We're Still Here!

For the past couple of years, I have been recieving reports from my students that the world was going to end  in 2012. Specifically, the end of the world was to occur December 21, 2012. Fortunately for all of us, it didn't. Here's a short video produced by NASA that explains what the Mayan calendar does, and does not, say about 12/21/12.

Happy Holidays

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday break. Enjoy your time off! I will see everyone again on Wednesday, January 2nd.

Christmas Song Riddles--Week 3

Here's the last one. Same rules as last week. If you want to see the answers, you need to take the quiz. Here is the link to week 1 if you haven't tried yet.

1. Approach everyone who is steadfast.
2. Ecstasy toward the orb.
3. Listen! The Foretelling spirits harmonize.
4. Hey, Minuscule urban area southeast of Jerusalem.
5. Quiescent Nocturnal period.
6. The Autocrat troika originating near the ascent of Apollo.
7. The primary carol.
8. Embellish the corridors.
9. I'm fantasizing concerning a blanched yuletide.
10. I apprehended my maternal parent osculating with a corpulent unshaven male in crimson disguise.
11. During the time ovine caretakers supervised their charges past midnight.
12. The thing manifests itself at the onset of a transparent day.
13. The coniferous nativity.
14. What offspring abides thus?
15. Removed in a bovine feeding trough.
16. Creator, cool it, you kooky cats!
17. Valentino, the roseate proboscises wapiti.
18. The slight percussionist lad.
19. Father Christmas approaches the metropolis.
20. Seraphim we aurally detected in the stratosphere.
21. The tatterdemalion ebony atmosphere.

Week in Review

Early this week your took their perimeter assessment. The students needed to measure two shapes that were taped on the floor and then calculate their perimeters. Students in Mr. Borzick's math group should have received their graded assessment on Thursday while students in Mrs. Lew's room should expect to receive theirs when you return from break.

After completing perimeter, we began to dip our toes into geometry through two activities. The first activity is called, "Quick Images." In this activity I display a picture for three seconds and students must work to draw the same shape from memory. They then get to see it one more brief time so they can make corrections to their work. I will then display the image so that everyone can fix their picture and make it perfect. As a class, we then discuss what strategies students used to help them remember the shape. Some students see patterns, some see pictures, some break the larger picture into smaller shapes. Through these quick images we hope that students will begin to think about shapes in different ways.

The second activity the children participated in was building Tetronimos. Tetronimos are shapes built using four cubes; for parents familiar with Tetris, the shapes in that game are the

Track Santa

Beginning on Christmas Eve, you can track Santa's progress as he delivers his gifts at www.google.com/santatracker Should make for a very exciting day!

You can read the full details from Google's blog below.


While millions of people eagerly await Christmas Day, Santa and his elves are keeping busy at the North Pole. They’re preparing presents, tuning up the sleigh, feeding the reindeer and, of course, checking the list (twice!) before they take flight on their trip around the world. 

While we’ve been tracking Santa since 2004 with Google Earth, this year a team of dedicated Google Maps engineers built a new route algorithm to chart Santa’s journey around the world on Christmas Eve. On his sleigh, arguably the fastest airborne vehicle in the world, Santa whips from city to city delivering presents to millions of homes. You’ll be able to follow him on Google Maps and Google Earth, and get his stats starting at 2:00 a.m. PST Christmas Eve at google.com/santatracker. 

Simulating Santa's path across the world—see it live Dec 24

In addition, with some help from developer elves, we’ve built
a few other tools to help you track Santa from wherever you may be. Add the new Chrome extension or download the Android app to keep up with Santa from your smartphone or tablet. And to get the latest updates on his trip, follow Google Maps on Google+, Facebook andTwitter.

Get a dashboard view of Santa's journey on Google Maps

The Google Santa Tracker will launch on December 24, but the countdown to the journey starts now! Visit Santa’s Village today to watch the countdown clock and join the elves and reindeer in their preparations

Internet Safety

Because all of the students in Cudahy now have email accounts and can create accounts for themselves on various educational web tools, we spent some time today going over Internet safety in class. The students learned to follow the "YAPPY" guidelines.

