Study

• What we did this week: We are almost finished with learning about different word study patterns.  This week we talked about ore, and oar words.
• What we will do next week: We will have our last r-influenced words with ure, ur_e, and ur words. Next weeks words are: sure, lure, pure, cure, curve, curse, purse, nurse, blurt, turkey.  Next week will be our last week for spelling words.  For the last few weeks of school we will be reviewing grammar rules.

Science

• What we did this week: We finished up our Earth changes unit by talking about humans can impact of effect the ecosystem.  We talked about pollution, construction, logging, and hunting.  The kiddos made a flip book that hanging up in the classroom - if you are school you should check out what they have learned!  We also started talking about food chains.  All food chains start with the sun because the sun gives energy to the producers (plants).  Then a primary consumer eats the producer.  There can also be a secondary, tertiary, and other consumers in a food chain.  We also discussed that a food chain has a decomposer, and that some food chains even have a scavenger.  Make sure to check out the pictures of the kiddos making food chains outside today down in the picture section! :)
• What we will do next week: We continue to talk about food chains, and living organisms. 

Nutrition Class

The kiddos love when Mrs. Zapata comes in and teaches Nutrition!  They are learning SO much!! :)  This week they had an opportunity to try oranges, guavas and pineapples.  Check out the picture section to see the kiddos enjoying their tasting party!

 

Outdoor Classroom Week

Outdoor Classroom Week was a success!  A huge thank you to Emily Reynolds who heads this week up every year!  On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the Outdoor Classroom and people from the Missouri Department of Conservation and Urban Gardens teach us a little about the prairie, pond, butterfly garden, woods, and garden.  Then on Thursday, we had our Outdoor Classroom service project of mulching the pathways of the garden.  There are lots of pictures below from both activities - make sure you check them out! 

 

Pictures From the Week!