Week of March 21st

Hello!

Last week we finished up the parachute activity. The students had a blast engineering and testing their parachute designs.

On Wednesday, Mr. Amerine came in for our first Adopt-A-Pilot lesson. It went really well. The students learned about Mr. Amerine and they discussed goal setting. We are looking forward to our next lesson.

As Mrs. Neal mentioned the morning schedule will be suspended for a few days for smarter balance practice tests. In projects we will be looking at stars. We will be focusing on how size and distance affect how bright stars appear.

Thank you to all of the parents that came in for conferences! It was great meeting with you all.

Have a wonderful week,

Mrs. Zimmerman

Headphones needed

Hello all!
It was so great meeting with you for parent conferences! I really enjoyed them. If I didn't meet with you please make sure to contact me so that we can plan and time to meet and get you your student's report card.

This next week will be a different schedule for your students. We will be taking a practice smarter balanced test which will mean no regular rotations. Mrs. Windriver, Mrs. Mori, and I will be taking classes for the full morning instead of rotating to give them the practice tests. This will happen on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday we will go back to our regular schedule (unless more time is needed for any practice tests).

Speaking of the Smarter Balanced, your student will need headphones for the test. Please feel free to send them to school as soon as you have some and we will keep them at school until the test. If you are unable to send headphones, the school has quite a few that will be available for use.

Thanks and have a wonderful week!
Holly Neal

Week of March 14th

Hello,

This week in projects the students will begin building and testing their parachute prototypes. On Monday, the groups identified the constraints by exploring the materials available that were found in their team bag. Students then began to sketch ideas individually and will meet with their groups today to begin the process of building and testing their prototypes. On Thursday, the groups will share their findings with the rest of the class.

On Wednesday, we will have a special guest. Southwest Airlines Pilot Lee Armine will be with us for the Adopt-a-Pilot program. He will be giving his first lesson in the program to both 4th grade classes. Ms. Williams and I are both very excited for the opportunity and are sure the students will learn a lot!

Conferences are this Friday (March 18th). Mrs. Neal sent out a sign up last week for parents to signup. Please check your email to schedule a time to meet with us.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Zimmerman

Conference sign ups

Hello all!
The time is quickly approaching for parent conferences. I sent out an e-mail with information to sign up for conferences. I used the sign up genius website and it works on a first come, first serve basis. Here is the website in case you missed the e-mail:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0f4ca9ae2ba2f58-3rdquarter1

Conferences will be on Friday, March 18.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me or Mrs. Zimmerman. Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Neal

Look out below!

Hello Everyone,

Last week went very well! The students did a great job creating presentations and sharing with other classes. The teachers I spoke with all gave great reviews and their students enjoyed having 'big' kids present.

This week we are starting our new project. We will be learning about the force of gravity first. To do so students will be engineering their own parachutes to deliver a washer safely to a target on the ground. I think the students are really going to enjoy this hands on activity. We will start by getting all of the background knowledge developed early in the week before we start engineering parachutes later in the week.

 Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Zimmerman