Last Week of School

The school year has officially come to an end. I feel so blessed to have been a part of your children's lives throughout this past year. They are incredible kids and they taught me so much! I pray that they always remember how much God loves them. Thank you for all of your support this year! Have a wonderful summer!

We learned about Alexander Calder and created a classroom circus out of clay. 

The kids did a fantastic job of working together to create their circus!

On Tuesday, we had a special visit from a Survival Flight helicopter. 

The kids were so excited to see the helicopter fly and land at our school. Each child also had the opportunity to sit inside of the helicopter. Thank you to Mrs. Sanders for allowing our class to be a part of this!

The 5th grade egg drop

Jackson Pollock Day was a lot of fun!

5/15-5/19

Information for Next Week
-Reminder that there will not be hot lunch served next week. The kids will need to bring a lunch from home. The cafeteria will be selling some snack items to purchase.

- Last day to take AR tests for the quarter is on Tuesday!

-No memory work

-Spelling:

High Frequency Word List #4   try, kind, hand, picture, again, change, off, play, spell, air, away, animals, house, point, page, letters, mother, answer, found, study, still, learn, should, America, world

We will not take a grade for these words, however, we will work with them throughout the week, and have a test to see how well they do. These words are important for the kids to know how to spell, so please continue to practice them at home, even though the scores will not be recorded. 


-Monday will be a fairly normal academic day

-Tuesday is the last day to take AR tests for the school year. The 5th grade is also doing their egg drop at 2pm, which our class will watch.

-Wednesday: The morning will be spent cleaning our desks and our classroom. Please send a large bag (garbage bags work well) along with a backpack so your child can take home their things.  The Kona Ice Truck will be on the playground at lunch offering free treats to the kids. The afternoon is Jackson Pollock Day! 

Please send a bag of old clothes to change into for the afternoon. Your child will also probably want an old pair of shoes (some use gym shoes since your child will most likely grow into a new size over the summer, or they can use their regular shoes and plan to use the gym shoes to replace the painted old tennis shoes). Students will have paint on their clothes but I will try to allow enough time for the paint to dry. You might want to throw an old beach towel or trash bag on your car seat before you pick them up. More than likely you will want to just throw their clothes away, so please send something old that can be discarded.

-Thursday- We will be in the classroom for a few minutes before heading to closing chapel. This is a no backpack day. Dismissal is at 10am!

Researching Caterpillars

In Science this week, we continued our study on animals. Last week, we discussed the different animal groups. This week, we as scientists, made some discoveries: some animals live in some crazy environments...how do they survive?! We sought to answer the question, "How has God made animals able to survive in their habitat?" The kids spent the week learning about different types of animals and their adaptations. They are currently working on researching an animal of their choice to present to our class next week.

Researching elephant seals

Researching glass frogs

We learned about blubber and discovered that God gave this to some animals to help keep them warm!

We discovered that God gave ducks oil glands in their skin that the ducks then preen through their feathers. This helps keep ducks dry and warm in their wet habitat!

In math this week, we did some fun activities to review various math skills. We played a dice game to review telling time to the minute, we measured many things throughout our classroom (we found out that our classroom was 27 feet long!), and we answered the question, "Do shapes with the same area have the same perimeter?" (Hint, the answer is no!)

Creating a design with an area of 25. Will each of the designs have the same perimeter??

Completed designs. They all have different perimeters!

We also had a guest visitor this week--Mr. Wayne Trinklein came to discuss his art and help our class make trees of their own. It was really cool to meet a real life artist!

5/8-5/12

Looking Ahead to Next Week:
Memory: (our last memory verse of the year!) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.    Romans 3:23
Spelling: aught/ew:

caught, taught, daughter, jewel, chewable, newer, fewest, interview, nephew, newsletter

Grammar: Types of Sentences Review, Subjects and Predicates Review
Reading: Tall Tales
Math: We are going to spend the remaining week and a half of the school year reviewing math concepts we have learned, continuing to practice our math facts, and doing some fun projects. There will not be any more homework or tests for math. Enjoy the extra free time in the evenings:)
Science: Animals-- we will be exploring how we can answer the question: "How has God made animals able to survive in their habitats?" 
Writing: 5 paragraphs about summer vacation


Important News and Information:

--This week was our last Faith Family activity.  We focused on Colossians 4:2, Devote yourselves to PRAYER, being WATCHFUL and THANKFUL. We then made thank you cards and letters for those around us who serve us.  We then said a prayer of thanks to God for their service to us. May we be watching for others who serve us and may we thank them and pray for them.