Never give out:
Your name
Address
Phone number
Passwords
Your plans

Everything they learned can be summed up in one sentence: If you wouldn't tell a stranger in person, don't put it on the Internet. 

Click here to see the Garfield video we watched to teach the skills: http://learninglab.org/life_skills/online_safety/

States of Matter Glogs

As I mentioned in Friday's Week in Review, the students created Glogs to explain the three states of matter.

Isabella's Glog is embedded below (click the box in the upper right corner to see full size) but all of the Glogs can be found in the student work section of our classroom website.

Vocab Trading Cards

Today during guided reading, the students began practicing new vocabulary words using an iPad app titled "Trading Cards." Students created "baseball cards," complete with a picture, to help them learn the new words.

After each student finished a vocab trading card, they emailed a copy to his/her email address. From there, students can print out a copy from which to study. If students would like a color copy of their cards, they can access their email from home and print out the card from there.

To access the email, students cango to our classroom site, click on the "Your Web Tools" link, and select  Gmail.

Click on the image above to see a larger picture.

Week in Review

My plan is to devote some time each Friday to update you on what we have been working on in class during the week. Welcome to the first installment!

Our math class was cancelled twice this week, once because of the NED assembly and the other because of our field trip; however, we continue to work on measuremnt and have spent some time this week learning how to calculate perimeter.

Our other large topic this week was on parts of speach and sentence structure. Students reviewed what nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs were and then learned what a prepositional phrase was. Each of these parts of speach was assigned a shape and students rearranged the shapes in many different ways to see how one sentence can have the same words, say the same thing, but sound very different.

Example of how words can be rearranged. Click image for a bigger picture. 

Lastly, students have been constructing Glogs about the states of matter. Only about 1/3 of the students are finished; however, I will not be devoting any more class time to this project. Students can finish their Glogs from home by clicking on the "Your Web Tools" link from our classroom website. Remind your child to add a link to their Glog by clicking on the orange button. 

Christmas Song Riddles--Week 2

Now that we're into Week 2, it's time to make it a bit harder. Each of these phrases is a rather complicated way to say the name of a common Christmas Song. For instance, #4 could be "translated" into "Silent Night." Best of luck, remember to take the quiz to see the answers.  If you would like to try your hand on last week's picture puzzles, you can click here.

1. The apartment of 2 psychiatrists.
2. The lad is a diminutive percussionist.
3. Festoon the entryways with colorful decorations.
4. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis.
5. A B C D E F G H I J K M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y X Z
6. Present me naughty but dual incisors for this festive Yuletide.
7. The event transpired when a smogless bewitching hour arrived.
8. Exuberation to this orb.
9. 288 Yuletide hours.
10. Do you perceive the same longitudinal pressure which stimulates my auditory sense organs?
11. The red-suited pa is due in this burg.
12. Stepping on the pad cover.
13. Uncouth dolt has his beezer in the booze and thinks he is Dark Cloud's boyfriend.
14. Far back in a hay bin.
15. Leave and do an elevated broadcast.
16. That exiguous hamlet south of the holy city.
17. Behold! I envisioned a trio of nautical vessels.
18. Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully.
19. A joyful song relative to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck.
20. As the guardians of little woolly animals protected their charges in the shadows of the earth.

Spirit Day Tomorrow!

Don't forget to wear your spirit wear tomorrow!

12/12/1912

Just an interesting tid-bit to see how the NY Times covered 12/12/12 100 years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/12/us/12121912_article.html?smid=pl-share

The Problem with Diamonds

Today the class and I had a discussion about one of my "pet-peeves" and I thought it important to share with you.  There is not a shape called a diamond.

Looking at the above shapes, students will immediately identify the blue one as a square. They see the four equal, straight sides. They also see a shape oriented in a typical way. When students look at the red shape, they call it a diamond. The problem with this is that they are the same shape; only one has been rotated 45 degrees.

When looking at shapes, all children need to learn that it is not the orientation of the shape that defines its name. Students should look at the number of sides a shape has, the size of its angles, and whether or not its sides are parallel. That is what gives a shape its name.

