Over the Hump

Well, I spent the afternoon at a meeting for our writing program. But don't worry; I did run back to the classroom to walk the kids down for the bus. (The sub seriously looked at me and said, "What!?"...I know, but hey, I do what I'm told!) The kids were very good for substitute Mrs. Bellows, according to her.

I am sorry that the kids still didn't have their math tests back today, but I still needed to get them recorded. I will give them back tomorrow, complete with Whoops Sheets.

More to come tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great day.

Edit-Free

The only homework the kids have tonight is 3x each for their spelling lists and read for 20 minutes! That's seriously all.

Kids, this would be one of those posts where I didn't take too much time to edit it! We discussed editing and rewriting in class today. It's not just a time-waster!

I'm off. Hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday afternoon and evening!

Some Things Just Aren't Worth the Trouble

Today, Mrs. Wischmeyer came in to read to the kids about worrying. Personally, I usually find most students either worry too much or too little. After Mrs. W left, I shared with the kids about the things I used to worry about--some were worth it (like when I didn't do my homework) and some weren't, like the things that are beyond my control and aren't really that big a deal in the end. Hopefully this visit helped the kids find some kind of balance, whichever side of the middle they were on.

We welcomed Miss Sami into our class this morning. She introduced herself to my math class, since that's the group with which she will spend the most time.

Lastly, our homework for tonight was to do their spelling definitions, read 20 minutes, and study for their math test tomorrow!

Quadrophenia

The highlights of my plan book this week include the following bullet points:

•  We are going to have a Math test on Tuesday! Students were given study guides on Thursday which we went over in class on Friday. If they can do that, then Tuesday's test will be no problem! 
• Starting off on conjunctions this week. We continue to check off the grammatical list!
• States and Capitals quiz on Friday, as usual for now. This week we have a whopping seven states! 
• We are continuing our writing projects. Students may come home tomorrow night with a form to fill out if they aren't ready quite yet to get started on the narrative writing.

Those are the major points. It will be a full week, but then again, they all are anymore.

Talk soon! Hope you all have a great week. 

Calling All Candy

On Friday, you should have received a yellow piece of paper (assuming you've checked your child's go-folder and assuming they put it in their go-folder) about the Mane Event. The big Woodbrook fundraiser is on Friday, September 23.

It looks like 5-1's own Mrs. Goodburn is in charge of the event this year (bless her soul). She and the rest of the committee are asking for candy to give out as prizes. This is just a reminder that they need small, prepackaged candy, and due to temperatures and allergies, they are asking for sugar-based candy only. They suggest Skittles, Smarties, Starbursts, etc., so it sounds like they are trying to steer clear of chocolate. You never know what the weather will be like, after all, and it could be warm enough that melting could become an issue.

Of course, if it's anything like last year, when I was in the dunk tank, melting won't be a problem because it will be cold outside!

Welcome To the Jungle

Tomorrow morning, we will welcome Miss Sami Mann into our classroom. Miss Mann is a Woodbrook alum who is now a senior in high school at CHS, naturally. She is taking a class called Education Professions. Therefore, she will come to 5-1 every other morning (more or less, on the high school Blue Days) and be there to help out with the kids, share her experiences with them, and just become a part of our classroom.

In the past, 5-1 has hosted others, like Lauren Pitz, Holten Warriner, and Chris Evanson. The first two are now college seniors and doing great things. We look forward to bringing Miss Mann into these ranks and meeting her tomorrow morning. Hope she's ready for Area 51!

The Cheese and the Minotaur

I'm sure you have now realized that, beginning tomorrow, we will all be extremely inconvenienced by road construction. All I know for sure is that getting to Woodbrook tomorrow (and for the foreseeable) will be a bit like going through a labyrinth. Maybe they should try putting big chunks of cheese on the Woodbrook property; that way, they can measure our intelligence at the same time as we try to make our way there. Please be patient as we go through the process of getting all the kids onto the correct buses, get everybody to school in a reasonable time, and all of that goodness that will ensue as a result.

Come to think of it, just put your kids on the bus. We'll take care of the rest!

No Room For Empty Spikes

Yesterday was one incredibly busy day for Area 51.

After Math, we had music. The kids are already working hard on their fifth grade musical--the long-awaited sequel to last year's fifth grade pirates show. All the talk around the fifth grade is who is going to get which part in the big production, so I'm sure everyone is going to put their best into this show.

