Award Winners Just Announced!

Just in from the library--

Newbery Award 2009: The Winners

The overall 2009 Newbery Award winner is Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book. The book was illustrated by Dave McKean and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books.

Four books were also named as Newbery Honor Books: The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt; The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom, by Margarita Engle; Savvy, by Ingrid Law; and After Tupac & D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson.

Caldecott 2009: The Winners

The overall 2009 Caldecott winner is Beth Krommes for The House in the Night, written by Susan Marie Swanson and published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Three books were also named as Caldecott Honor Books: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, written and illustrated by Marla Frazee; How I Learned Geography, written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz; and A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet and written by Jen Bryant.

Field Trip Reminder

We will be going to the Holland Museum on Thursday, January 29, 2009. The bus will leave Waukazoo at 9:30 a.m. and we will return by 11:30 a.m. A chaperone is not necessary since our student assistant from Hope College will be going with us. However, I would be fine with taking along one additional adult that would like to accompany their child on a field trip this year.

Please email me or call if you are interested in going with us. Preference is given to parents that have not yet gone with us on a field trip.

Thanks!

5th Grade Spelling Bee

Congratulations to our very own Elaine for winning Waukazoo's 5th grade spelling bee!













Congratulations should also be extended to all the participating 5th graders and to Anna who made it through several rounds of the spelling bee.

Elaine and first runner-up, Jake, will be moving on to the regional spelling bee--this will take place in February.

Books!

It strikes me that I have never shared this wonderful site for book recommendations. Most exciting? It is run by two of West Ottawa's very own!

http://www.mibookends.blogspot.com/

This blog is especially great since it is run by two middle school librarians. They can help parents navigate the difficult world of "young adult" literature.
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THANK YOU to Lee Wardlaw for the autographed books and other reading goodies! We can't wait to hear what she thinks of our book!
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I would personally like to recommend an amazing book series for kids. I am a fan of fantasy--for example, Harry Potter, Gregor the Overlander--and I couldn't put down the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series! http://www.amazon.com/Percy-Jackson-Olympians-Boxed-Set/dp/1423113497/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232419424&sr=1-2

Of course, make sure to check out the latest "Wimpy Kid!" http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Wimpy-Kid-Last-Straw/dp/0810970686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232420558&sr=1-1

Enjoy some great stories!

Updates from the Classroom

POETRY

As we continue to muddle through the snow that never seems to let up outside, the students have been busy inside. We are completing our Haikus—they will be appearing on lockers next week. Each student was given a January topic for his or her poem and asked to create something dynamic around that theme. During the week of January 19^th, all students will be asked to read books of poetry and find an interesting Haiku to share with the class.

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

Within the next two weeks, students will be completing a classroom self-assessment document as they prepare for their "performance reviews." Students have the potential of receiving a pay raise; pay raises will be based on their consistent following of the 3-R's (respect, responsibility, ready to learn). Students will each have a one-on-one meeting with Mrs. Perrien to discuss their review document and together we will determine a possible pay raise.

PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES

I am interested in running student/parent/teacher conferences for this February's conferences. These conferences would involve the students in the planning and execution of the conference. I have used this format in the past with excellent results! Students will be able to present and answer questions about their classroom work. They will also be able to discuss their performance of the 3 R's. Past parents that were at first reluctant about this format were surprised by how much more meaningful these conferences turned out to be for both parents and child. I will send more information home to parents in the next few weeks. As always, I am available for discussions outside of the regular conference times.

SCIENCE

Students are busy wrapping up their study of the Human Body. This week we will learn more about our senses and even experiment with our sense of taste. The week of January 19^th is the last week we will be actively studying the Human Body. However, students may always do independent studies of something that still catches their interest about this area in science! Beginning the week of January 26^th, we will study matter—this unit will initially be connected to the Human Body but will quickly separate into its own area of study.

WINTER FESTIVAL    

See Cara and Jamesohn's recent posting about the winter festival. It is coming up next week!

Student Council Update

Student Council Updates
By Jamesohn Bader and Cara Budek

Jamesohn and Cara took time out of their busy workplan schedule to type up a student council report for parents. Are there any parents interested in helping us work on our sled? 

Spirit Wear
Did you order T-shirts or sweat shirts and not gotten them yet? The school has a few T-shirts and sweat shirts that don’t have names on them. If you are still waiting for your order, contact Mrs. Atkinson.