While I am mentioning parallel lines, I'd also like to point out the following shapes. They are parallelograms, not diamonds-regardless of how they are rotated.

Once a Century

Today is 12-12-12. So, I thought it appropriate to post something at 12:12 today.

Happy Aaron Rodgers day!

NED Show

Today the students participatd in the NED Show assembly. The assembly's focus in on character development and teaches the the children to:

Never give up
Encourage others
Do your best.

It was a wonderful assembly and don't be surprised if your child asks for a Yo-Yo for Christmas.

The show has a fairly extensive website complete with parent resources.



Show Clips from The NED Show on Vimeo.

Measurement is Back

We started our new math chapter today and we are again studying measurement. Today the children worked together to find objects in our classroom that were about an inch, centimeter, foot, and yard/meter. These objects will become "Benchmarks" that the students can use to better visualize and estimate how big each of these units of measure are. 

Spirit Day

Each Friday at Kozy is Spirit Day. Children are encouraged to wear Kozy T-shirts (Anything with Kozy on it including Walk-a-Thon shirts), a red shirt, or a grey shirt (Kozy Colors). The class with the highest percentage of students participating wins a traveling trophy.

So far, our class hasn't done too well; we rarely break the 50% mark.  I would like to win this week. Please remind your child to wear their Spirit Wear this Friday.

Operation Move

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is our field trip to "Operation Move." We will be gone all day, so please remember to pack your child a lunch.

Christmas Song Riddles--Week 1

Each Friday until our winter break, I'll be posting  Christmas Song riddles. The next puzzles are word puzzles, but I thought I'd start out easy and give you some pictures to work with. Each of the pictures below represents a well known, classic Christmas song. Once you've figured them all out, take the "Quiz" by clicking here, this is also your chance to see the correct answers.  Perhaps at the end of the three weeks I'll give a prize to the student from the family who has the most correct answers.

High School Play

Message from the HS Theater Department....

On behalf of the cast and crew of the High School Theater, we would like to invite you all to the production of "Harvey."  Dates for the show are Thursday December 6th through Saturday December 8th. All performances are at 7:00pm. Tickets are $5.00 at the door.

We hope to see you all there to suport the arts, our students, and enjoy the wonderful talent of all involved. 

Math Problems.

More "Math Problems Explained" were posted today on the classroom website. This is the last blog post that I will make about individual math problems being explained on the site. In the future, please visit our classroom  site to see any updates. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed of all new math problems explained if you don't want to check.

These problems are meant to serve as an example to both students and parents if there is any homework difficulty.

Santa's Workshop

Our class is scheduled to visit Santa's Workshop tomorrow and Friday. If you would like your child to make purchases at this event, please send money with your child.

Substitute

I will be out on Tuesday and Wednesday attending a conference. Mrs. Huber will be my sub on Tuesday, and Mr. Hoenfeldt will be my sub on Wednesday. I will not be checking my voice mail, but will be watching my email.

Dickens of a Christmas

Story Problems Explained

Two more "Math Problem Explained" videos were posted today. Some of the students brought home these pages for homework; these videos could be a great resource if they have problems.

Bird Adaptations

In the last science chapter we studied animals and some of their adaptations. The students took this knowledge and created their own fictional bird. Using the app VoiceThread, the students explained some of their bird's adapations. 

One of the fun things about this app is the ability for other people to comment on the presentation. I encourage you to view your child's work, and comment back to them on it using the website or app. You can create a comment using your voice or by typing. Consider asking a question about the bird, pointing out a unique detail, or asking your child to add further explanation in his/her description. 

To see the presentations, visit the student work page of our classroom website. Not all of the students have completed their work, but they should have them done by the end of today. I will post them as I receive them. 

Math Problems

The students have been having a little bit of trouble understanding story problems. One of the strategies that I have been teaching them is the use of numberlines to help clarify the problem so that the students know for what they are to solve. Some of the students needed to finish up pg 62 for homework. The math homework today, pg 63, is a little bit easier than what we had in class; however, numberlines could be helpful here as well. To help with this, I have posted some of the inclass explanations I gave individual students. You can find those videos here.

