Carter Current for November 9, 2009

Distance Lessened Between Them
From October 28 to October 30, the class had an incredible time at camp. Sure, there were some injuries (in fact, a few more than normal), but I think it's very telling that the people who got hurt either stayed at camp or came back as soon as they were okay. This was with good reason. During this trip, we bonded as a class, and as a fifth grade as a whole. The parents, kids, and teachers all came together and this is a huge part of what makes the Woodbrook Family what it is. The kids learned about leadership skills, team building, tried new things that they'd never done, hiked through the woods, through the creek, even through the rain one day. They all at least tried to get a fire started in the woods and fill a bucket riddled with holes, but the true worth of the experience is in the journey, isn't it? So many memories were made at camp as always. It was fun that two of our three staff members helping us were two of my old campers from summer camp when I worked there years ago (I won't say how many years ago). I would like to thank all of the parents who went. It's no secret that this trip means a lot to me, and this experience would not have been possible without your help. Thank you very much to Tim Allen, Fred Gans, Jennifer Christy, Beth King, Jill and John Pitz, Stacey Harrington, Sally Houck, Brad Shaffer, Abby Breedlove, Ed Skarbeck, Monica Henderson, Natalie O'Hara, Mirey Comes, Brian Cox, Brett Fleitz, Troy Franklin, Todd Snow, and CHS student teacher Dean Shriver. Thanks to you all, the kids now have memories that they will never forget. Thanks especially to our long-suffering camp nurse, Sally Houck! I don't think you ever rested. I also can't go without mentioning the efforts of Nancy Miller, without whom this trip would never have happened. She helped us fight to even keep the trip this year, and did the organizing, the buying of snacks, the calls to camp, the calls to parents, the calls back to camp and the calls back to parents. Thank you so much! You were all great sports, and that is something that makes me very proud. Thank you, my wonderful 5-1 parents, and thank you to my awesome 5-1 class. I couldn't have been more happy with the way they represented my classroom.

Stars Our Destination
We will be doing some exercises in Astronomy over the next few weeks in Science. I realize that we haven't had Science much in class yet, but that's because they're asking us to compress it into shorter times than what we had before. We watched a video about the Apollo mission last week, and it should lead in nicely to what we're about to learn, with the creation of stars and the more cosmic crazy stuff out in space, including gravitational pull, black holes, and quasars. It's enough to make you feel pretty small. This Friday is our trip to the high school for the planetarium. Mr. Turner at the high school always puts on a wonderful show for the kids, and we'll definitely be looking forward to this one.

Unlikely Subjects and Other Predications
In Reading this week, we will be continuing in our chapter involving the ocean and its creatures. In addition to that subject matter, we will use that as a backdrop while learning about prepositions and objects of the preposition, reviewing subjects and predicates, and clarifying the difference between an adjective and an adverb. Of course we will be doing our journals and DOLs as always, and of course the book report project is due on Friday. This is a the big comic strip project that I handed out last Monday.

Words to the Wise
This week we will not only be having our normal spelling list, but we will have a list of Latin roots from Caesar's English as well. The quiz over the Latin stems will be sometime next week (in fact, by the time you read this, the kids should have the date written in their assignment notebooks). Of course, the normal schedule this week will follow for the Spelling list: definitions are due on Tuesday, the three times each alphabetical order is due Wednesday, and on Thursday the meaning exercise (either sentences or pictures) is due.

Brave Old Worlds
I realize that the last chapter in Social Studies was very short, but the next one isn't quite as brief. It's really just a continuation to the previous chapter, but it's about the explorers that came from Spain, England, and France. We'll be learning about everyone from Ponce de Leon to Robert de la Salle. I'm going to "explore" the Woodbrook library to see if I can't find another book like the one about the Lost Colony of Roanoke, because that one was extremely interesting for not only the kids, but also for me!

If You Think Our Dance Is All in the Hips
Didn't the kids look great the other day during the fifth grade musical? I was so proud of them. I know that during the earlier part of the school year, my class didn't want to sing during Music class, and it was like pulling teeth for poor Mrs. Ratner. But on Thursday night, they all looked awesome, dancing and singing and smiling. They made me so proud! Even if I did have to give them a little motivation, it was a very good experience. (Ummm...on a completely unrelated note, we will be watching Finding Nemo throughout the week this week.)

Honoring Them
This Wednesday at 9:00am is the Veteran's Day program. My class is always in charge of doing this, and I was proud to have so many kids help out with not only volunteering for this (thank you, guys!), but also to help me write the program. It won't be very long, but it should be very worthwhile and meaningful. If anyone has any veterans in the family who live nearby, please, bring them in and let them be a part of the service.

"The most worthwhile thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others." --Sir Robert Baden-Powell