The winter festival is January 26-30
 Monday- white out & tug a war
 Tuesday- frozen mittens
 Wednesday- Brain freeze/ frozen soda
 Thursday- cardboard sled race
 Friday- Blizzard beach

Cardboard Sled Making Guidelines
1. One piece of cardboard per classroom so use it wisely.
2. Cutting should be done by teachers or parents.
3. Sleds may be colored or decorated with crayons, paint, or markers. Nothing else should be added to the sled.
4. Work should be completed by students and supervised by teachers or parents.
5. Cardboard will be available Monday, January 12 and sleds should be completed by Wednesday January 28.
6. Awards will be by grade for the following: Best Design, Fastest sled (First sled down the hill the first time), and Winning Sled.

School Store
 Thanks so much for shopping!
 Open Tuesday & Thursdays from 12:00 to 12:50

The next popcorn day will be on February 13

January News!

Homework

Reading—Please continue to provide at least 20 minutes of quiet time for afternoon or nighttime reading. This is a very important piece of the homework puzzle. The more we read, the better we read! Reading can be done anywhere in the home but many children find it relaxing to read before bedtime. Reading does not have to be restricted to fiction but can and should also include non-fiction (biographies, books about history, animals, etc.), newspapers and kid-friendly magazines. National Geographic for Kids and Sports Illustrated for Kids are well-written and popular choices. Remember, families do not need to spend any money to participate in this homework assignment. Trips to the local library, school library, and (shortest of all!) the classroom library will yield a wide variety of genre and should more than adequately provide for this nightly assignment. The new home reading log is a quick way for me to see what the children are reading when they are not in school.

DOL—I am finding that the children are making many mistakes with this quick homework assignment. (Perhaps working too quickly?) Simple misspellings, capitalization, and punctuation errors are showing up far too often. I would appreciate your help as grammar is such an invaluable aid to good writing. To that end, please take a minute to review the DOL assignment each Thursday evening. We will be continuing with DOL through the end of February and the sentences do continue to gain in complexity. Thank you!

MATH FACTS—Just a few minutes each week helps aid and increase math fact retention. The fifth graders are discovering that quick recall of math facts makes all the difference in two and three digit multiplication plus long division (our next topic of study). 3^rd and 4^th graders are finding out how math fact recall can assist when adding and subtracting fractions (Especially when the 4^th graders have to find a common denominator!) Knowing our math facts also helps us when reducing fractions!

AND THE REST OF THE HOMEWORK…I am exciting about working with the children to create fun book reports! We are covering several reading strategies this week (most are review) and will continue to review these next week, too. The children will receive more information next week about creating their first report. Math worksheets that come home (usually twice per week) continue to be mostly review of past work to aid in long-term retention of the concept.

Other information

The children updated their WO Zone calendars with all the school and class activities coming up this January. Items of interest may include the Winter Festival—which is scheduled to take place the week of January 26^th. More information should be given to the teachers within the next 7-10 days about activities scheduled for this fun week!

Everyone continues to be excited about the class book, 101 Ways to Bug Your Children! We continue to hear tidbits about parent's reactions, when a tip was used, and other family impressions. We have been honored at this blog with a visit from Lee Wardlaw, the author of 101 to Bug Your Parents! Not only is she a talented writer, she is also a fan of the Montessori teaching method. We recently decided to send Ms. Wardlaw an autographed copy of 101 Ways to Bug Your Children. It should be ready to go out in a few days!

The children will be writing Haiku poetry this month. Look for these to begin appearing on lockers by the end of next week.

Finally…ask your son or daughter about their matter investigation; what will they be studying? How will they go about preparing their investigation? What materials will they be using? We are currently in the brainstorming stage but will soon be writing a hypothesis (next week) and begin a science investigation into…matter!

Cinnamon Ornaments Recipe

A few of the kids asked for the cinnamon ornaments recipe…Enjoy! This recipe makes a ton of ornaments!

MATERIALS    

• 1 cup of cinnamon
  
• ¼ cup of white glue
  
• ¼ to ½ cup of water
  
• Rolling pin (I recommend plastic vs. wooden)
  
• Cookie cutters
  
• Straw or pencil
  
• Ornament string or hooks + ribbon
  
• Cookie sheets
  
• Preheat oven to 200 degrees
  

PROCESS

1. Mix together ingredients, dough ball should be on the dry side
   
2. Roll out mixture onto a flat surface, cut with cookie cutters
   
3. Poke a hole in each ornament that is big enough for the hook or string
   
4. Place ornaments on cookie sheets, leave space between each
   
5. Turn ornaments every 5 or 10 minutes until firm, they need to bake approximately 15-20 minutes
   
6. After ornament is cooled, place the ribbon or hook through the hole so that your ornament is ready to hang!
   

VARIATIONS

1. Add pinches of nutmeg or cloves to cinnamon
   
2. Try modeling the mixture into coils or shapes by hand