Art

   Students who love art have come to the right class.  This year we have done watercolors, sketches, charcoal sketches, and we will soon be trying some sculpting.  Edgar Degas and Claude Monet are two of the artists we have studied to this point.  I attended an art in-service for SAG and it inspired me.  I am hoping to take the class to the Golden Prairie Arts exhibition which is currently showing in the train station.  Any opportunities that students have to view other artists' work can give them ideas for their own work, as well as teach them about the broad spectrum of the world of art.

English Language Arts

   Reading can be a lot of fun!  Congratulations to those students who reached the 500 minute Home Reading goal this time.  This year we started with a novel by a famous author, Judy Blume in our class novel study.  The name of the book is Superfudge, and it's about a pesky little brother who annoys his older brother.  Students are having a lot of fun with the story.  They wrote and performed short songs which we videotaped for our own enjoyment.  They also  enjoy acting out scenes from the book and listening to others read the story using authentic voices, especially for Fudge, the mischievous little brother.  We have begun our class yearbook, with students interviewing one another and writing profiles to be submitted to the yearbook staff.  Pictures will be taken using a school camera and they will be added to the yearbook beside the writing about each student.  

Mathematics

   Our first topic was Representing Numbers to 1 000 000.  Evaluation of skills in this area is currently underway.  Hopefully, all students are continuing to practice the multiplication facts, as we are now beginning work with operations.  We have been doing some interesting problems and students are learning to jot down information, show all calculations and work, then use a sentence to give their solution to each problem.  We are also practicing mental calculations and estimations. 

French

We have completed our study of food and pizza, specifically.  Students have been tested individually on oral questions.  They will be completing a project in the near future.  They are now learning how to talk about their interests and their communities.  They continue to read, listen, speak, and write.

Social Studies 

  Social Studies will be taught by Ms Kalyniuk.  Her students will be in our room studying French with me. 

Science

   We have almost completed our study of Simple Machines.  A test and project will be completed soon.  Students will be viewing a video on the various simple machines. 

Health

  We have a variety of interesting topics this year.  Our current topic is Social Skills - how to treat others, including family members, other students, staff, and people in general.