This Week

Wow! This week has really flown by! We were PALS testing the first part of the week, and we're already almost at Thursday! Students have done very well with their testing and I hope to send results home soon.

Students are getting into "matter" now that we have started a new project. On Monday, we did a "scavenger hunt," where we searched our classroom and the outside playground for objects that were either solid, liquid, gas, or a combination of any of the states. On Tuesday, we took that same list and took photos of the objects that we saw. Today, we went to the computer lab to begin our "matter movie," using the program, "Photo Story 3." (a free download from Microsoft). We will be working with the laptops to work on our "movies" again this Friday. Students have been very excited about being able to use the cameras, as well as being able to make a movie! Once finished, we will post our completed stories online if not on our blog, then to our class wiki (I will post a link on the blog and the class website). I hope to have these completed next week! Our test on matter will be September 11th.

Speaking of technology, we were limited to using only 8 digital cameras. I have submitted a request using the website "Donors Choose," where public school teachers can request funding for items we would like to use in the classroom. Due to cost, I have asked for 5 cameras at this time. If you know of someone who is looking to help others, or a business that would like to sponsor a worthy cause, you should pass this link on to them:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=309166


One last note: you will notice a change to our reading log coming home next Monday. Mrs. Watson has generously let me copy her log, which looks fantastic, to use for our class! The difference will be now that your child will need to put the title and author of the book, and fill out a face based on if he/she liked the book or not. I think this will really help our students with AR, and on knowing which books to take a quiz!