Dress Warm Tomorrow Please! No Shorts!!

Greetings Future 5th grade parents! I hope to see you at the Fundraiser Spaghetti Dinner tonight at Burlington on Lewis Ave at 5:30ish. Thank you to all of those that sent in a donation! I am so proud of this class and their parents. Amazing support ALWAYS!!! Tonight is also Chuckie Cheese Night until 9. Kids came home with a free token sticker on their shirts. Fun!

Pictures are due tomorrow for the Mother's Day Slideshow. Students need their baby picture, a current picture, and a picture of mom. Any picture will do the trick. I will be making the slide show this weekend so last day is tomorrow!!

Mom's don't forget to mark your calendars for May 6th at 1:45 for the Mother's Day Tea. Permission slips and RSVPs are also due tomorrow.

Students are scheduled to run the 800 meter dash tomorrow in PE. They may bring their I-pods or other musical devises for that event only. Tennis shoes and loose clothing are a must! WARM!!

Thanks! Have a super fun night in the rain!!!

Reminders

Just a reminder for the Spaghetti Dinner tomorrow at Burlington Elementary starting at 5:30. Your attendance earns your child $1000.00. Donations also accepted and will be rewarded.

Also, try to remember to find those pictures. Students need a baby and modern picture of themselves and then one of their mom. Permission slips and attendance RSVP invitations came home tonight for the Mother's Day Tea. Please return them by Friday.

Midterms come home this Friday. Attached to them will also be their NWEA test scores. You will see their score at the beginning of 4th grade and their score now. Many students scored in the Advanced level which is above grade level. WOW!!! We did AWESOME as a class, and I am so proud of each and everyone of my students.

Have a great night!

Thanks Everyone! We Made a Difference!!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Save the Date and Find the Pics!

Ok...what a day! First off, students will be relieved to know that I found my truck keys in my bread drawer at home!!! I am loosing my marbles I tell ya! Second, my internet was touch and go last night so the slideshow will be up HOPEFULLY tonight. Lastly, please mark your calendars on May 6th for our Mother's Day Tea. It will be at 1:45 in our room. Students need to bring in a baby picture of themselves, a current picture of themselves, and a picture of their moms for a slideshow. To be in the slideshow, I will need all pictures by this Friday. Students that bring them in tomorrow will receive a $500 reward. I did not announce this to the class so lucky to you that read the blog!!! Have a great evening!!

Save Your Money!! Spend your money!! All for Fun!

As the year is coming closer to ending, here are a few things I told the students they need to keep in mind.

Gator Party with Burlington Buddies: $1000.00

Pompey's Pillar Field Trip: $1000.00

Fossil Dig Field Trip: $1000.00

Field Day: $500.00

End of the Year Picnic in the Park: $500.00

Wiffle Ball Tournament: $300.00

Miracle Movie, Popcorn and Drink: $300.00

In order for students to participate in these events they will need to buy into it with their fake money. Students that do not have enough money saved by the time of the event will not attend. Almost all students have more money than they need. Is your child one of them?

Need more money? Students are invited to a spaghetti dinner at Burlington Elementary this Thursday at 5:30. It is a fundraiser ($5.00 each or $25.00 per family) for a family that attends their school and the public is invited. My family is attending as is our Burlington Buddy teacher, Mrs. Brucker. Some of her classmates will be there as well. Students that attend will be rewarded with $1000.00. If you are unable to attend students agreed today that they could just make a donation as if they were there and I will still reward them the $1000.00. It is good to help others.

Pictures of Career Day and our Volunteer Opportunity last weekend will be posted later tonight! Both events were awesome! Thanks for all of your support!

Thank you to all of you that have given me your sport's schedules. I LOVE going to games and watching students play. I will let you know though, I DO NOT go to games that are in the rain or in cold weather. I am a weather wimp! So even if I say I am going to come if that weather is happening know that I will NOT show up! :0) Thanks for including me in your life outside school!!

Earth Day-Dressing the Part: Green and Blue

Said From the Mouths of 4th Graders...

We Are Done!

Great day today! Sub tomorrow as I am out at technology class. We finished up our NWEA testing today and the kids did AWESOME!! Math is our lowest field at Bitterroot and I am so so proud of them ALL!! Everyone did their very best and our scores as a whole will rock. Good Job!

Going Green and Volunteering!

Wow!! The Earth Day Assembly today was awesome! MCC joined us and performed yet another rap. Ms. Kelly was recognized for her energy conservation efforts by the district. We are now an energy star school!! We have saved over $15,000 dollars in our energy bills just this year! Skits and songs were performed teaching us new ways to recycle at school. We are focussing on using only one paper towel to dry our hands and only using one pump of soap or hand sanitizer. Our class is still working hard to come up with a new plan for the styrofoam plates used in the lunchroom and we want to get plastic milk containers as well. We really want to be a model school for going green. Go team Bitterroot!!

This Saturday is the Volunteer Opportunity for April. We will be pairing up with MCC once again at Lake Elmo. We have done this for three years now and it is always one of my favorite functions. We help in all sorts of ways to get the park ready for the new season. Information and permission forms will come home tomorrow. The function will be form 9-12. Lunch will be served at the end!!! Come one, come all!

Our last NWEA test is tomorrow. We will be testing our Math skills. Testing begins at 10:15 and goes up till lunch time. Then we are DONE!! Please make sure students are here and on time tomorrow. Make up testing requires kids to leave their regular classes and miss important lessons for over an hour. Thanks!

Have a super night!

Bug Club Winners and Star of the Week: Arielle!

Fun Times connecting to the Everglades and Gumbo Limbo Book! Thanks Matt!!!

