Movie or Book?

1979 Newbery Winner

Room 102 is collecting the Newbery Medal-Winning Books. Today students were treated- -not to a book- - but one of the Newbery winners that has been made into a movie.  It was the perfect snuggle-in-rainy-afternoon movie day. 

The Westing Game is a clever story. The book is a classic mystery book, but it is not a quick read. The reader must pay close attention to all the little details. The movie moves much faster, and it was a box office hit for students.  One comment after the show was, "This movie was like a game of Clue." 

No movie is complete without popcorn and theater candy.

Click the button for a complete list of Newbery winners.

The Roots of Arbor Day

Arbor Day was the idea of Nebraskan J. Sterling Morton. In 1872, Morton helped start this holiday dedicated to tree planting. It is estimated that more than one million trees were planted on the first Arbor Day.

The idea of Arbor Day quickly spread and  now this holiday  is celebrated in all 50 states and in many other countries.

Today your child received a blue spruce tree seedling to plant at home or in another special place. Parents are encouraged to use this project as an opportunity to teach children about the importance of trees.

Room 102 receives seedlings to plant in honor of Arbor Day.

Every Day is Earth Day

Did your student come home with tie-dyed hands?  With Earth Day just around the corner, students completed an art project with coffee filters and markers. Room 102 now has suncatchers hanging in the window to promote environment awareness.

A shout out to Ayn Colsh for sharing her Earth Day coffee filter craft over at Little Illuminations.

Angry Verbs

Grammar can be fun - especially if it involves the characters in the game Angry Birds.  Students were a little too excited for this lesson. They couldn’t stop talking about every single detail of the game.

Using the lesson title, Angry Verbs, students reviewed word choice, verbs, and synonyms. Next, we discussed the use of an online thesaurus. Finally, a list of 50+ synonyms was generated for the verb anger.

After teaching this lesson, these angry birds arrived in Room 102. The students were instructed to write a synonym on the bird and color it.  

Part of engaging students is finding their interests. Today I learned Angry Birds is at the top of their list.  

You too can play Angry Verbs. Check out Room 102's hall bulletin board.

Click the icon to explore the online thesaurus at home with your student.

A shout out to Cartoon Jr. for the angry bird printables.

NeSA Testing Begins

The Nebraska State Accountability, or NeSA, tests — not a big football game— were the reason for Room 102's excitement this morning. Starting today, fifth graders will fill in hundreds of bubbles as the spring testing season begins.  

To get excited or help others get jazzed about the coming state tests, students were reminded of their hard work throughout the year and encouraged, "You Rock!"  The class had fun with edible rocks!  Seriously? Are some rocks edible?

Please encourage your child to get plenty of rest, eat a healthy breakfast, and bring plenty of #2 pencils.

A shout out to the Sweet Blessings Blog for sharing her "You Rock" label.

Scholastic Book Fair

Scholastic Book Fair will begin Monday, April 16 and run through Thursday, April 19 with books being sold Monday thru Wednesday. 

Thursday is Doodad Day. Only the doodads will be sold on Thursday.  What's a book fair doodad?  Always included in the book fair are posters, pencils, erasers, and bookmarks. 

All proceeds benefit our middle school library.  

Preview Day was today. Remember, books make great gifts.

Winners

The winners of the penny wars were the 5th grade girls and 5th grade boys. The Middle School competition raised $571.29.  Special thanks to Mr. Skiff for taking the change to the bank and student council for making the containers.

The entire school agreed the real winner was Kids 4 Cure.
Great job and thank you to everyone who donated money.

Descriptive Writing

It's been a hectic several weeks with lots of writing practice. Students have been preparing for the district writing prompt. The focus has been descriptive writing.  Descriptive writing is an art form. It's painting a word picture so that the reader "sees" exactly what the writer is describing. Students have looked at various ways to "hook" the reader with catchy beginnings, figurative language, vivid verbs, adjectives, and writing components to “show not tell”.

Today the student writing samples were delivered to central office and Room 102 celebrated because . . .

Writing Rules!   

Eggs-actly or Estimation

Estimation means an opinion or judgment. Room 102 is practicing estimation. Students are learning estimation is more than just "taking a guess".  It is reasoning to find a useful estimation.

Time spent “teaching” students to estimate, and evalate estimations, is valuable. These types of activities are critical in students’ development of number sense. They provide students the opportunity to learn and hone a skill that they will use in the real world. Mental computation is an important part of number sense.

To avoid wild guesses and to create a foundation for understanding, students used a benchmark to estimate the eggs in the jar. In mathematical estimation, the benchmark is usually a set of 10 of the presented objects in a second identical container labeled "This is 10." This jar will give students a frame of reference to make a more accurate estimate.

One student estimated eggs-actly.

Alex wins 76 eggs.

MacKenzie added to the spring fun with a tasty treat for the entire class.

Thanks, MacKenzie!

Have a wonderful spring break!  May your days be filled with "sunny fun."