Let me be the first to wish you all a Happy Mother's Day!  Thank you for all the wonderful things that you do each day and for allowing me the opportunity to work with your children.

We are action packed this week!  The year is flying by.

In Reading:  the children have chosen individual states to research and report on.  We are practicing taking notes in an organized fashion, writing important details, and determining the importance of information.

In math:  the students are continuing to work on addition and subtraction over three digits.  They should be able to "talk their way through" any problem now.  We will be testing this unit next week and then moving on to our final units of geometry, time and money.  (We have been dabbling in these all year!)

In science:  we began our new unit of Balancing and Weighing.  This week your children experimented with beam balances discovering how weight and the position of the fulcrum both determine balance.  The kids love the hands on aspect of these experiments.

In writing:  the students are beginning the poetry unit.  Our students have been reading poetry and discussing some of the author's craft ideas included (rhyming, onomatopoeia, similies, metaphors, mental imagery, word choice..)  We are also beginning to write poetry.  The next few weeks will be filled with assorted ideas.

Our final book order will be due on May 28th.  There were some very good choices and prices included in the flyers.  I will be checking in the final homework packet today.  If your child brought in his/her homework on time and complete there will be NO MORE written homework this year.  Students will still be responsible for spelling words, daily reading and math fact practice.

Many thanks to all of you who contributed to my beautiful vase of flowers, sentimental cards and also the tree that was planted in my honor.  I appreciate your kindness!  Have a great weekend.