On Friday, May 19th, students in grades 1-8 will participate in a “Faith Family Field Day”.  We will eat a picnic lunch, play games, and have one last fun time with our Faith Families!  Zion will be providing cheese pizza from Dominos, goldfish crackers, and Oreos for the picnic lunch.  If your child does not want that lunch or is unable to eat that lunch due to allergies, please have your child bring a cold lunch on Friday, May 19th.  Your child will also be spending the afternoon out in the sun, so please apply sunscreen in the morning before your child comes to school.  Thanks!

-Tuesday, May 16 will feature our guest artist, Wayne Trinklein. He will be coming to our class to show us some of his amazing artwork, and will then help the students make their own to take home!
-Please remember to mark your child's church attendance on their homework folders for the quarter. I will be submitting names for perfect church attendance for the year next week.
-The Last day to take AR tests is Wednesday, May 24th!

-Kona Ice truck will be at Zion on Wednesday, May 24^th starting at 11 AM. This is a FREE treat for the kids to enjoy:)

-This the last week hot lunch will be served. Hot lunch will not be served on Friday due to our field day.

-Jackson Pollock Day has been moved to Wednesday, May 24.

Your child will get a chance to paint like an artist!

Please send a bag of old clothes to change into for the afternoon. Your child will also probably want an old pair of shoes (some use gym shoes since your child will most likely grow into a new size over the summer, or they can use their regular shoes and plan to use the gym shoes to replace the painted old tennis shoes). Students will have paint on their clothes but I will try to allow enough time for the paint to dry. You might want to throw an old beach towel or trash bag on your car seat before you pick them up. More than likely you will want to just throw their clothes away, so please send something old that can be discarded.

Students will clean out desks on Wednesday, May 24th in the morning! Please send in a plastic grocery bag so students can bring home supplies that have been kept in the pencil boxes that were provided to them this year.

The last day of school for 1st grade through 8th grade will be Thursday, May 25 with a 10am dismissal.

We learned about the 6 different ways to group animals this week. The kids worked in groups to sort pictures of animals into their correct group, and had to tell me why that animal belonged in each group. We did this activity before we learned about animal groups at the beginning of the week, and after we learned about the groups at the end of the week. The kids learned a lot!

In guided reading this week, all groups were working on reading, Freckle Juice, a great story about being happy with how God made you!

To practice their plural nouns, the kids played a game during literacy centers

5/1-5/5

Looking Ahead to Next Week:
Memory: For your were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.  1 Corinthians 6:20

Spelling: ee and double consonant:

agree, between, career, deeper, eighteen, middle, anniversary, opportunity, different, support

Grammar: Possessive Nouns

Reading: Sequencing

Math: Written Test and 25 multiplication facts (x5) on Friday

Science: Animals--There will not be a test over this unit. Instead, the students will be doing a cumulating research project over an animal of their choice. 

Writing: Opinion Writing

Important News and Information:

-On Friday, May 19th, students in grades 1-8 will participate in a “Faith Family Field Day”.  We will eat a picnic lunch, play games, and have one last fun time with our Faith Families!  Zion will be providing cheese pizza from Dominos, goldfish crackers, and Oreos for the picnic lunch.  If your child does not want that lunch or is unable to eat that lunch due to allergies, please have your child bring a cold lunch on Friday, May 19th.  Your child will also be spending the afternoon out in the sun, so please apply sunscreen in the morning before your child comes to school.  Thanks!

-A free ticket to Six Flags was sent home with kids on Friday. These were given as part of the Read to Succeed Program. The kids had to have read 6 hours in order to earn them. Because the kids do this as part of their homework, everyone has received one this year!

-Book Orders went home today. This will be the last order of the year. I will place the order next Thursday after school!!

The kids had a great time on our field trip to the Botanical Gardens! It was a great way to end our unit about soil!

While reading "I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake" this week, we reviewed everything we knew about earthquakes and made a list of things we still wanted to know. The kids came up with some great questions! We then spent the week diving deeper into earthquakes with a couple hands on demonstrations, videos, and discussion. We learned a lot!

Using graham crackers and cool whip to show the movement of tectonic plates

For grammar this week, we reviewed the use of quotation marks. To practice this, the kids looked at comics, acted them out, and then practiced writing the dialogue out. The speech bubbles of comics help to remind us exactly what should be inside of the quotation marks!