Sunny, Sunday June 14, 2009 (Flag Day)

It's about time, but I finally sat down and looked through all the pictures from our last field trip. I tried to capture those pictures that show the various activities each group did that morning, but I was also careful to not include pictures of those students for whom we don't have Permission to Publish forms on file.

This has been frustrating because not all the pictures I uploaded have shown up even though they should have. (I find working on regular web pages with plain HTML easier than this "automated" program at times.)

I hope you enjoy the pictures that "made it".

Bright, sunny Friday, June 5th, 2009

THANK YOU ALL! I didn't expect to be surprised today. I guess that's a huge part of what a surprise really entails: surprise. Thank you all so much for the class gift and the individual gifts. I really appreciate them a lot.

This morning the children were besides themselves with excitement. It was wonderful to have nearly everyone present on the last day of school. I will miss these kids a lot.

Mrs. Maraldo and Eli came by to say good-bye to the class, especially since she didn't see all the children when she was here on Wednesday. Eli is such a beautiful and happy baby. It'll be fun to see how he grows over the summer.

Again, a big thank you for the gifts. I really appreciate them and didn't expect them. This class really know how to keep a surprise!

Have a great summer!
Love to you all,
Ruth Landmann
P.S. YES, I will post the pictures from the Agricultural History Museum. I had to find my list of those who have/don't have Permission to Publish, so I wouldn't include pictures of the five kids for whom we don't have permission to publish their photos.

Beautiful, crisp, sunny June 4, 2009

"You have one more night as third graders!" That's what I told the children just before they left school today. It doesn't seem possible does it?

This morning the children wrote letters to the incoming 3rd graders. They wrote about what they will learn and do in third grade. Some children decorated their letters and they really look cute.

The children cleaned out their desks this morning. It was interesting to see papers emerge from desks that should have gone home weeks ago. No wonder some of the desks were so messy! (Who'd know by looking at certain desks that EVERY Friday the children have time to clean them out.)

Today the math lesson was another division design paper. I lead them through it, and then afterwords explained how the moving spaces to the right and then up is preparing them to work with coordinate grids in fifth grade. I showed them how the first number--either positive or negative--moves left or right. Then I explained how the second number--again either positive or negative--moves up or down on the grid. Some of them really seemed to understand the concept and thought it was fun. Others were perplexed, which is understandable.

We finished the last two sections of the nutrition unit today. I read both parts to the students and explained ideas as we went along. The last section on Brain Foods was particularly difficult, however the explanations on which foods support the brain and which ones are "brain drains" were quite clear.

Tomorrow the children will enjoy Square One TV, the sixth graders versus staff softball game, computer lab, and then before they go home at 10:50, they'll receive their report cards.

Well, one more night with third graders in your house. Tomorrow night they're ready to start a whole new adventure in fourth grade!

Sunny, partly cloudy, Wednesday, June 3, 2009

WOW! What a great day! Jumping house, slide, relay races, ring tosses, cupcake walk, and more! Pizza, ice cream pops, fresh strawberries, watermelon, water to drink, and more! Plus, the weather was great! What more could one ask for?

A huge thank you to all the parents who put this together for the kids, especially Stacy Ely! What a wonderful job she did. The parents from my class that I know helped (meaning I saw them) were Mrs. Fitch, Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Gaeckle, Mrs. Katolin, Mrs. McMullen, and Mrs. Spinelli. I saw the flats of strawberries from the Larse farms, so those were from our class. I don't know who else helped, but it sure all came together in a terrific way.

Before the Carnival started we had the Grand Lit Circle. We didn't have time to finish because we had Reading Buddies, but we will finish tomorrow.

Reading Buddies was fun. I brought all the leftover bubble gum from testing to Reading Buddies, and my kids helped teach the kindergarteners how to blow bubbles. Little did I know, or anyone else there for that matter, but Mrs. Castro is the best bubblegum blower around!She made huge bubbles as well as a bubble within a bubble. Most of the rest of us made really small bubbles in comparison. However, we did have some good ones. Those will go home and tell you about the bubbles that burst on their faces. :-)

Tomorrow will be another busy day. Enjoy this evening!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Wow! I've started packing up my own things and taking them home. In addition to that, I've taken down the children's art work and putting it into their cubbies to take home tomorrow. This is the time of year when classrooms start to look sad without the kids' work up.

On a brighter note, we have the third grade carnival tomorrow. I hope the weather holds. We can put up with drizzle and fog, we just don't need any rain!

Tomorrow we also have our last reading buddy time with Mrs.Castro's kindergarten class. My kids will be teaching her kids how to blow bubbles with bubble gum. It should be fun!

Thursday we should be finishing the unit on nutrition. The children seem to be learning a lot from these lessons. Today's lesson focused on reading labels and how many calories are in one gram of protein or carbohydrate (4 calories), and in one gram of fat (9 calories). They figured out what percentage of different foods were fat, carbohydrates, or proteins, and how many calories were in each part.

Today we attended a fifth grade's class musical version of early American history. It was very cute. Later this morning we went to Mr. McMillan's class and saw their presentation of various musical genre. It was also very nice.

That's it for today!

Monday, June 1st, 2009

This morning we found out that we were attending a concert by both the Rio rock bands. It was fun for everyone, and it was especially nice that Charlotte's brother, Nick, is one of the lead singers in the Rio Rockers group.

Today we started the Grand Lit Circle. Nine students made their presentations today. Each of them did a very nice job.

Please look over the letter and multiplication papers I sent home today. The letter should be self-explanatory.

Tomorrow we'll be attending two special performances. One will be by Mr. McMillan's class; the other is by either fourth or fifth graders, I'm not sure which.

Thank you, everyone! All our carnival money is in!!! Mrs. Ely picked it up this afternoon.

This afternoon the students got their yearbooks. I cautioned them to be sure to write their first and last names in theirs and to write their room number. There are several hundred yearbooks out there, and they all look the same!

That's it for today! I hope you have a good evening.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Yikes! Monday is June 1st! Where did the year go?

I was pleased this morning when I received more Reading Logs than have been turned in in months! In checking over the records for the year, several students have habitually not turned them in. I'm used to students always turning their assignments in on time.

This morning's Mini Olympics were fun. Two of my students won first place ribbons, one of them won two! For each event there was only one first place winner period. At the awards ceremony this afternoon there was one overall winner from grades 1-3 and one from grades 4-6. Their names have already been engraved on a silver trophy.

Next week I'm going to send home some of the recent math class work with some guidelines for the summer. It will be in the form of a "packet". There won't be any homework attached to it, but it will give you suggestions on how you can help your child during the summer.

On Monday the students will get their yearbooks. That is always fun!

Next week will be busy in several ways. The students will be doing their Grand Literature Circle on Monday and Tuesday. (We may have to finish it on Wednesday.) We will finish up the math we've been doing in class which focuses on multiplication since that's essential to success in everything else they do in grades 4-6.

We should also be finishing the nutrition unit. Nutrition has really been interesting and the students have had a lot to share as we've discussed each section of the unit.

I hope you have a great weekend! A week from today your child will be a fourth grader. Can you believe that?! (I can. :-) )