It's Friday!

The boys and girls completed their clay animation projects this week. We hope to have them edited and ready for public viewing by the end of next week. I will let you know how you can assess them once they are ready for viewing.

I am sending home a Splash Day waiver form. These forms must be signed and returned or your child will not be allowed to participate in the Splash Day events on May 14.

I am planning on having an Author Celebration soon. I have kept several writing pieces that we would love to share with you. I will keep a few of your child's writing examples to share with the fourth grade teacher. That way the teacher in fourth grade will see the progress that has been made and now how to gauge the writing lessons in fourth grade for continued progress.
I will let you know as soon as I am able to carve out some time for our celebration. It may very well be the last week of school.

I also wanted you to know that when it does come time to send home the notebooks and writing binder, referred to as "Big B", you will find a Writing Rubric that the children have used for many of their writing pieces. I have told the children that they should save their writing binder and its contents to help them with writing next year in fourth grade. It would be an easy way for you to organize and help your child with the writing at home.

The children are coming home today with their last project of the year. They will be expected to work on most of it at home, but will be given time in class to do some of the research and the writing. I can also help in supplying some of the supplies such as construction paper. They are allowed to use the computer for any aspect of the project. This is intended to be an enrichment project that is optional. But in truth, I would like each child in my room to attempt this project. Although there are a few guidelines, the majority of the project is totally up to them, including the person they wish to spotlight. I have asked the children to let me know by Monday who their "spotlight" person will be.

You will want to ask about the new class novel, Morning Girl. As a comprehension activity, the children are designing a "scrapbook" of important descriptive words and phrases about the main characters as well as looking for special sentences and phrases that appeal to them, the reader. Today they worked on the main character's portraits. Such artists!

If you would like to conference again before the end of the year, please contact me next week. I would like to have all the conferences completed by the last week of school.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!