Field Day Fun!

We sure lucked out on the weather for field day- not a drop of rain!  The children had fun in all of the bounce houses.

There were also games of skill like this ball toss. 

Everyone was great about waiting patiently for their turn.  Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to man the events. 

Everyone had fun.

We played some lawn games during the down time.  

Artists at work.

We had to take one last class picture on the last day...

...well maybe two.  I told them to pretend they were sad it was the last day.  :-)

What a wonderful year we have had!  We spent some time in the last few days looking over our blog from September through June. We talked about our favorite activities and moments we remember.  I hope everyone has a great summer.  I look forward to seeing you in 10 weeks!
As you know, we have a new interim principal, Sr Carol Ann.  She was principal when I came to DeSales 10 years ago and I look forward to working with her again as we prepare for the new school year.

The Play's the Thing!

We have had such fun doing our plays this week.  We performed for many other classes and for our families.  Thank you for attending!

Wow, when I asked for cookies I did not expect this! Thank you everyone!  

One of our moms made crowns and chocolate beds for our Queen Midas play.

She also made fairies and pickles for Aladdin and the Magic Pickle Jar.

This week centers included math practice on the ipads.

We made figures with unifix cubes- it's great for spatial awareness.

Making new shapes with pattern blocks gives us a great understanding that a shape can be made up of different shapes.

We practice math facts with the Pop! game. Please keep working on those facts over the summer so you don't lose the skill.

We practiced our fractions by putting together play pizzas.

We've enjoyed this science center for a few days.  We made polymer shapes bigger by adding water and then smaller by letting them sit to dry out.  Besides learning about absorption and evaporating, the students came up with questions and hypotheses. 

I've started putting things away but I always save dismantling this to the end.  They are notes and pictures that the students have given me throughout the year. :-) 

Important Dates:
June 22- 1/2 day for students
June 23- Field Day!  Lunch is provided.
June 24- 1/2 day for students, Mass Day
June 25- Graduation day for 8th grade at St. John the Baptist

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.  Scroll down for last week's blog. 

Winding Down

Thanks for all of the help with costumes and props for our play.  The children are excited to have you come watch us on Wednesday.  Besides practicing for the play and making scenery, we've been having fun with other activities.

For our last "cooking" activity we reviewed the 3 stages of matter by making Jello.  :-) 

We are winding down our last math chapter on graphs.  We will have our final test on Thursday of next week.

This is what creativity looks like.  At the end of each year I pull out a bunch of craft materials and let the students go to town decorating "summer treasure boxes".  The children get so excited thinking of what kind of treasures they will put in their box this summer.

Sometimes creativity gets messy!

I recently switched out the Legos for K'nex for indoor recess days.  The children took right to them and starting designing all kinds of contraptions.  I was regretting not taking photos of the amazing Lego designs they made previously so I just had to share these recently made K'nex inventions.

In addition, we have been learning about good choices in Religion.  We've been having fun playing with words to create word ladders.  We gave a wonderful performance at our music assembly on Wednesday and listened to other groups perform as well.  It was uplifting and fantastic!

We just started a book called Young Canaller by a local author.  It's set in the 1800's in Lockport and on the canal.  We also learned a bit about the canal.  This is one of the links we viewed about the Lockport Locks: Locks

Important Dates:  6/17- 12 Noon, Play Performance in the old library.  Thank you for RSVP'ing.  If anyone can help out with cookies it would be appreciated. 
6/19- End of year Bash for lunch.  $3 donation for Molinaro pizza.  

S'more Fun!

We have been spending time practicing our parts for the end-of-year plays.  We are striving to deliver our lines with energy and enthusiasm!  We have also been working on a little scenery and props.  What a fun way to improve reading fluency and practice public speaking!

Our cooking project this month was microwave s'mores. First we practiced writing directions by thinking of the steps to make s'mores, then each child made his/her own to enjoy.

This student is patiently waiting the 8 seconds it takes to melt the marshmallow. :-)

The class is enjoying having the book Socks read to them.  It's about a cat named Socks who is dealing with having a new baby in the house. 

We have had some fun this week working with glyphs.  Glyphs use pictures and symbols to present information and the children use a legend or key to make and understand the glyphs.


Everyone did well on the math chapter on 2-d and 3-d shapes and we have moved onto our last chapter on graphs.  It's nice working with the fun math concepts at the end of the year. :-)

I wanted you to know that your children have gotten many compliments on their behavior from other teachers and the specials teachers.  I am so proud of how they have matured this year and how hard they work on self-control.  Parents, give yourselves a pat on the back!  I have always told them they are a wonderful class but it is nice to hear it from others as well.  

Important Dates:
6/10- Spring Concert at 9:30

Down on the Farm

We had a great time at our field trip to Kelkenberg Farms!  The weather cooperated and everyone learned a lot about all sorts of living things.

The farmer's wife, Mrs. Kelkenberg, had us all calling out to Farmer Kelkenberg and other helpers. 

It was hands on all day long starting in the poultry barn which also housed a few pot belly pigs.  The kids loved petting all of the animals. 

Everyone is feeling the warmth of the incubator.  One of the chicks hatched just before we got there and we named it after one of our own students whose birthday it was today.

Th

Farm Helper Rhonda tells us all about the chicks, hens, roosters, ducks, turkeys, and pheasants. 

The birthday boy sports a rooster on his head!

All of us with Farmer Kelkenberg.

We had fun taking a hay ride through the fields.

We spent a little time in the BIG sandbox.

All of the children go to ride the ponies.  Click on the photo if you want to enlarge it.

We spent some time petting the barn animals.

, 

Thank you to all of our chaperons for coming with us!

Important Dates:
June 3- Mass at 9:40
June 5- Dress Down for a Dollar for Carly's Club
June 17th - 12 Noon, class play in the old library.  Please email me to say how many of you are coming.