Finding Just Right Books This Summer!

Here is a great tool to help find just right books to read this summer!  Scholastic Book Wizard! http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/  This website/app allows you to search for books based on a student's reading level or grade level and can even suggest books for you to read!

End of the Year Picnic

Dear Families,

On Wednesday, May 27 (the last day of school), Kalona Elementary will hold the 12th Annual Family Picnic. This year we will be serving a full meal for adults $3.40, and children $2.85.  The meal will include a burger, chips, veggie, fruit, cookie and milk.

NEW this year...You have the option to bring a sack lunch and drink from home for you and/or your family if you wish.

Your child’s lunch will come out of their lunch account, however we ask that all family members planning to join us that day prepay for all additional lunches by Friday, May 15th.  This will give our cooks time to get an accurate count.  Please send your check or cash upon returning this form.

Visitors can arrive between 10:45 and 11:00.  Please go to your youngest child’s classroom.   We will begin serving lunch at approximately 11:10. Families will be able to sit together in and out of the school and enjoy!  Feel free to bring lawn chairs.

              Serving schedule:    11:10 Fifth grade

                                         11:25 Kindergarten

                                         11:35 First grade

                                         11:45 Second grade

     *3rd grade and 4th grade will have a recess from 11:15-11:45.  Parents are welcome to come and participate.

                                         11:55 Third grade

                                         12:05 Fourth grade

     Please remember these are estimated serving times and they are included for your information.  

                                        

Students will be allowed to leave with their family after the picnic, at 12:30.  Teachers will be available in classrooms at this time (an announcement will be made.) Each student and parent must check out with his or her classroom teachers.  Report cards will be distributed then.

Please fill out and return the  following page to let us know if you are planning to attend.  Only one form per family is necessary.  This will help us get a meal count.  Additionally, let us know if you are planning on taking your child with you after the picnic.

We are looking forward to this day!  Hope to see you there!

PBIS Reward!

Figurative Language Fun!

We have been discussing figurative language in reading this week!  Today we talked about idioms!  We quickly realized they do not mean exactly what they say!!  We made an idiom book as a class!  We each drew an idiom out of the bag and had to draw a picture of what it would look like if it really did mean what it said and then write down what it actually means!  Here are some pictures of us hard at work!

Homer Visit!

Here are some photos of us enjoying Homer in class today!  I think it was as much of a celebration for Homer as it was for third grade! :)

Pajama Day!

We have earned a whole class reward for positive behavior when the substitute was here!  We will be having a pajama day tomorrow and my dog Homer will be coming to visit for part of the afternoon!

Thanks!

Cross Pollination Models!

We started working on making accurate bee and plant models today.  With a partner we will use these models to explain cross pollination to other students!  Since we just cross pollinated our fast plants we are pros at this!  We went over the rubric then the students got to channel their creativity and make their own!  Here are some pictures of us getting started!

Fractured Fairy Tales

Today we performed for our class!  We have been practicing 4 different fractured fairy tales in groups!  We got to showcase them this afternoon!  We did a wonderful job!  It was nice to see how many students used skills we have been working on in class when we do reader's theater in their performance!

I Can Compare and Contrast!

We have been working on comparing and contrasting in literacy over the last week.  Today we worked on comparing and contrasting two tall tales!  We had to think about the characters and plots of the two stories and how they were similar and different!  Here are some pictures of us hard at work!

Literacy Groups!

Here are some pictures of us working with our reading groups!  We spent some time reading with Mrs. Young, some time reading with our group and some time reading to ourselves!

Craft Activities

Here are a couple pictures of craft activities we have done in the last few weeks!

Lattice Multiplication

Hello!

We have learned another new way to multiply!  We focused on using the lattice method for multiplying 2-digit by 1-digit numbers, our homework tonight will be practicing this same skill.  I am attaching two videos for you today.  The first video is showing how to multiply by 1 digit, the second one will help with tomorrow and Thursday homework when we move onto multiplying by 2-digit numbers!  I hope this helps!  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Lattice Video- Multiplying by 1-digit

Lattice Video- Multiplying by 2-digits

Thanks,

Mrs. Young

Head, Thorax and Abdomen!

Today we started discussing the importance of bees in a plants life.  We started out by drawing a bee on our whiteboards and then we compared it to a scientific drawing of a bee and worked on labeling them!  We then took dead bees ( Yes, dead bees.) and checked them out under the magnifying glass.  We then attached them to a toothpick and will use them to cross pollinate our plants after break!  Ask your child about the song we learned to remember the parts of a bee!  (If they get stuck start humming Head, Shoulders, knees and toes.)

PBIS Celebration!

Iowa Assessments

Hello!

We will be starting our days with Iowa Assessments this week.  It is very important that your child is here by 8:30 each day.  If your child is tardy they will need to wait in the office until a break in testing.

Please do not disturb the class by knocking on the door during this time, we will not be opening the door during a test.

Thank you for your cooperation!

-Mrs. Young :)

Plant Growth and Development

We have started a new unit in science! (To learn more about it check out the science tab on the blog!)  We started planting our Fast Plants today!  We had to set up our planting quad, add fertilizer and seeds to the soil and then water our plants.  They will be hanging out under the light on our water system for the weeks to come!  Here are some pictures of us planting!

Hills Bank Baby Chicks!

The baby chicks from Hills Bank came to visit us!  We heard a story about how they hatched and also learned some cool chicken facts!  (Do you know what a baby chick is called officially?  Or how many different breeds of chicks there are?  Ask your student!)  Here are some pictures of us checking them out and helping name them!