Biographies and Updates

With biographies over we will go back to a more normal schedule. The students did an excellent job on the biographies. Every student in class was ready to present on their scheduled time! The students also did a great job of reading, preparing, and presenting their biographies. Finally, I'd also like to thank the parents for helping the kids get organized, take notes, and find costumes to fit their characters. I know it can be a lot of work preparing for everyone involved. Their grades will be sent out tonight. Thank you for the hard work put in by all!

Here are a couple of notes for the week:
- MAPs testing is this week on Tuesday and Wednesday (May 1 and 2). Tuesday is the reading section, and Wednesday is the math portion. Each test takes about 45-60 minutes.

- In social studies we will begin studying the 50 states. We'll take the pretest today. After that we'll start in the New England States and move our way West. The smaller states are usually the trickiest, so I want to start those first. We'll be studying the states for most of May.

- For language arts this week we are reading Family Traditions. The students will write a few paragraphs about traditions they have in their family. It can be things as simple as going to the beach or fair. It can also be things like special meals, birthday parties, family reunions, or volunteering to help a grandparent. The traditions in the book focus on enjoying simple things.

- We'll also have a challenge spelling list this week, which will consist of several stories from our past reading stories.

- For math we are back to multiplication. We will get to lattice multiplication later this week, which is a fun way to set up a multiplication problem.

- Finally, Don't forget that reading calendars are due tomorrow, Tuesday, May 1st.

Star of the Week

for April 30-May 4

Friday Biographies

Thursday Biographies

Wednesday Biographies

Platteville Children's Choir

The Platteville Children's Choir performed at Iowa-Grant today, and two members of the Van Clan were in the choir. Super job Elly and Lauren! It was cool to see the group come and perform and have a couple of our classmates be part of the show. I tried to take pictures, but they were too dark and didn't turn out.

Tuesday Biographies

Monday Biographies

MAPs Testing Reschedule

MAPs testing will be rescheduled for next week (April 30-May 4). Mrs. Belken, who administers the test, has to be absent during the testing time on Tuesday and Wednesday. This won't be much of a change for our class, other than we'll test a week later than we would have. With biographies this week too, I think having the testing on a different week will eliminate some stress.

Star of the Week

for April 23-27

100% Pure Chocolate

Since we read Cocoa Ice for class this week I had the students try 100% pure chocolate. I have found 85 or 90% before, but never 100%! They started out so excited about getting chocolate too!

Afterward we read another book about the history of chocolate, and how it was slow to spread outside of South America. I think they understand why many people didn't enjoy chocolate before sugar and milk were mixed. Have a great weekend!

Morning Drop Off Note

This is a note I was asked to share with parents. I don't think to many of my students get dropped off in the morning, but I still wanted to be safe. We need your help… Please be sure to drop your child off at the CAFETORIUM door if you are bringing your child to school. At bus time especially in the morning, cars are arriving and buses are on the move. This morning a potential accident was avoided but the seriousness of the situation is upsetting to think about. Just as we use the cafetorium door for pick up after school, the same entrance needs to be used in the morning. Thank you for your help with this important procedure at IGEMS.

Language Arts and Testing

The MAPs testing is being rescheduled for next week, it was originally supposed to this week. The MAPs testing takes two days, one for language arts and the other for math, and both tests are taken on the computer. Our Language Arts unit test is also scheduled for next week. The unit test is quite long and I like to split it up into two or three days. I am going to do some rearranging so students don't have to take both on the same day. I also like to avoid testing on Fridays, as I've found the results aren't always as good.

Because of all the testing we won't have a spelling list next week either.

With that said, here is the modified scheduled for our Unit 5 test and the MAPs testing:
Thursday, April 19 - First part of the language arts unit test
Friday, April 20 - No testing - We will be trying plantains, mangos, and coconuts to go with our Cocoa Ice story though
Monday, April 23 - Second part of the language arts unit test
Tuesday, April 24 - MAPs Testing - Language Arts
Wednesday, April 25 - MAPs Testing - Math
Thursday, April 26 - Finish the last section of the language arts unit test
Friday, April 27 - None

IGEMS Family Reading Fest

Reading Cafe: Feast on Books
Thursday, April 19 from 7:00-8:00 p.m.
- Read a book with your family
- Listen to stories with your family
- Enjoy a skit with your family
- Take a new book home to build your library

Enjoy a smorgasbord of stories and fun!

Spelling Words

The spelling words this week are more challenging than most weeks. They all have words that end with a -tion or -sion ending. We'll spend a little more time practicing them in class before Fridays test.

Star of the Week

for April 16-20

Biography Schedule

Click Graph to Enlarge

The biography schedule is out! If you need to make changes to any of the dates we can still do that. Otherwise we'll present them as you see. The presentations usually take about 5-7 minutes to complete. If there is more than one child presenting at the time we'll try to have them all in costumes and ready to present at their time.

Hopefully everyone is ready to go and looking forward to presenting!

Weekend Game - Oregon Trail!

This week we are reading a story called Boomtown, where a girl starts a business making pies to the miners. We have talked a bit about the dangers of traveling West, and for many years wished we could play a classic, Oregon Trail. It was one of my favorite games as a kid, and I'm sure a few parents played it on old Apples when they were kids too.

Well after several years I am happy to say I have it up and running! There is a small download called ActiveGS plugin, but it worked for me after that. There are settings that have to be changed in Internet Explorer, but no settings to change if you use Mozilla Firefox or Google Crome (different web browsers).

We played it once in class, and I was surprised how into it the kids were too. I thought the dated technology may make it less fun.

The Oregon Trail

Updates

- The schedule for the biographies will come out tomorrow, Friday the 13th, and students need to turn in their preferred time to present by then. They do not need to turn in the card for their biography until they present though. That way they can practice all the way through the day of their presentation.

- Congratulations to Josh H. and Lauren L. for being Artists of the Month for April. Their artwork can be seen on a bulletin board in the hallway at the front of the school.

- Also, congratulations to Elly L. for receiving a caught being good award. Keep up the great work!

- Next week we are going to begin creating a claymation of a flowering plant! Students will use stop animation to create a video of their flower made out of clay growing from a small plant into a flower! They will work in groups to create the flower, but each child will make the short video in PowerPoint on their own. The claymations probably won't be done until the end of April.

- Finally, if students can bring in cones from trees for Monday, April 16 we will be doing an experiment with them on that day. Like the flowers, not everyone needs to bring them in, but if you know where to get them you can bring in three or four so we can share. If students remember they can bring in the cones on Friday too and we'll just save them.

Flowers

Tomorrow (Tuesday, April 10) we will need flowers to investigate. We will be tearing apart the flowers to look at the different pieces. We will need at least 12 flowers, so if your child is able to cut 1 or 2 flowers that would be great. Some years we have had trouble finding flowers that are blooming already, but that won't be a problem this year!

Star of the Week

for April 9-13

Testing Schedule

We have a couple of standardized tests and classroom tests coming up in the next couple of weeks.

The Benchmark Assessment, which is where they read and answer questions verbally, will be given on Wednesday, April 11 and Friday, April 13. Each student will only go once, so they will either read on the 11th or 13th, but not both. It takes most students around 15-30 minutes to finish.

The MAPS testing will be on Wednesday, April 18 and Thursday, April 19. These tests take about 45 minutes to take, and are taken on the computer. One day they will do language arts and the other day will be math.

The next math unit test probably won't be until somewhere around April 16 or 17. I would like to avoid taking it on the same day as MAPS testing. We are slowing down a little on the fractions unit, so it takes us a little longer to get through the unit (and means less math homework because we don't finish a unit everyday).

Weekend Game - Fractions

Our weekend game is adding fractions. This is just being introduced to the students, but with a little practice they should be able to get the hang of it.


Action Fraction

Scheduled Biographies

I have started filling in times for those students who have turned in their schedules for the biographies. I try to limit three students per time slot so the kids don't get overwhelmed with biographies at any given time. Remember you still have until Friday, April 13 to sign up for a biography time.

Here are the people who have signed up so far:
Monday, April 23
- 10:45-11:05 - Josh H.
- 2:30-3:00 - Grace V.

Tuesday, April 24
- 8:15-8:30 - Brynna W.

Wednesday, April 25
- 2:30-3:00 - Nic P.

Thursday, April 26
- 8:15-8:30 - Elly L., Colin M., and Lauren L.
- 2:30-3:00 - Luke F. and Courtney S.

Friday, April 27
- 10:45-11:05 - Brie S. and Brena S.

Star of the Week

for April 2-5

March Reading Calendars

Congratulations to the following students for turning in their March reading calendars. This was the last month to get a Pizza Hut pizza as a reward. Students who turn in the April and May calendars will still earn an extra recess.

Jaiden
Avery
Ryan
Luke
Jalen
Elly
Lauren
Colin
Olivia
Nic
Courtney
Brena
Brie
Grace
Brynna
Isaiah Z.

Back in the Grove

We are back and it was pretty obvious this morning that the kids got worn out and/or slept in over break. It hasn't been that quiet since the first day of school! I'm sure they'll adjust to the mornings again quickly.

A few notes for this week:
- Our spelling test will be on Thursday since we have a short week.

- We are switching our science unit to plants and the plant life cycle. We will be looking at several different kinds of seed and flowers to see how they germinate and pollinate.

- We are in the middle of a math unit and will continue that this week. Our unit is still focusing on fractions. It will be next week before we take a math test.

- In language arts the students will be writing a research report to go along with our story Yippee Yah! The story is an expository nonfiction (explains something real), and they will take the information from the story and write a report about cowboys and cowboy life.

- Finally, don't forget about the third grade biographies. We won't be presenting until the week of April 23-27, but the students will want to read the book soon so they have plenty of time focusing on their presentation. If you haven't sent a time to present yet please do that before April 13. We will present everyday that week at 8:15-8:30, 10:45-11:05, and 2:30-3:00.