Operation MOVE

Kozy students in grades 3-5 have the opportunity to attend the Operation MOVE field trip event on December 11. For those parents with older children, this trip is being presented by the same organization that held the Read it to Beat it read aloud that your child participated in last year.

The event, part of WinterFest, is held at the US Cellular Arena and will stress the importance of exercise as part of a healthy life style. As part of the event, students will hear from local celebrities, community leaders, and athletes such as Greg Jennings from the Green Bay Packers.

For full details, go to: http://www.milwaukeewinterfest.com/event/operation-move

We needed to use a new permission slip form, and we were rushed to get it out to you early enough, so we are lacking two pieces of information usually found on our field trip forms. If your child would like to order a bag lunch, or if you would like to chaperone, please indicate that anywhere on the form where there is space.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Homework Club

Homework Club starts next week. It will be held immediately after school in room 101 on Mondays and Thursdays.  Watch your child's folder for permission slips; they should be sent home soon.

Something New

During work time in math I circulate the classroom and help students with their work as they need it. Usually, I help them directly on their paper, but today I tried something different and used the iPad. I then recorded this explanation and posted it to the Internet.

My hope is that these recorded explanations will help other students as they work through their homework. The only problem explained today was #1 on pg 58. The explanation can be found by going to the "Math Problems Explained" link on our website.

Playlists

I added something new in the "For Parents" portion of our classroom website. As I added more "How To..." videos, I realized that it might be hard to find what you needed. To help with this, I created some playlists on my YouTube channel. Videos are organized within the appropriate playlists and all playlists can be accessed from the "For Parents" portion of the site underneath "How To..."

New "How To" Videos

Today I posted three new "How To..." videos on our classroom website. The first video explains how to use a numberline to subtract and related, second video, explains how 100 can help you to subtract. The final video explains how number lines can help students better visualize a story problem.

This third video is especially important. Many students struggled with today's assignment, not because they couldn'd do the math, but because they didn't know if they should add or subtract. Number lines can help to clarify this.

Book Orders...Again

Normally I wouldn't send out book orders until next week but, because I want to be sure that any orders are back before our winter break, I'm sending them home early. If you would like to order, please have them turned in with payment by Friday. As always,  you can order online at www.scholastic.com. Our class activation code is: GVWB3

Happy Thanksgiving

No School

Remember, there is no school tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday (November 21-23). I will see everyone on November 26. Have a great break!

Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving is only a few days away, so I thought I'd share some Thanksgiving related activites with you to do at home. Some of these have been done at school during social studies, some have not.

Investigating the First Thanksgiving 
This is an activity that walks students through what really happened on the first Thanksgiving and allows them the opportunity to seperate fact from myth.


Scholastic has three great activities as part of their website. 

Voyage on the Mayflower has an interactive map of the Mayflower's journey across the Atlantic. It also the students to see inside the ship and learn about it.

Daily Life compares the lives of the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims. 

Virtual Field Trips The last portion has videos of Plimoth Plantation, a Wampanoag homesite, and a Pilgrim homesite that act as a virtual field trip. 

Book Orders

Because I first passed the book orders out yesterday, they are not due until Tuesday, November 20. If you would like to order, please have them turn them in with payment by this date. As always,  you can order online at www.scholastic.com. Our class activation code is: GVWB3

Parent Teacher Conferences

Thank you to all of the parents that attended parent-teacher conferences last night.  I enjoyed meeting all of you and look forward to working with you throughout the remainder of the year. I know that some of our conferences were cut short because of time. If there are some things that you would still like to discuss, or if you have any further questions, please contact me.

High Interest Day

On November 15, students at Kozy participated in High Interest Day. On this day students were able to participate in activites ranging from juggling to scuba diving; from fire fighting to scrapbooking; and from quilting to martial arts. Some students were even lucky enough to play a game of Quiddich. To see the pictures, click here

Hometown Holiday at the Library

Next Saturday, November 24, the Cudahy Family Library is hosting it's annual holiday event.

