The Effects of Smoking

On Monday we had a great presentation on the effects of smoking. Below are two short video clips of pig lungs. The first one clearly shows the lungs expanding.

This second video is suppose to show the effects on a pigs lungs after of years of smoking. The lungs are barely inflating with air.

After the presentation, we learned about all the great things that can happen when a person quits smoking (and how quickly your body responds to quitting)!!

Art Masks

We have been busy working hard to finish our art masks in art class. Thanks to Mrs. Naughton, we are almost done! Enjoy the photos of us with our masks below. We can't wait to share them with you!

Pink Slip Party and Recess Fun!!

Yet another great day! Last Friday was our first pink slip party! Thanks to Mr. P for taking care of the grilling. We also had time for an extra recess ~ we all needed it after a week of WKCE testing! Now it is back to the cold weather.

5th Grade Recess

We have all enjoyed the nice

weather outside during recess time!

Fall 2009 Party

A Big THANK YOU to everyone who donated items for our Fall Party! Thank you also to the parents that helped out at the party and to our two room Moms for planning our fun celebration! Enjoy to photos below~

Newspaper Reading

We have enjoyed reading the Wednesday edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Reading....

We have been busy reading and celebrating our reading. The pictures below are from independent reading and the most recent photos are from our first book club celebration!

K5 Buddies

The Nature Center

Enjoy the photos (below) from the Nature Center Fieldtrip last week! We had a ton of fun and best of all - we all stayed dried (not clean, but dry!!!)

Friday Updates

Hello Parents:
I am planning on sending out a weekly update on Friday's. Some will be brief if there is also a newsletter coming home that day. These updates will include a "blurb" from myself, Mr. P., and Ms. M. related to the content we are each teaching in rotations.

Math-
Unit one test will be on Wednesday September 23rd.

Science -
We finished testing our swingers (pendulums). Students changed the variables of length, mass, and release position. Students were also introduced to the scientific method this week.

Social Studies -
This week, we continued working on our map skills, both decoding and working in the atlas, as well as practicing our mental mapping of the 7 continents and the oceans. Please ask your child to show you their mental mapping skills at home on a blank sheet of paper to practice for the test. The test will be October 16th (FRI), and we will continue practicing up until the test.

Word Study -
We have been busy learning about the 8 parts of speech in Word Study. Your child has reviewed/learned six of the eight parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. Next week we will learn about conjunctions and interjections. We practiced the parts of speech using two fun websites:

https://webmail.elmbrookschools.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=587c38eae7b44a28939bd70f716b7672&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.funbrain.com%2fgrammar%2findex.html

https://webmail.elmbrookschools.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=587c38eae7b44a28939bd70f716b7672&URL=http%3a%2f%2feduplace.com%2ftales%2f

Be sure to check them out at home!!

Classroom Routines
Each child is expected to record their reading minutes each night. This can be done on the mini-calendars that I coped for each child or in their assignment notebook in the reading section. I am checking to be sure that each child has read and recorded their minutes.

Important Dates:

Tuesday September 22nd
Math Night
Math Meeting (6:30 - 7:00)
GT Meeting (7:00 - 7:30)

Friday September 25th
Nature Center Fieldtrip (9-11:00)
Volunteers (Mr. Hartay, Mrs. Timm, Mr.and/or Mrs. Clark)
* This time is correct - the time on the form being sent home today is not correct - sorry for that!

Have a great weekend!

First Week of School

I have really enjoyed getting to know each child this week at school. We completed the Math Predictor, became comfortable with rotating between teachers, and had some fun playing games!! Today we took a walk in the woods and did some journaling. Below you will see some of the photos! Your children continue to amaze me each day with their vibrant smiles and eagerness to learn. I am looking forward to an exciting school year!! Thank you for sharing your child with me.

Welcome to our Classroom!!

I look forward to sharing all of the wonderful books that are in our classroom library!
One more day until your last first day at Tonawanda!!

I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

My Summer Vacation

I hope that you had a wonderful summer! I am so excited to be teaching fifth grade this year. I look forward to seeing each one of you at Meet and Greet on August 27, 2009.