The Race is On!

The Iditarod is called The Last Great Race. It is a 1,050-mile sled dog race across Alaska. It is something that we have been focused on for the last 2 weeks. The children have been learning the history behind it, researching their veteran mushers, tracking the distances their mushers go each day, and they graph that distance every day. We've been working on writing letters to the dog K-( journalist team. There are several dogs who report out about what's happening on the trail and the kids are typing these letters so we can email it to the dogs. This has been very interesting to follow as many of the mushers the kids are following have been in the top 10. We will probably end it next week as I expect the race to have its winner Monday or Tuesday. We'll keep tracking the mushers until the race is finally finished when the last musher has crossed the finish line.

Monday starts our book fair. It lasts until Friday. I will send home order forms tomorrow so you can look through them and see if there is anything you might like your child to purchase. My hope is to go down on Wednesday afternoon. You can either send your child in with money, or they can write a wish list. If you would like them to get a book from their list, you can send them in with the exact change Thursday or Friday. You are also welcome to come shopping with your child after school. 

 Trimester 2 is ending in 2 weeks. I will be sending home report cards Monday, March 28. 

Your children have been working this triester on researching people and creating a biography report. They have been reading different fractured fairy tales and are about to create their own. We've been learning different parts of speech and grammar skills. In math, more in-depth multiplication has been our main focus. We are spending this month learning long division. In science, we learned about sound and light energy. We got to do some fun experiments. 

Remember that there is an early release Tuesday 3/29. Dismissal is at 11:30. 

Popcorn Days are every Thursday and are 50 cents each.

Remote learning day after vacation

 Voting Day takes place the Tuesday we return from vacation, March 8th. Because voting takes place at the middle school, grades 4-8 will be having a remote learning day. Center woods and John Stark will not have a remote day. They will be at school. We were scheduled to have an early release day on the 7th, however, that has been rescheduled to Tuesday, March 29th @ 11:30. 

It's Almost Vacation Time!

 What a week this will turn out to be! Tu-tu Twosday, Invention Convention, Presidents Day, and vacation.

Tuesday as you know is 2/22/22 and it's on a Tuesday. To celebrate, kids are invited to wear Tu-Tu's to school.

Friday is the Invention Convention. Children will bring their inventions and posters to the Common Room when they get to school. Please have your child bring in the permission slip stating that they can participate in the Convention. If you need another one, just ask. If there is a snow day, they will bring it in on the Monday we come back from vacation. 

Today we talked a little about President's Day and we read a story about Abe Lincoln.

The children have been learning about the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska. So far we have learned the history as to why the Iditarod was started. They picked their veteran mushers today and will be researching that person and making a poster about them. Then we will pick a rookie musher to follow as well.  The children will be tracking their mushers as they travel throughout the race, they will be writing to the K-9 Journalists- Dogs who post information about the race, and they will be putting on a play to learn more about the rules of the race. So far the kids really seem to like this unit. It encompasses research, history, graphing and map skills, elapsed time and distance traveled, writing, reading, and math. We learn more about the Alaskan terrain and weather. The race begins while we are on vacation- Saturday, March 5th. You can follow along at iditarod.com

In reading, we are learning about fractured fairy tales- Specifically Cinderella. We are looking at what makes a fractured fairy tale (Change the characters, setting, point of view the story is written in, etc...) The children are reading about troll, bigfoot, and dinosaur cinderellas, they are looking at it from the stepmother's point of view. They are reading stories from different cultures that are similar to Cinderella. Then the children will be doing a readers theatre play on another version and hopefully can create their own fractured fairy tale. 

In math, we are continuing to learn about multiplication. Our focus though is shifting to converting units of measurement like time and weight.

Valentine Class List

 To help you with your valentines- here is a class list. 

Liam, Eva, Collin, Dylan, Ryder, Teagan, Jeremiah, Tyler, Greyson, Serenity, Gavin, Shaelan, Kiersten, Arabella

Valentine's Day Party

 This Friday, the 11th we will have our Valentine's Day Party. (snow date Monday 2/14) We will exchange cards and have some light snacks. Your child is welcome to make or purchase cards to give to everyone in the class. There are 14 students (and 2 adults. But often 3). If you would like to contribute anything to our party, please let me know. 

The invention convention has started. The children who chose to participate have until 2/28 to work on their projects, inventions, and displays. Not every child chose to make an invention. This is not a classroom activity. These projects are to be worked on at home. Your child went home last week with an instruction journal. Some will bring home a trifold poster board if they asked for one. Please note that this is an extracurricular activity and is not an assignment for class. if you have questions you can contact me, or Wil Crabtree who is in charge of the invention convention. wil.crabtree@sau24.org. I hope your child has fun making their creations. I am excited to see what their imaginations come up with.

We have finished our mid-year assessments. I was so glad to see the progress many of these kids are making. Because of that, we were able to open up enrichment sessions to more students. Those who made it in start this week. I'm so proud of how far they have come and continue to grow. 

Cold Temps!!

 Your child brought their chrome books home today in preparation for a possible weather day. There is no indication that there will be a remote learning day, however, the busses have been known not to start on extremely cold days, so we are airing on the side of caution. If we have school tomorrow, just have them bring everything back. If it is a remote day, they can log onto zoom through Canvas for 7:30. We practiced logging onto Zoom today, so hopefully, things will run smoothly. Even though we don't have outdoor recess tomorrow, we should the rest of the week. Please make sure your child is bundled up. Stay warm!!

Happy 2022

 It was so nice to see the kids again! I hope you had a great vacation. Our 1st day back was a mixture of starting new topics and making up for lost time last Wednesday. That meant we got to have our party! It was small, but the kids loved the treats and gifts we got. 

We are starting a new unit in science about sound and energy. The kids are learning about how waves travel and how certain energy is formed. 

In math we are learning how to multiply complex numbers. Things like 3x57, 22x35 etc...

Non-Fiction will be our focus this month in reading and writing. We will be doing biography research and creating a report about a person of interest and then we'll be working on a larger scale project for reading. The kids will be looking at the different components that go into a non-fiction text. After we have worked on that, they will be doing their own research and creating a digital presentation done at school and a 3D model which will be done at home. This will not happen though for a few more weeks. More information will come out when we get closer. 

Later on this month the children will be taking their mid-year assessments. They got to do it at the beginning of the year so it's nothing they haven't done before. This is to see if the children are meeting the goals we hope they've made at this point in the year.

Mask mandates have been lifted for now. If you would like your child to continue wearing their mask, they are more than welcome to. We are still staying in assigned seats and cohorts for lunch and recess. 

I have received many of the report card envelopes. I do still have some that have yet to find their way back to me. Please sign and return these envelopes so that I can reuse them next trimester. 

We've also been working on how to log into canvas to find how to get to zoom meetings and where to find the work should we get a remote learning day. 

Coming up: we have an early release on Friday the 14, and no school the following Monday- January 17th.