12:30-Santa arrives
2:30-Children's commedian and ventriloquist
4:00-Cocoa & Cookies
4:30-Tree Lighting

This is a wonderful annual event and the library does a great job. Please consider stopping by for part, or all, of the day. For full details, go to the library's website.

Lollipop Sale

Tomorrow, November 13, and Friday, Nobember 16, Kozy will be selling lollipops before and after school. Lollipops are 50 cents each and are sold in the gym hallway.

Science Test Flashcards

We are finishing up the latest science chapter this week and will have our next week. To help students study, I'm trying something a little different. Using the website Quizlet, I have created a study set of the vocab words for the chapter. Click here to see the set.

From this site, the students can study the vocab words like an ordinary set of flash cards, get quizzed on the words, and take practice tests on the words. There are also two games that the students can play that will help them to study the words.

Also, for those of you with an iPhone or iPad, your child can study using a free app called Flashcards*. To download the app, click here. Once you've downloaded the app, open it and click on "Flashcards." From the flashcard library, click on the plus sign in the upper right and and choose "Download from Quizlet." By searching for "borzickj" as the author, you will see the

Community Resources

With the holidays quickly approaching and the nature of today's economy there are many families that are in need. If you know someone who could use some help, here is a list of community resources in the area that families can use. 

Class Dojo

For parents who have been monitoring your child's Class Dojo account, you may be concerned with an increase in negative behavior reported. While I would still like you to discuss this behavior with your child, I also wanted to explain why there was an uptick.

This week I realized that while I had been documenting participation and other positive behaviors consistently, I had not been documenting the times that students speak without raising their hands or talk to friends. This last week I made a distinct effort to record negative behaviors as much as positive. As a result, you will see their reports looking much different than they had in the past. This is
not because their behavior has changed, but because I have been making note of it.

 My goal now is to help children reduce the number of negative behaviors recorded by improving their behavior so that their reports can look as exceptionally positive as they had before.

Substitute Teacher

On Monday and Tuesday, November 12 and 13, I will be at a training/conference. I will be checking my email, but if you write a note or leave a voice mail, I will not receive it until Wednesday when I return.

The substitute teacher is Mrs. Huber so the children will be in good hands.

Report Cards

Report cards were sent home with your child today. Please check his/her back pack.

Letter From Your Child

Dear Mom and/or Dad,

     Today you saw my report card, and next week you will speak to my teacher.  This report card is my teacher’s attempt to describe my actions and accomplishments at school.  When you read the card, and talk to my teacher, please remember that he is describing someone near and dear to you, so please don’t get “uptight” if you see something you do not agree with.  I hope you will accept me as I am.

     Remember that all children do not learn to walk and talk at the same age, nor do they learn math and reading at the same rate.  Please do not compare me to my brothers and sisters or friends, because I am unique to this world.  Be realistic in setting my goals.  I need to be challenged, but not pushed beyond my ability.  I want to be successful and I need time to “smell the flowers” while I am still a child.

     Please remember that my report card is a picture of me at school.  It is a whole different world from the one at home.  Can you imagine having 22 children my age at the dinner table tonight, or 200 children in our backyard playing?  Don’t be surprised to find that I respond in a different manner at school.

     My teacher knows me as I am at school.  You know me as I am at home.  The “real me” may be somewhere in between.  I know you see me as a unique individual who can make you proud and bring you much happiness.  I will try my best.

With love from your child.                  

Food Drive

Kozy will have it's annual food drive Monday, November 12-Friday, November 16th. All food donated will go to project concern. Each day we will have a different themed item to bring in. The class with the most food will win an ice cream party!

Monday-Peanut Butter
Tuesday-Canned Tuna
Wednesday-Canned Fruit or Vegetables
Thursday-Canned Soup
Friday-Anything

Tree Decorating

On Saturday, November 10, Kozy students will have the opportunity to decorate their tree at Cathedral Square Park in downtown Milwaukee. Please join us at 10am for this event.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent-Conferences are next week Thursday. Please review the schedule to see your assigned time. If you are unable to attend during your time slot, please contact me. 

