Week of May 21-24

Highlights of the Week: 

• Writing has focused on choosing a topic of interest and writing about it from a real world writing perspective.  Students will be wrapping up their final draft this week, as well as writing on a variety of individual and group writing prompts. 
• Students are working on reading an array of their own choice of books to reach the goal of 20 books since I issued the challenge at the beginning of the year.  Students are also reading and practicing plays around the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution which they will present this week. 
• Our economics unit has continued to be a great learning experience.  There have been many comments about real life experiences and problems that could happen.  I have loved hearing the discussions. This Thursday, Angela Guthrie, and other team members from Financial Horizons Credit Union will be presenting, "A Bite of Reality" to 5th graders. This simulation gives students a taste of real world financial realities.  We could use 1 more parent volunteer to help assist at the stations.  Please let me know if you can help. Thank you to Mrs. Arends for helping us out! 
• We will be presenting plays this week that I mentioned earlier.  This week we will be learning about the Preamble, Bill of Rights, Constitution, and 3 Branches of Government.  Students will be asked to memorize the Preamble and be ready to recite it on Monday, June 4th.  They will receive a copy on Tuesday. 

The trip to Carson River with the Carson River Wranglers and 9th grade science students was memorable.  Students did a great job walking over 2 miles to Venturacci Ranch where 9th graders took the role of teachers and oversaw 5 different stations the students rotated through.  They learned about non point pollution, beaver adaptation, watershed, the water cycle, and irrigation.  Following our return, students wrote thank you notes to both the Wranglers and the high school students. 

FOR YOUR INFORMATION Volunteers are needed for Thursday afternoon, May 31st, to assist with the Economics Stations.  You would need to arrive around 1:15 and go through a brief training.  Students will participate between 1:30-3:00.   This is a great opportunity if you are in need of volunteer hours.  Please e-mail me at your earliest convenience if you are available.  Thank you Please send a bag to school with your child by Thursday to bring home items from the school year. Please note the following special activities planned for our schedule as we wind down the year: Thursday, 5/31@ 12:00- lunch at Taco Bell to celebrate all students making at least 100 Class Dojo points.  Thursday, 5/31 @ 1:30 - Bite of Reality Simulation with Financial Horizons Credit Union in the Lunchroom Thursday, 5/31 @ 3:30 - Summer Birthday Celebration Monday 6/4 @ 9:15 - All School Awards Ceremony at Venturacci Gym Monday 6/4 @ 2:00 - Patriotic Presentation with Mr. Mike Terry, Retired Navy Tuesday 6/5 Puppet Morning (learning ventrioloquism, making puppets, creating skits) 1:15 - Reward trip to Mavericks (please send money for students to purchase snacks) Then - 5th Grade walking to Venturacci Park for Kickball and Games Wednesday 6/6 10:15 - Walk to Venturacci Gym for 8th Grade Graduation 1:15 - Read In/ Game Afternoon (Students may bring sleeping bags, favorite books, and board games) Thursday 6/7 Field Day All Day (Dismissal at 2:00 pm) Summer Reading will be a bit different this year.  Students will be able to choose the book they want to read and will write a summary of it.  Note that there is a Book Fair currently happening at school - great time for your child to pick out a book for summer reading!

Happenings during May 1-17th

The last few weeks have been busy with testing.  Last Wednesday was our last state test, we were able to celebrate with cinnamon rolls Thursday!  I was so proud of all the kids for being able to persevere through the tests.  All of them did either an outline or rough draft or both!  I was happy to see them working hard to show off their hard work. :)

Students finished their Revolutionary War Game Boards and presented on Thursday.  They did a great job on them.  Students will be able to play each others this week.  We have also started our economics unit in projects.  We were able to have my dad, Rick Archibald, a retired banker come and talk to the kids about savings, interest and the importance of setting goals.  They began playing a version of The Game of Life last week.  Each tribe pulled a career and chose their housing, car and set a budget.  Each day they pull a fate card, which can add of subtract from their income.  Some cards might say, ¨Your car needs new tires, subtract $800 from account¨" or ¨ Table #4 took you to dinner," or ¨You won $100 from a raffle." We will continue with this the next couple of weeks.

We also started a new writing piece where students brainstormed and will take a topic and use it to write in Real World Writing Purposes: express and reflect, inform and explain, evaluate and judge, inquire and explore, analyze and interpret, take a stand/propose a solution.  We will continue working on this the next couple of weeks, writing a few different pieces.

Students have finished their Revolutionary War books in reading.  Their last meetings were Thursday!  We will discuss connections between books to the Revolutionary War as well as how it deepened their knowledge for their Game boards.

For Your Information: 
The end of year is coming fast.  Students will need to read and work on their math facts this week.

• Permission Slip for Thursdays field trip to Venturacci Ranch are due Monday.  Please send them with your child in your child's Monday folder.  Complete all 3 forms.  Students should wear long pants and bug spray as there are a lot of overgrown weeds.  Additionally, I would appreciate having one parent who can walk with us, or bring their car and drive over there in case of an emergency.  Mrs. Duarte will be driving her car there, so we have one.  Please let me know if you are available. 
• Summer birthdays can be celebrated May 31.  Please let me know if your child has a summer birthday and you would like to send in a treat that day.  
• Plans are underway for some special events in the next few weeks.  Please watch your emails for details.  We are possibly going to be making sock puppets and would appreciate new or gently used socks.  Your help is always appreciated. Thank you!