A Really BIG Contest

February 16th and ends on February 27th

The Middle School PTO is sponsoring a Box Top Competition. The homeroom that collects 250 Box Tops will win a popsicle party. The class that brings in the most Box Tops wins a pizza party, too! 

Please clip Box Tops from your favorite General Mills products. Parents can earn cash for our school every time they shop for groceries. Each Box Top is worth 10 cents - and that adds up fast!  Please ask your family, extended family, and friends to clip and collect Box Top logos. 

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Today students took time out from schedules and lessons and just celebrated this sweet season.

VALENTINE MINUTE-TO-WIN-IT was a huge success. For the game, there was a plate full of Valentine candy and an empty plate for each contestant. Kiddos used chopsticks to move as many candies to the empty plate as they could in one minute. Whoever had moved the most candies at the end of the minute, advanced to the semifinal round, and then the championship round. 

When it comes to Valentine's Day, students know it is all about the cards!

Since sweet treats are always fun for fifth grade students, we ended our day with some festive goodies. 

Enjoy the 3-day weekend. It was a treat to visit with parents during this February week of conferences. If there is ever a concern, please do not hesitate to call or drop in. 

Service Learning

International Book Giving Day is coming up soon: February 14th! (Yep, that’s also Valentine’s Day.) For those of you unfamiliar with the holiday, International Book Giving Day is a day dedicated to getting books in the hands of as many children as possible. Team 1 chose to participate . . .

14th February is about sharing the love of books! 

In addition to the academic curriculum, Norfolk Middle School students participate in a service learning project and get involved in the community. Team 1 chose to celebrate International Book Giving Day and donate books to an area school.

The Wisner-Pilger School was hit by a tornado on June 16th. This school's library was completely destroyed. Individual teachers lost their classroom libraries as well. 

Team 1 students donated money to purchase books through Scholastic Book Club. Students were then able to select several of their favorite "reads" while working within a budget.  

We are excited to be part of International Book Giving Day and provide some new books to students in Pilger, Nebraska.

International Book Giving Day is nearly here . . .

Today the books were given to Mrs. Denna Soden, a Pilger classroom teacher. Mrs. Soden stopped by NMS to collect the books. She will share the books with students on the holiday. The response to our books was so sweet. With gratitude and hugs, Mrs. Soden expressed,

Your students' generosity is so heart warming. There is going to be much excitement in my classroom. 

Writing is "Snow" Fun

Definitely the topic of the day was snow. The weekend's snowfall and Monday's late start added excitement to our writing prompt -

"Life in a Snow Globe" 

Students began the project brainstorming a list of what they should include in the prompt. This is not a difficult task for fifth graders living in Nebraska. They then completed a descriptive writing piece using their five senses to describe a snow globe scene. When describing, students learned it is important to engage the reader fully by making him see, hear, feel, taste, and smell that which is described.

Google Docs brought the papers to life with smart editing and styling tools to help students easily format text and paragraphs.

Green screen technology placed each student in a snow globe.  

Students have been writing and crafting to transform our hall bulletin board and serve as a wall-to-wall portfolio of their work - just in time for parent teacher conferences. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend next week, February 9, 11, and 12. 

MLK

Today we celebrate human diversity and the work of civil rights leader - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We started our day with cookies and a quote.

Then we rolled up our sleeves and decorated the classroom door.  

Our diverse hands are all about Dr.King's message of love and understanding.

2015 - Happy New Year!

A new year brings fresh hope for the remaining school year.  As students enter the second semester of their fifth grade year, they are "plotting" to finish the year strong!

One of the fun concepts that students master in math is graphing on a coordinate plane. Knowing how to plot ordered pairs is an essential part of graphing functions. Students put their knowledge of coordinate systems, coordinate graphing, and ordered pairs to work creating a mystery picture.  Graphing was an engaging way to celebrate the new year in math. 

Happy New Year from this FULL Classrrom!

Seasonal Fun

December is a month full of special days, and Room 100 capitalized on students' excitement.  Lessons combined fun and learning to deliver a holiday presence in the classroom. 

This month's lessons were alive with excitement and enthusiasm; these faces capture the joy of teaching. 

Happy Holidays! Enjoy the break. Classes resume January 5, 2015!