"How to..." on expanded form and breaking apart numbers to add.

I have recently posted two new topics in the "How To..." section of our website. One is related to place value and writing numbers, the other is an addition strategy.

There are times when students are asked to write a number in "expanded form." To do this, students need to break up a number into its place value parts.

One of the strategies students learn to help them add is to break the numbers up into their place value parts. This video explains the process so that you can better help your child.

Accelerated Reader

As we end the first quarter and begin the second, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate the students that reached their AR goals and to explain what I expect of the students in the second quarter.

The Accelerated Reader program assigns each book a point value based on its length and difficulty. Near the beginning of the first quarter, each student was assigned a point goal that he or she was expected to reach prior to the end of the quarter. The point goal was based on each child's reading level; stronger readers were expected to read more points. The following students reached their goal.

Endings

Along with the end of the week, yesterday brought with it the end of two other things- the quarter and the WKCE.

The students devoted a great deal of their time to taking the WKCE tests the last two weeks. They were hard, they were long, and, some might say, they were boring. Regardless of how your child felt about them, everyone worked really hard and tried their best throughout the testing process. There were several students who were absent for one or more of the tests. These students will complete their WKCE tests the week of November 5. You should receive a copy of your child's results this spring.

Friday also saw the end of the first quarter. I was truly shocked to see that listed on my desk calendar at work. It doesn't seem possible that we have really spent one full quarter together, but the

Field Trip Movies

On our field trip to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, the students took their iPads and used them to take pictures of the various events. Back at school, the students worked in groups and turned those pictures into videos using the iPads and an app called Pinnacle. The all worked hard and did a nice job creating their first movie.

To see all of the videos, visit the "Student Work" portion of our classroom website, or click here.

Referendum

Below is a fact sheet on Tuesday's referendum. For full details, go to: http://www.cudahy.k12.wi.us/2012referendum.cfm

New "How To" Videos

This morning I posted three new "How To" videos on our classroom website, www.3grade.ws.

The first two posted videos relate to the homework the students had yesterday where they needed to find ways to make 100. The videos relate how students use known combinations to find other numbers that sum to 100.

The third video relates to today's homework. Students will be given a three-digit number and will need to figure out how many 10s are in that number.

Since math is so different from how we learned it, you can use these videos to better help your child at home.

To view the videos, visit our class website. For a direct link, click here.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Yesterday your child should have brought home your scheduled parent-teacher conference time. Please review this time slot and check to see if you can attend. If you can attend this time slot, please indicate this on the form and return it to me.  If you need to reschedule, please indicate that on the form and I will contact you to schedule a different time.

Harvest Party

Happy Harvest Party!!!

Harvest Party

This Wednesday, October 31, our class will have our annual Harvest Party.

If you volunteered to bring in supplies or snacks for this event, your child should have brought home a reminder note. If you did not receive a note, but would still like to bring in a tasty treat, feel free. We have 22 students in our class.

Students are allowed to wear costumes for this party, but they must dress as characters from a book and must bring the book with them to school.  The following are other guidelines to consider when choosing a costume to wear to school:

1. No weapons. Neither fake nor real weapons are allowed at school. This includes knives, swords, guns, or any other thing that is meant to hurt another person.
2. No masks of any kind.
3. No inappropriate costumes. Please use good judgement when sending your child to school with a costume. Children will not be allowed to wear any costume deemed inappropriate for an elementary school. 

Safe Trick or Treat

Safe Trick or Treat

at 

Cudahy United Methodist Church

Corner of lake Drive and Ramsey

2pm to 4pm

Sunday, October 28

Treats

Games

Fashion Show at 3pm

Join them for a scary good time.

Field Trip

This past Friday the third grade classes had a wonderful field to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center (SANC). This trip was the first of four trips that we will taking to the SANC this year and its focus was on the Lake Michigan watershed.

This trip was divided into three main sections. The first part was a classroom portion where the children learned about what a watershed was, where water flows, its routes to the oceans, and water's overall importance to people. We also learned that 95% of all fresh water in the United States is found within the Great Lakes.

