Go West!

All of your hard work paid off- Go West was an absolute success! I was so proud of all that you accomplished over the last month. Your performance put me to tears. Enjoy the video!

Discovery World

D.A.R.E.

The weeks are flying by so quickly and before we know it our time with Officer Kotrly will be over for the year. A few weeks ago we had an extra few minutes so Officer Kotrly thought it'd be a great idea to show the kids how to use the handcuffs. Somehow I was his first victim...for the record, Kevin and I did NOTHING wrong and we were very cooperative!

Sorry for my delay on posting…

I wanted to apologize to all of you for not posting on our blog as often as I wanted to. Being brand new to 5^th grade I feel like I'm just trying to keep my head above water each day. I have been meaning to publish these pictures FOREVER! Enjoy them!

Dear Families of Room 202-

Jim and I are bringing Willie and Lexa a brand new joy. Could it be a bone, ball, or treat…nope, it's a sweet little boy they’ll meet!

Thought I’d write a quick post letting you know about our exciting news. Jim and I are expecting a new baby in early September. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Flipping out over Forensics!

We have spent the last two weeks preparing for our forensics presentation this afternoon. The students chose individual poems to interpret and perform in front of an audience. I have been so impressed with their diligence and creativity. Enjoy the photos from our practice and the video of the live show!

Don't forget to hit mute on the playlist (bottom of the screen) so you can hear our performances.

Skateland!

What a fun morning! The 5th graders spent their morning skating at Skateland. We all had a great time. We were back in time for Phy. Ed and a delicious pizza lunch. Thank you to all of the parents that were able to chaperone. You always make our trips possible.

Our New Flip Video!

I received a grant to purchase a Flip video camera for our classroom. It arrived on Friday afternoon during Social Studies class so we thought we try out our new toy and take some quick videos. I merged the short clips to create a brief movie of the students working together in groups.

I am really excited to have this new tool in my classroom. The software was loaded on my laptop today so I can try to figure out how to best utilize the video. I am anxious for the kids to start taking videos in and helping me collect them for our classroom blog.

Just another way for you to catch a glimpse at what we're doing in room 202!

D.A.R.E.

D.A.R.E. started today. Officer Kotrly will be working with us for about 11 weeks between now and the end of the year. He came to our classroom and introduced himself to us and he learned a little more about all of the kids in our classroom.

The students all wore their D.A.R.E. shirts and today they received their D.A.R.E. handbook. Today we learned the Decision-Making Model:

D- define the problem, challenge, or opportunity
A- assess your choices
R- respond by making a choice- use facts and gather information
E- evaluate and review your decisions- did you make the correct choice?

After learning the model we worked through a few different scenarios and the students were asked to use the decision-making model to work through the situations.

Our next D.A.R.E. gathering is next week Friday, February 4, 2010. Wear your D.A.R.E. shirt!

WHMS Parent Information Night!!!

Attention all 5th Grade Parents!

Mark your calendars for Wisconsin Hills Parent/Student Information Night. Wisconsin Hills Middle School will be having Parent/Student Information Night on Wednesday, January 27, 2010.

Swanson Elementary and private/parochial schools, parents and students are invited to attend from 7:00-8:00 pm in the Wisconsin Hills Gymnasium. The administrative and guidance team will share information at both sessions about Wisconsin Hills and the 6th grade program. In addition, there will be a brief tour following each session. We hope parents and their 5th graders will be able to join us for this informative evening.

Please remember to turn in your course planning form to Mrs. Sommerville by February 12, 2010!!

We'll Miss You Miss Splitberger...

It's a sad day in room 202! Today is Miss Splitberger's last day. She has been such a wonderful student teacher. Her positive attitude and teaching skills were a great asset to our classroom. The students in our class and the staff at Swanson loved having her around and she'll be greatly missed.

Second quarter was a smooth one for me, mainly because of Miss Splitberger's willingness to jump in and get involved in our classroom. She's going to be a remarkable teacher one day. Please keep in touch and let us know if you find yourself a teaching job. We'll be rooting for you and wishing you luck. Feel free to come back and say hello. We're here everyday!

Exponent Ball!

It's hard to believe we're half way through the school year. We started Unit 7 in math today. This unit is on exponents and negative numbers. Today's unit kick-off introduced the kids to the idea that whole-number exponents are presented as a shorthand for repeated multiplication.

We were introduced to a new game, Exponent Ball. It is a lot like the game of football, in that you have four downs to try to score 7 points. You can run and/or kick to try to get down the field. The students had to practice forming and comparing exponential values throughout the game. There was a lot of noise in the classroom and I could tell the kids were having a great time!

Scholar Ladies!

I thought you would enjoy this! What a fun idea!! These kids are from the Hope School in Milwukee. Enjoy the song! Feel free to write your own version and share it with our class!

Don't forget to hit MUTE on the playlist at the bottom before you hit play on video.

Sculpting to Teach the Writing Process...

In the next few days we'll be starting to write memoirs. To re-introduce the writing process to the class today we did a fun activity that required no pencil or paper, only your hands. The students each received a small container of Play-doh and while they listened to us describe the writing process they were asked to connect what I was saying and what they had to create with the Play-doh.

Although our material of choice today was fun Play-doh, tomorrow when we start writing we know our material will be words. We'll be playing with words like we sculpted our Play-doh. As creators and critics we will write drafts, revise, edit, and finally publish our pieces. Our writing process has many stages before we make final edits and admire our finished product!

Personal Measurements

Today's math lesson developed our measurement skills. We measured our fingers, hands, and arms to find personal measurements. We also started our week long investigation to determine whether the card game Finish First is a "fair" game.