SUNDAY GARDENING

Hey kids, just a reminder to finish your book club book!  And there is indoor and outdoor gardening for any kiddo that wants to help.  I will at school at 2:00 on Sunday to plant tomato seeds indoors and prepare beds outdoors. See you all Monday!

SPRING BREAK GARDENING

Our Spring Break is turning into an extended Winter Break with this weather! Many students were intersted in helping garden at the Ecoschoolhiuse this week. Today at 1:30 I will be helping transplant spring plants and plant tomato and pepper seeds INSIDE. We will prepare garden beds on Sunday afternoon when it is warmer. Happy to see anyone who can make it on short notice. Thanks!

CELEBRATION OF CULTURES

Families, There will be important information/reminders coming home tomorrow as the Friday Folder.  As a reminder, there are also 2 quizzes tomorrow and other work due as we wrap up before Spring Break.  Have a wonderful time off and let me know if you have any questions.

You can also see pics from our field trip yesterday using the link at the right:

• 2014-2015 COMMUNITY PROJECT BASED LEARNING

I want to recognize these kiddos for doing an excellent job on the Celebration of Cultures.  Their presentations were informative, creative, organized, and overall well done!  Great job Kripa, Lucy, Safwat, Crystal, and Charu for her earlier presentation on India.

SPRING IS HERE!!!

Our last week before spring break and it finally feels like Spring.  We will be wrapping a few things up this week before we relax next week.  Below is the focus in each subject.

Social Studies: causes of the American Revolution; quiz on Friday
Science: Macroinvertebrate poster; field trip to Prairie Forks Conservation Area
Math: multiplying and dividing fractions; quiz on adding, sub, mult and div fractions Friday
Reading: theme and predictions

Please make sure students are prepared for the field trip Wednesday with appropriate clothing (mid 50s and chance of rain) including comfortable shoes that can get dirty and possibly rain boots, a water bottle, and a sack lunch.

READ A THON FUN!!!

Our Read A Thon on Friday was a huge success!  We enjoyed ourselves all day with reading influenced activities.  As a school, we raised over 13,000!  Thank you families!  This money helps each grade level provide wonderful Grant School activities to all students.  Below you can see some pics of the reading fun we had.  Also, there is a schedule of focus for this week.

READING: Ecolit book clubs: Lit Journal 2 due Friday, March 13
MATH: Fraction Multiplication
SCIENCE: Food and Energy chain through stream macroinvertebrates
SOCIAL STUDIES: Causes of the American Revolution
MAP Testing:  Preparation for MAP testing (check Weekly Resources page for information on the new testing system for this year.)

READ A THON FUN!!!

We had 3 guest readers: Charu, who presented on India, Author and Grant School mom Kim Becking, and West Middle School Principal, Dr. Dewey

 

We also spent time reading with our Preschool Buddies.

 

 

We watched 2 great plays by Lucy and Micah.

 

And of course we had our relaxing free reading time too!

 

CHEMICAL CHANGE FUN

Below are a few pics of our chemical change demonstrations.  There is a baking soda plus vinegar produces CO2 balloon.  Then Jack is using his own CO2 to make a color reaction with bromothymol blue and water.  Finally, glow sticks and chemiluminescence.  We will have a couple more demonstrations tomorrow.

 

 

LET THE 3RD TRIMESTER BEGIN!!!

Families, I have included weekly plans and a snapshot of March below.  I enjoyed family conferences a lot.  Overall, our class improved an impressive amount in the quality of our work and this was reflected in the amazing number of improved marks on the students' progress reports.  I am very pleased with the atmosphere of our community as we move forward to our last few months at Grant School.

As always, this will be a busy spring and I am updating the important dates on the blog as best I can.  Notice on March 10, we a 5th grade family meeting for any family members who are interested in helping plan our end of the year events (including Hannibal, Civil War Day,  Graduation, End of the Year party, and Memory Book).  Mr. Kuensting have the privilege of witnessing firsthand what a special time tis can be for these kids and we couldn't make it happen without the help of the wonderful Grant School families and PTA.  I am sending home the "Friday Folder" on Monday this week because there are important papers I want to make sure go home to be viewed.

Our March focus will be on Fractions and fraction application in real world problems, Colonial History and causes of the American Revolution, Word Study work, Eco Literature Dioramas, and learning about food chains and energy in regards to Benthic Macroinvertebrates to prepare us for our field work after Spring Break.

This week:
Monday: word study, Colony paragraphs, chemical changes, choose Eco Lit chapter book, subtraction of fractions
Tuesday: word study, Colony paragraphs, Eco Lit reading, add of mixed numbers and improper fractions
Wednesday: word study, Colony paragraphs, conservation of Mass, Eco Lit reading, sub add of mixed numbers and improper fractions
Thursday: word study, Colony venn diagram, counselor, Eco Lit reading, fraction review and games
Friday: READ A THON!!!!!!

Last week, we focused on reflecting upon our progress as learners and completing our website portfolios.  The conference homework is for families to view their portfolios at home sometime.  We also spent time relaxing with fun math activities, time with Buddies, and viewing 3rd grade President presentations and book fair books.  Check out these cool math designs below.  I am also including some cool astrolabes from January when students were working on Age of Exploration projects.

Strait Lines Make Curves!!

 

 

Fibonacci Spirals:

 

Explorer Astrolabes: