March 15-26

It's been two weeks time since my last post and things have seemed a little rushed and busy, as always. It has a lot to with the end of the term on the crest. This coming Monday, March 29, is the end of the third term. I sent home missing assignment sheets with the students. Unless they turn in more work, their final grades are posted online at https://www.classactiongradebook.com/members/login.aspx If you need your login information, feel free to e-mail me. I'm taking our picture for the blog this week from our trip to Hale Center Theatre. I think the tour of the theatre was a real neat experience for the kids, especially those who are really interested in the acting field. It gave them a lot of insights into theater that they might not have had otherwise.

As I've already mentioned, the end of the term is here. Monday is the last day to turn in any work. We continue forward in our newest language arts theme with the story "Dive! My Adventures in the Deep Frontier."

Math is going to be a little bit different from here on out. Throughout the year, so far, we've been following a curriculum map which has lead us through the entire sixth grade curriculum. The entire month of April is going to be strictly review. We are going to start the month off with a practice end-of-level. I'm going to make them take it exactly as it would be during the end of level testing where they cannot ask me any questions whatsoever. With the results of that test, I am going to review the topics that they seem to need the most. After we've reviewed what that test said we needed, we'll take another, and so on until testing time is here. We are also going to be practicing taking the tests with the computer to get them used to that. All of their end-of-level testing is done on computer, so it's another skill they're going to need to establish.

Science is going to be similar to Math after this week. This week however, we're going to wrap up our solar system unit. We're going to be discussing how to navigate with the North Star. Then we review and test!

Spring Break is just one week away, and I think it's definitely time for a bit of a break for all of us, the students and myself included! Third term can get a bit long because there's no real break in it besides the weekends, so the week of Spring break will certainly be good for us all!

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" ~Robin Williams

March 8 - 12

Science Fair is done and gone! I'd like to congratulate the students. Their projects looked fantastic! They all did well enough that anyone that had their project in on time, got full credit on the board. I was so pleased by the turn out. Thanks for the support you gave at home on this project!

Also, thanks to Eric Allen for supplying us with the project that will be our picture of the week.

The kids had fun creating these rockets and then going out to the field to set them off. It was a good time that would never have happened without his stepping in, so thanks again!

That project also gave me my picture that is my entry into the school's fine arts contest, but I can't show it to you. It's a seeeeecret! :) This year's theme is The Power of One. Entries can still be turned in, it's not too late! They're looking for entries from either students or families in the categories of photography and musical composition. The winners will be announced at the Night of the Dragon Art Gala. More information on it can be found on the school's website.

We have a few things up and coming this week. Term 3 book reports are due starting Monday. The kids have had their assigned dates for over a month now, so even with the treachary of the science fair, I hope we can work our way into some great book reports! Also, Wednesday this week, we will going to Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake for a tour of their building and insights into how a theater actually runs! I think it's going to be a great experience for the kids. We could still use some volunteers, so if you're willing and able, let me know. It's going to be Wednesday, March 17. We'll leave about 9:00 in the morning, and be back by about 1 in the afternoon.

I would say that other than that the week will be pretty normal, but I suppose all of these things keep it from being that. So, let's have yet another fantastically irregular week and we continue to give our all, all the way to the end! And in this instance, I refer to the end of the third term, March 29.

"I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." -Larry Bird

March 1 - 5

We had a little bit of the insane sanity again this week, but not near as busy as last week. The only day that truly felt like a circus was Thursday because we spent the day working on our D.A.R.E. box, so sending people out on that amidst trying to do our everyday learning made it a bit three-ringed. The box turned out fantastic though! We started planning on Tuesday. The kids all designed an idea, and then we voted through them as a class to come up with a gigantic donut. Mmm...mmm.... It looks great! And what better than to bribe our DARE officer with than a huuuge "power ring" as he would call it. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather we've had this week. For one of our science lessons, we went outside to the field and created a human solar system. The planets were approximately in scale with each other, and their distances apart were the same. As hard as millions of miles are to conceive, I think this lesson might have put it a little more to scale. Coming up this week, we have one our parents coming in to build rockets with the kids. Weather permitting, we will build the rockets on Monday, paint them on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then take them to field on Thursday to launch them.

Our story this week is Anne of Green Gables. It's the story of a family who wanted to adopt a young boy, and mistakenly were sent a girl instead, and the struggles that came with them trying to grow as a family.

The students are going to be just heartbroken to find out that out math lessons are cut short this week to make some extra tim for the rocket building. We will still however be continuing into our lessons on fractions, including solving equations with fractions. We will then end the week with multiplying and dividing both positive and negative integers.

The BIG excitement for this week, however, is the Science Fair. 5th Grade judging is Tuesday, 6th grade judging is Wednesday, and 7th and 8th grade judging is Thursday. This means that our completed projects have to be here on Tuesday. They've been working on them a better part of the term so far, so I'm excited to see how well they're going to turn out. Being my first science fair, I'm sure these kids are just going to blow my expectations out of the water. They're a great bunch!

"People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them." from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery