Homework and Other News--Week of March 30

Students will not be bringing home homework folders this week. I have given them the week off...although I still expect them to read for at least 20 minutes each evening!

Thursday afternoon this week will be our camping, s'more reading fest! Students may bring sleeping bags or blankets, flashlights, and their "camp gear." We will be reading in the dark from 2:15-3:15 that day. This is to celebrate the end of "March is Reading" month.

Barnes and Noble Book Fair--Thursday, April 2, 2009. 10% of the sales from that day go directly to the Holland Symphony Orchestra. Please use voucher #505511.

Just a reminder: We do not have school this Friday. Stay safe over spring break!

Song Lyrics Website

This posting is for the 5th graders that are interested in trying out for the 5th grade talent show.

Parents: Your 5th grader should have brought home an orange note explaining the guidelines for the 5th grade talent show. Let me know if you have any questions.

For students using music, the 5th grade teachers MUST have the lyrics. Here is a website for lyrics, http://www.songlyrics.com/.

Good luck, 5th graders!

Photos

I plan to upload photos to the Photobucket site over the weekend. Make sure to check out the link or Sunday night or next week to check out all the new pictures!

Celebration of Learning

In the next few weeks you will be hearing more and more from the students about our presentation at the celebration of learning. Everyone seems to be getting very excited!

We are looking for a few things to help us prepare our revolutionary war reenactments.
1. 2 or 3 red jackets or sport coats that could be turned into British Redcoat uniforms (see link: http://www.maxcostumes.com/p-17874-british-redcoat-child-costume.aspx)
2. Someone able to make a few tricorn caps (see link: http://www.maxcostumes.com/p-21662-deluxe-colonial-tricorn-hat.aspx)
3. 2 or 3 white or blonde wigs
4. 2 or 3 black or blue jackets or sport coats that could be used to dress John Hancock, Sam Adams, or Paul Revere.

If anyone is able to help me find the above items, please let me know! Many of the items needed for our presentations are available to school but the above mentioned items are more elusive.

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Remember to mark the date of April 30!

Thank you

A big thank you to Mr. Eric Fogg, Kevin's dad, for an eye-opening presentation last week about clean water and water purification. It was absolutely fascinating!

THANK YOU Mr. Fogg!

Field Trip

At the beginning of the school year I had high hopes about taking the kids to Lansing for a daylong field trip. This is, after all, the Lansing year in our Montessori curriculum. So to make that happen I started calling the Capitol tours number last September. In the past I scheduled the tour five months before we went. I called a number, the phone was answered, the tour was scheduled…simple right?

Not this time. As soon as school started I looked up the phone number, checked the capitol tours web page and called the number. Hmm. In September the number was consistently busy. In October the number was busy, and in November I still hadn't gotten through. At this point I started faxing capitol tours several times a week. (At one point I even asked a 5^th grader to spend her 20 minutes of volunteer time hitting the redial button.) At the end of January I did finally receive an answer; we were on a waiting list. Not yet worried I contacted the tour group again, (by fax) thinking they'd be able to find a space for our small group. In February I did finally speak to a real person. I explained about the incredibly frustrating phone calls, the months of calling, and the size of our group. After being accused of calling a wrong number (Not so…I did call the phone numbers listed on their website) I was informed that the tour schedules 12 months out; no more, no less. The group size? Didn't matter.

Since then I have tried to get us hooked to a tour but unfortunately, I have had no luck. We have been unable to get a tour scheduled for this year. For the 3^rd and 4^th graders this simply means we will be going next year. For the 5^th graders it is another story and I am very sorry about that. I had absolutely no idea that scheduling the tour would be so difficult, given how easy it was last time. Going from five months/easy phone call to months and months of busy signals and finally…no luck. It was very frustrating!

Our class is definitely going to Windmill Island on May 1^st for the Dutch Trade Fair. This is just a wonderful event! Due to the difficulties with Lansing I am looking into a few possibilities for one more field trip, but I can't make any promises. Once again, I would like to apologize for this chain of events. If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

Back to the old template!

As spring is JUST around the corner I felt the need to update the blog and give it a more spring-like look!