Mrs. Davis came after music to read to the class. She read a book that was donated to my last year from Mr. Scott "Sco" Croner. It's called What Do You Do With an Idea? It's all about how you can change the world with an idea. The kids were really good for her, and I am hoping we can have her back at some point, and I am also thinking about bringing in a bunch of other guest readers. I've never really done that, but I think this could be a pretty cool ongoing thing.

Next, we went to Mrs. Haberfield's classroom in first grade. On most Fridays, we will visit that class to play some math games with them. We have had a partnership with Mrs. Haberfield's class for some time, and it's always fun. Her math class has 30 kids in it, so our meager 23 students had to double up with some of them, but it was all good.

Our visit with 1-2 was brief, however, because yesterday we finally got to go back in and finish up the reading section of our NWEA testing in the computer lab.

From there, we practically sprinted back to the classroom where I was able to squeeze in a few pages of The Genius Files before heading off to lunch.

After recess, I had a meeting to attend for a chunk of our tiny afternoon, but I am incredibly thankful that Mrs. Dawson was the one to fill in so the kids could do their states and capitals quiz.

Finally, we sang our song just in time for the final bell.

I'll type up some more tomorrow about the upcoming week, but that was our Friday. I hope everyone is in the midst of a nice restful weekend.

Silver Lining

During the big tornado storm of last Wednesday, I was originally in a curriculum meeting with other teachers in the library. Of course, we moved to the back of the library, which is a storm shelter. Being teachers who know full well that ending this meeting would just mean postponing it and having to have it again later, we simply continued our meeting while being sheltered from nature's fury outside.

This was before I had to answer nature's call, and had to make my way to the bathroom. In turn, that's where I spent the rest of the afternoon. As promised that day, here is a picture I took as we rode out the cataclysm.

I think Mrs. West would be really impressed with the composition and perspective of this piece. I think I may have to enter it into an art photo contest. I'd call it "Bathroom Floor from Perspective of Mouse."

On the serious side, Mrs. Davis let my class know yesterday that Woodbrook collected about $500 for an elementary school in Kokomo. The cash was still coming in yesterday when she visited us, so it's quite possibly more than that. Woodbrook is a great community, and I'm really happy and feel extremely rewarded to be a part of it.

We Are Fully Entrenched

We have a spelling test tomorrow, and then we have our states and capitals quiz tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow the math study guide is due (except for 4 and 5). We will go over it on Monday before the test on Tuesday.

Also, tomorrow we will be starting First Grade Buddies with Mrs. Haberfield's class! This is yet another 5-1 tradition, and I'm ready to get it going.

I hope everyone has a great Thursday evening. I will talk to you all soon.

Sorry for the slap-dash post, but I'm in a bit of a hurry today. I believe I covered all the bases!

And Now, a Note From Our PTO

Please donate today to the Friends of the Lion Campaign!  This is the PTO's annual fundraising campaign which eliminates the need to do any door-to-door selling.  The money goes directly to Woodbrook’s many ongoing and new programs.   The PTO is seeking 100% family participation!!  Visit the WBE website today and click on the PTO link for more information or to donate!  Thank you so much!

Doing What We Can

Staff:

Woodbrook is going to have a dollar day tomorrow!  All students and staff are asked to bring in $1.  The money raised will be given to an elementary school in Kokomo that was impacted by yesterday’s monstrous tornado.

I will get the name of the school and provide it to you but I wanted to ask you to start getting the word out to your students.  I will send a message to our families.

Thank you and glad everyone is safe today-

Kelly

This is an FYI. This is a good call, and Kokomo is just a few miles up the road from Carmel. --Mr. C.

Staff,

The cafeteria will be starting up the Food Rescue on Monday August 29^th. Please talk to your class about this before coming to lunch. We can only accept unopen milk, fresh fruit, and packaged item that have not been opened. The food is donated to Hamilton County food pantries helping families in need. Thank you for your help it is truly appreciated.

Kindergarten, I would like to come to your classroom today or tomorrow and explain this to your students. Please let me know a good time to visit.

Thank you,

Bev Allen

This doesn't affect you at home, but we received this email today as well. I will talk to the kids about it. This is a good thing because not everyone eats everything. Thanks, Mrs. Allen! --Mr. C