We had another fantastic week. The kids looked super and acted wonderfully at the Symphony on Tuesday. We are finally getting the hang of adding and subtracting those pesky fractions. We had a lot of fun with our matter experiments and finished our unit with a yummy one. We made ice cream in zip lock bags and got to watch the change in state of the milk. The recipe, as promised- smile Sarah, is as follows:

Ice cream in a bag

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup whole milk
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 sandwich ziploc bag
* 1 gallon ziploc bag
* 3 cups ice
* 1/3 cup rock salt (table or kosher salt work too- it just takes longer)

Directions

1. Put first 3 ingredients in the smaller Ziplock bag and seal bag (Make
sure it is tightly closed!). Put ice and rock salt in the larger bag and then
add the filled small bag. Seal the large bag.
2. Squeeze bag until ice cream is thickened, about 4-8 minutes.
3. Remove small bag, unseal, and eat with spoon.
4. No need to even dirty a bowl!

Many of them were surprised the ice cream tasted so good =) The students also finished our study of the Constitution with the recitation of the Preamble. Of the 24 students who tested on it 20 knew both the verse and the meaning! WOW! What a great bunch of memories they have.

I will not be in class next Tuesday-Friday. My mother is having some pretty major surgery and I am going to help her and my dad for a few days. Not the best timing I know but I don't think we ever really plan for things like this. The class will be in very good hands. Miss Forsythe from the 4th grade will be our sub for Tuesday and Wednesday and Mrs. Buttars will take over for Thursday and Friday. The Valentine's party will be covered by our wonderful room moms. If you would like to help please contact Mrs. Dunbar. Thank you to all of the students who have made get well cards. It was very sweet of them to do so and I am sure my mom will love them.

Take care and have a great St. Valentine's Day

Wow. What a great break we had. We posted over 17,000 reading minutes when we returned to the school. Very impressive indeed! We are currently studying matter, adding and subtracting of fractions and the US Constitution. We have also been enjoying our adventure themed reading books and writing lots of amazing essays. We have been using the laptops from our Engaged Classroom grant and are looking forward to using the video camera in the coming weeks.

Progress notices went home this week- commonly called printouts by the students and all late work for this term is due February 20th. We will have SEP conferences the first week in March. We have a couple of special events coming up. First, we will be going to the Symphony next week. We are looking forward to hearing the music of John Williams and many other composers. Secondly, we will have a special guest visiting on Feb. 9. We will be participating in activities designed to give students a better understanding of the different abilities we all have. We are in need of 5 parent volunteers this day from 10-12. Please e-mail or call if you will be able to join us.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog and stay warm!

Wow, it's Christmas time already. We are so excited to be off track. We had an amazing experience with JA Biztown. We learned SO much. Ask students from our class how much money they made? It was so interesting to see them actually running the city for the day. The teachers believe it was so valuable we have already booked next year and we had parents who have requested to go with us even though they will not have students in our grade!

I often get asked for Christmas ideas so I wanted to let you know about a great opportunity. Authorpalooza will be taking place at our local Barnes & Noble this Saturday. This is a great opportunity to go and meet authors and purchase books. The authors will be signing books as well. Many of the authors showcased have visited our school in the past.

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy new year.

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving. We have had many exciting adventures since our last post. We enjoyed learning from new author J. Scott Savage during our Author's Fair. Mr Savage taught us how to be the best we can. His new book Far World has lots of great messages for us to take to heart. The hero is a young man who is disabled when he is in our reality but not so when he visits the elementals in another reality. He learns many lessons throughout his journeys. This book would make a great Christmas gift. If you didn't get a chance to pick one up and get it signed during our Author's Fair you have one more chance. Mr. Savage will be at Barnes and Noble in Jordan Landing on December 13 for a book signing. Please contact the store directly for more information.

I appreciated the chance to meet with all of my students and their parents for SEP conferences last week. Students took home their goal sheets on Friday so hopefully they have placed them somewhere they will see them and be reminded to work toward completing their goals.

We are busy preparing for our trip to JA Biztown. Ask your student what business they will be involved with. We are getting more excited each day! Have a wonderful and safe holiday.

Wow! Are we busy. We have been learning so much lately. Math has been multiplication and division. In science we are studying magnets. We have been doing creative writing- ask your student about their Monster Mash. In social studies we are going in two different directions. We are learning about the American Colonies and completing some awesome projects related to our studies. We are also getting prepared for our December 4th field trip to JA Biztown. In this simulation your student will learn all about civics. Please do not forget SEP conferences are next week. I am planning to send home report cards Monday. Take care and enjoy our new blog!