Animal Reports

 To wrap up our unit on ecosystems, each student did a report on an endangered species. We researched each animal and gathered facts from the Internet. Students put the information in their own words and typed up a traditional report. Then came the fun part! Students recorded their voices with pictures of the animal talking! Here is the marine turtle report. Click below to see the other reports.

Polar Bear
Spectacled Bear
Black Rhino
Chimpanzees
Amur Leopard
Saola
Tiger
Eurasian Lynx
Penguins
Tree Kangaroo
Blue Whale
Monarch Butterfly
Vaquita
African Elephant
Bearded Vulture
Giant Panda

Ooooooo...Oobleck!

Yesterday Mr. Drenth took a bath in the Oobleck, today was our turn! Oobleck is a substance from the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. It has the properties of both a solid and a liquid.

More Great Authors

Everyone did a great job on our aviation poems, but these students were chosen as Authors of the Month. Congratulations!

March Into Reading

Each year our principal sets up a reading challenge. This year if the students meet the challenge, Mr. Drenth will take a bath in Oobleck, a mysterious substance from a Dr. Seuss book! Students read for 100 minutes to earn a Dr. Seuss "hat." The hats are hung in the school hallways and Mr. Drenth has challenged the students to have the hats go all the way around! There is also a reading calendar that has fun ways to earn extra minutes each day. Notice what Sunday's is? If parents just encourage their child to read more, they can earn 100 minutes! Students who bring a hat in Monday can have first choice for borrowing the new books Miss Frank has bought for our classroom library.

Khan and Kane

Yesterday students logged into Khan Academy. It is an online resource with math activities and instructional videos that can be accessed from school or home. Students can earn badges and assign teachers and parents as coaches. Coaches can view activities and progress. We all love it!

Thank you to Dani for finding Rick Riordan's web site for The Kane Chronicles. Miss Frank is reading from The Red Pyramid after lunch each day. Students can find out more about the Kane family and Egyptian mythology at the site.

Flat Stanley Goes to Grand Rapids

This week students colored a Stanley from the book Flat Stanley. In the book, Stanley was flattened by a bulletin board and was able to do many special things due to his flatness. One of the things was it made it easier for him to travel. Students can mail their Stanleys to friends far away or take him on Spring Break. If they put together a letter and some pictures of Stanley's adventures, students can win a prize from the prize box.

One student gave Miss Frank his Flat Stanley, and she took him to a technology conference in Grand Rapids. They learned about iPads and other great computer resources and even visited the museum.

Climb the Mountain

Friday we had another Awesome Behavior Choices day! We got to climb the snow mountain in front of the school. As you can see from the video, it was a lot of fun!

Making Circuits

Yesterday Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus series would have been proud of us. She tells her kids to "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy," and that is what we did! From a few boxes of wires, batteries, and light bulbs, we experimented and made electrical circuits!