Free digital slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Persuasive Writing for Mr. Senitte

Students were assigned to write a persuasive journal entry in their journal last week. They were to write a letter to Mr. Senitte and try to persuade him to change from styrofoam plates to washable plastic ones in order to help our school turn more "green." Today, a select few got the chance to read those letters to Mr. Senitte. He sat and listened to the students and even took notes on his laptop as they read. Then he asked the entire class, ok what is the next step. They agreed to have him call the correct people and set up a meeting that he will attend with three select students to start making a change. This is AMAZING!! I am so proud of all the students. All of them had excellent letters and it was hard to select the few to read to him. I was very impressed with the amount of google research that the students obviously did on their own. Wow!!

Testing went well today. Students did their best and I encourage them to shine again tomorrow on their language test. Taking their time and reading every question carefully is an excellent reminder for you to talk about tonight. I am proud of every student! Don't forget your protein snack for tomorrow.

Lastly, make sure you jump in that puddle today instead of going around it. It is super fun to be a kid or a kid again!! :0)

Time to Shine Little Diamonds!

Hi there! What a great day! I spent the morning teaching other teachers how to oovoo. You know I loved that. Then this afternoon, I attended a workshop all about bringing character into the classes. Do you think I liked that? As our friend Petey would say, Oh Boyee! It is so nice to know that our schools really are starting to show progress with bringing this kind of education and studies back into the classroom. It was a perfect way to start my week. Yes! So, in honor of Dr. Brook's workshop today I would like to challenge you. Write your child's biggest strength in their planner for me to see tomorrow and help them earn a $100 reward. Just one though! :0)

This week we start our NWEA testing. I know what you are thinking...again...more testing. Nope this is not a test. It is a time to shine. This is by far my favorite time of the year. This assessment allows me to see what I have taught them. This is the same test they took at the beginning of the year. Now, they get to take it again and show me all they have learned. Or should I say, show themselves just how very smart each and every one of them are. This assessment is on the computer and it is corrected as soon as they complete it and I get a score seconds later. Students are expected to make a 5-9 point jump from where they started in the Fall. I am always amazed to see how well they do on this one. The subjects are reading, math, and language. Too bad character skills aren't also tested or these kids would be off the charts!!! But, we will have to settle for AMAZING gains in these three subjects. We start TOMORROW with our reading test. Language is on Wednesday, and math is next Tuesday. It is imperative that students are in class for these tests. We had PERFECT attendance for MONTCAS so I know we can do it again. All tests will start at 10:15 and go till lunch. Protein snacks are encouraged like hard boiled eggs or peanut butter and apples. Again, I don't look at this as a test. It is a time to SHINE, and SHINE they will! I couldn't BELIEVE in anything more!

Have a restful night and I will see you in the morning!

No You Are Not Seeing Double

Happy Late Birthday to You!

Happy Belated March Birthdays to Maddie, Dalton, Robert, Garret, and Preston! Man you guys look old! :0)
Mall of America Team Projects:

Midwest Mallness!

In Social Studies, we have been taking an in-depth look at the MW states. One of them was Minnesota. We learned about the tourist spot, the Mall of America. Students then had to get into design teams, work together to create a blueprint, and meet digging deadlines to avoid fines. Today, the students got to walk around the malls and see what all the other teams had come up with as well. Projects are hanging in the hall for your viewing as well. Pretty creative! Remember, the MW states and capital test is tomorrow afternoon. Study, study!

Recycling for $

Connection in Class

Below you will see a youtube that I showed my reading class today. We have been reading a novel called Petey. It is a touching story about a man that was placed in the Warm Springs Insane Asylum in the 1920's. It was later discovered by medical professional that he was misdiagnosed. He has cerebral palsy. The book tells his story and shares his experiences with other people that discovered long before the doctors that he was not an idiot. I wanted to find a way to help the students see the amazing connection between a person with cerebral palsy and an amazingly caring person. Beware, if you watch this you may want to have a tissue near. Enjoy.

Thanks to everyone for bringing in the bake sale treats. We made more than what we needed and are planning yet another field trip! We will have a busy May and June. A special thanks to Stephanie and Adam Davis for helping out today by selling all the leftover treats. You all rock!!

Petey Connection

Going Green in Room 3

Earth Day is coming up this month. We will be teaming up with our 1st grade buddies to clean up the campus each week for fifteen minutes. We will also have MCC back in the house with some fun recycle activities and more raps. Then we will have the ultimate dodge ball game: MCC vs. Erickson. This is a huge thing for both the students and MCC members. Hilarious fun! We will also have a volunteer opportunity this month on April 24 at Lake Elmo. We will pair up with MCC and get the park ready for the season. It will be from 9-11. This is always a good time.

Can you tell that I am really trying to get these kids to think "green"! Have an awesome evening!

States and Capitals...We know them!

We Are Back!!

What a Fantastic Spring Break! I hope you are all rested and had a lot of fun. Rusty from School Tools was in town to work on the book that he and I are writing so that was super exciting! If I could, I would like to encourage you to read Rusty's Facebook page. There is a link on his site. There are many very powerful quotes and youtubes that all deal with character and the six traits that I spend a great deal of classtime reinforcing.

This week we will be back to business. We are in the last quarter of 4th grade. It is time to get ready for the responsibilities and accountability pieces needed to be successful in the 5h grade. We will continue to write nightly in our journals. However, they will now be exchanged and read by another classmate. The reader will give a specific compliment and a positive suggestion of something to work on the next time. We will exchange journals daily. I will continue to look at the journals as well, but will no longer be commenting. I am so amazed at the growth I have seen over the past two quarters when it comes to writing. Wow!!!

The Midwest Region states and capitals test will be taken this Friday. The format will be the same as the ones in the past. Please continue/begin to study these.

Cya tomorrow!