Happy Irish Day!!

Top o' the mornin to ya! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Students may wear green today as long as it is not body paint or hairspray or anything else that might wipe off or smear on our MontCas tests. Hats are great!

Thank you to everyone for bringing back your pictures. Go Team Erickson!

We will be testing today. What better day than when you can have the Luck of the Irish on your side??? Perfect! Protein snacks are encouraged.

We will have two guest speakers in the house today. MCC is coming to talk about two of our ME region states :Minnesota and Michigan. And my dear friend Allistar from Ireland will also be here this afternoon. He is actually from Ireland! SWEEEEET!!!

We will also have a small candy/St. Patrick's day/Easter auction today. Your kids have WAY to much money and the bank is going broke! I will remind them to save at least 3000 dollars for upcoming field trips before they start to spend. Fun!

Student's should have shown you their take home folders last night. Inside there were two important articles. One was on Pennies for the Planet. As you know, we are studying the Everglades in Florida. I happened to stumble upon this article asking for kids to collect pennies/coins in order to help save the Florida Panther. Perfect! I just love when I find opportunities to allow a child to learn what it feels like to give back, and Mother Earth is the perfect one to give back to. So, we have challenged Mrs. Hankin's class to see who can raise the most change over the next two months. Now, we do have a slight advantage because in our classroom we are pumped up and huge BELIEVERS! :0)

The other important article was on the Census. The census came up in Social Studies awhile ago. We have discussed it in class. You should have or will be getting your census in the mail. I received mine the other day. It is so easy to fill out and all that is wanted is the number and names of the people living in your house presently. Then simply mail it back, no stamp needed. If you do this civic duty, please write a note in your child's planner and I will reward them $100. This census is SO important to the educational system and we, in Montana, can't afford to lose anymore of our federal funding. Thanks in advance!

Lastly, the March Volunteer sheets came home yesterday. We will be joining up with MCC again to do a clean up on their adopted road, which is Rheberg and Shiloh. Please have your child at Albertsons on Grand and 32nd at 9 am this Saturday. Pick up time is at 11 am. The weather may change on us again, so dress prepared. We will go, rain or shine or snow! Well, it is Montana! :0) Parents are welcome to stay too!!!

Have a LUCKY day! Hope you are wearing green!

Rumors...

I am wondering if I could ask a favor. There has been some recent rumor activity in our room and on the playground. A lot of class time is being taken by trying to sort these rumors out. In class, we have been talking about the fact that when one hears a rumor, they need to not believe it until they go directly to the source and ask that person. So many times, rumors are not the true story and end up twisting the truth. I would love it if you could have a discussion abut this at home around the dinner table as well.

Thank You.

Spring Forward!

This week we will be taking the last of our MontCas tests: Math. We will be taking these on Wednesday and Thursday. Please do everything in your power to make sure you child is at school on these days. So far, we have had 100% attendance and have had to do NO makeup tests! This is awesome and it really does make a difference! Yay team!

Thanks to all of you that have sent back your picture money or packets. If you have yet to return them, please do so by Monday. Students will be fined $100 per day that they are not returned at this point. A HUGE thank you to Mrs. Jensen for taking car of this for our class!!

See everyone tomorrow...and hopefully we all remembered to turn our clocks one hour ahead.

Rock on Garret!

Thanks Garret for teaching us about Kentucky being the Blue Grass State. I am so proud of you going above and beyond the call of duty! Hope you get to learn to play that one day!

Testing is done for the week. The kids did GREAT! Thanks for all of your support. We will take the Math sections next week on Wednesday and Thursday. Math...my favorite! They are ready! Bring it!!!

The SE gameboards are AWESOME! I am so impressed with the "strange, crazy, funny facts they found." The creativity of the gameboards themselves was impressive as well. We will be playing and learning tomorrow!

The writing prompt tonight requires a parent's help s be ready to do some homework too!

Have a great night!

Due Dates

Testing went very well today. Please continue to encourage your child to stay focussed, read carefully, answer the entire question, show proof when writing the essay questions, and to SHINE! They are doing great. Tomorrow we have the last two reading sessions. We will take one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Snacks may be brought in for both. (Protein Packed!) Thanks for all the great breakfast choices. I heard about them today at morning meeting. Nice!!

Library is tomorrow. Please remember to remind them to bring their books.

Gameboards for SE states are due tomorrow at 8:30 AM. Remember each board needs to have...

1. 25 squares total (no more, no less)

2. 10 squares need fascinating facts about your state

3. 3 places or landmarks drawn on your board and labeled.

4. 3 symbols or words drawn on your board and labeled.

5. Start and an End

6. State Name

7. Creativity and Cooperation are needed

We will be playing these games tomorrow in class and Friday with Mrs. Hankin's class. I have already learned a ton just by grading them. Some funny stuff!!!

Have a wonderful and restful evening!

Reminders.

We have MontCas testing tomorrow for the Reading section. This test is the most challenging due to kids getting tired while reading 4-5 passages. It will really help if they have that full 8 hours of sleep tonight and a good breakfast packed with protein. PLEASE avoid sugar cereals tomorrow. Eggs and peanutbutter toast is a great start! Kids can bring a protein snack as well. Hard boiled eggs are always good, just shell before class please. Peanutbutter on a spoon is also a great treat!

We have been studying animals in science. As an introduction, we have been studying some rare and strange animals from all over the world using Jeff the Zoo guy youtubes. Very cool. Next week we will start an indepth project and study into different environments and the animals that are found there. There will be many components to this group project. Students will need to stay on top of it and contribute to their group. We will also start our journey into the Everglades of Florida with a fun story read by our dear friend, Mrs. Caskey.

There will be a volunteer opportunity this month finally!!! We will once again partner up with MCC and do a road cleanup by Shiloh on the west end. MCC has adopted these miles of road. It will be on March 20th in the morning. Watch for permission and information forms this week.

Spring pictures came home today. You will need to view them and then decide what to do with them. You can purchase all of them, part of them, or none of them. Please send in checks and/or unpurchased pictures by this Friday. $100 reward to those that meet that deadline.

Thanks!

Scraminals Website

Hi. The scraminal website is http://www.switcheroozoo.com/zoo.htm. Click on make a new animal and then choose your first animal. Then you can mix and match it all up! Have fun if you dare! :0) Remember this is optional for your writing journal tonight.