After, the children hiked down to Lake Michigan and built a watershed in the sand to mimic how water flows from all around the lake into it. We also built a small model to illustrate how even if pollution is buried deep in the ground, it can still pollute the lake.

The last portion of the trip involved testing Lake Michigan. Students were given various tools and tested the lake's acidity, bacteria count, and temperature. They also measured wind speed and collected litter from the lake shore to measure what was blowing into the lake.

It was a wonderful trip and the students were all very well behaved. Our next trip to the SANC will be in January where we will learn about animal habitats and Native Americans of the Great Lakes region. To see more pictures, visit our website at www.3grade.ws or click here.

Measurement Day pt 2

Today we continued collecting measurement data. Students used rulers and yard sticks to measure the lenght of the classroom. After, they used the same tools to measure the distance that each could jump. The measured first in feet and inches and then converted that distance to inches only. 

Field Trip Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our field trip to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. This is a "rain or shine" field trip, so please dress your child for the weather. Should there be excessive rain, there is an indoor plan.

Please remember that, unless your child ordered a lunch from school, they will need to pack a bag lunch. If you are chaperoning this trip, you also must bring a bag lunch; there is no place to buy a lunch at the Audubon Center.

Here is the current forecast for tomorrow:

Overcast with rain showers in the afternoon. High of 54F. Winds from the SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%

WKCE

Beginning next week your child will be taking the WKCE. This is a state test that is given to every student (Grades 3-6, 8, & 10) in the state of Wisconsin and gauges your child's knowlege of reading and math. This state also uses this test to judge the effetiveness of individual schools and school districts. 

Testing will take place next week Tuesday & Wednesday, October  23 & 24. It will continue the follwoing Tuesday & Thursday, October 30 & November 1.  The students will take tests each day in the areas of reading and math.  

Research has shown children do much better on these tests in a classroom setting rather than an individual setting.  Unless it is unavoidable, please be sure your child is at school every day during the testing period. 

The following suggestions can also be followed at home to prepare your child to do his/her best.

1. Talk to your child at home about the test.  
2. Remind your child to take his/her time and do their best. 
3. Have your child eat a healthy breakfast 
4. Make sure your child has a good night's rest

Support Your Library

Parents, are you looking for a night out without the kdis? This Friday, October 19th, the Cudahy Family Library is hosting its annual Harvest Tasting Fundraiser. Take the opportunity to get dressed up, have fun, and support your library. For full event details, visit the library's site at: http://www.cudahyfamilylibrary.org/ .

Measurement

In math we continue collecting data; however, we started collecting a different type of data. Today we used rulers to measure our feet to the nearest half an inch and to measure how far we could blow a pattern block. We then took the data and created a line plot.

Students learned proper measurement technique. The most important of which is to always align the end the of the ruler with start of the object you are measuring.

Kindergarten Color Week

This week, and next, are the color weeks in Kindergarten. If you would like to participate, here are the days and the colors.


Today was Red
Tuesday - Orange
Wednesday - Yellow
Thursday - Green
Friday - Blue 
Monday - Purple
Tuesday - Brown
Wednesday - Black

Skydiving From Space

This doesn't have anything to do with what we are studying, but I think it's simply amazing.

Progress Reports

Today your child's progress report was sent home. This report details your child's progress to this point in the school the year and explains any difficulties your child might have. Please take some time this weekend to review it. The report then needs to be signed and returned to me on Monday.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Lollipop Sale!

There will be a lollipop sale before and after school next week. Visit the first floor hallway on Tuesday, October 16 and Friday,  October 19 and choose from the following flavors:

• Strawbanna Blast
• Black Razzelberry
• Amped Up Apple
• Wacky Watermelon
• Wild Blue Razz
• Orange Mango Mania

All lollipops are 50 cents.

Address and Phone Number

There are many students who do not yet have their phone number and address memorized. This is a very important for all children to know. Next week Friday, each student will take a test where they will need to write their address and phone number. Please work with your child on memorizing these things. If there are several phone numbers for your household, please have your child memorize the one they should call if there is an emergency.