Baby Bed

Hello,

I hope your holiday is going well. I sincerely wish you a wonderful Christmas with family.

My husband and I ordered the baby bed you helped buy,(see picture attached). We are very excited to get Lily's room painted, and prepared. Thank you all again for such a wonderful gift.

Thank You

I sincerely want to thank you all for the generous gift. It will greatly help to buy Lily's crib. My cup runs over with joy. I have so much to be thankful for this year, and you guys are at the top of my list.

Almost Christmas

Seasons Greetings,

We only have six more days before Christmas break! I am as excited as you, however we do have a few things to get done before we take a long winter's nap.

We will continue acting out A Christmas Carol, and will compare it to the Disney version next week. We will also try to find out just how many versions there are, and why there are so many.

I do have more thinking actives to help you truly understand the story. I also think you can take an A.R test on the play we are reading, although I suggest reading the full book version.

You will hopefully have one more Math test on lessons 56-60 next week. I hope we can finish the test, in order to start new when we come back from the break. I think, however that we may need to take this time to review considering this last Math test, what do you think?

For Science we will be doing a lab tomorrow, then for Thursday and Friday you will be learning about the reasons it becomes dark at 5:30 in the winter. We will also look at myths and old religions that had different views of why it gets dark in the winter. This is one great way to understand how Science has helped us evolve in our thinking.

In Social Studies we will be learning about other religious celebrations around the world.

We will also spend some time thinking about our own traditions, and celebrations.

Finally we will be having our Christmas party in the morning this year, on the 19th. Make sure your parents get the letter I sent home today.

Our party will be a great time to connect with each other, before the long break from each other.

Yes, I will miss my wonderful class. :)

Last, but not least I am setting out a collection bucket for the Make a Wish foundation. This is our class' charity, and in the spirit of the season I hope you will bring what you can to help support it. You all did such a wonderful act in making over 120 get well cards for Josh. I hope to see the same out pour for other children waiting for their wish. I am going home to clean out my piggy bank tonight, I hope you do the same.

Thank you, and many blessings for a happy and safe Christmas.

Love,

Mrs. Casto

Back to Work

It was nice having an unexpected day off, but it does put us a bit behind. I know several of you have not been able to get information for your paper on the inventor you chose. Please know that the library is a wonderful place to look, plus they have Internet access. I have pushed the due date for the papers to next Tuesday. Keep in mind however that your rough draft is due this Friday. We will spend two days editing and conferencing on Friday and Monday. Tuesday you will be given the opportunity to share what your inventor created. I hope you all put your best work into this paper, grades were a bit down from the MLKJ papers. For next Wednesday and Thursday we will be getting back to the basics of English.

We are going to go ahead with the Spelling/vocabulary test for this Friday. We will also have our Reading test as usual this Friday.

I want to let you know that if you make a model of your invention and bring it in anytime next week you will gain 30 bonus points for Science.

Next Friday, the 7th, is our field trip to the Herald Dispatch. Please don't forget to get your permission slip filled out. I know I will tell you a 100 times to make good choices on the way, while we are there, and on the way back, but I thought I would also remind you on here. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to see how a real paper is developed and published before making our own paper. It is also a great opportunity to show your maturity, and self control.

Next week is also the school spelling bee. We will still review, and practice the vocabulary from our Reading book, but we will not have a Spelling test next week.

We will not have a Reading test on the 7th either.

We will however have Math test next week on Wednesday. It will be on lessons 51-55.

In Science next week we are studying geology. It relates to your story in Reading.

In Social Studies we are going to understand the who, what, when, where, how, and why of WWII. We will be using our lab time on Monday for an interesting look at the world and connect it to World War II. We will also take a virtual field trip to Pearl Harbor.

Our new class motto, and mascot.

Fully Rely On God

Conferences, and houses, and report cards, oh my

For the parents reading this site, I have sent home the times for the conferences. All the information you need to schedule a time is on the sheet I sent home. I also wanted to let you know that if you see a drop, or rise in Reading it is due to the Literature groups. Some students have a harder time working in a group mindset, however most students thrive in that setting. You may also see a drop or rise in Science, this is due to the fact that we had more graded assignments in Science. Other rises and falls in grades may be due to homework that was not turned in, or unfinished.

On to a happier note, I received the best reports from the substitute teachers. As a reward we will be having a break for good behavior this Friday. Also there will be no homework over the weekend, unless you are trying to catch up.

We are still having a spelling quiz, but it is only 6 words including vocabulary. I hope you all were sure when you voted to have the Reading test Thursday. We will also have a Science quiz delayed from Tuesday on Thursday.

Next week we are only here Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday. We will learn about the history of Thanksgiving, as well as similar traditions around the world. Next week will not be too difficult I promise. I also promise not to give too much homework over the break, just kidding. I do have one thing I wish for you to do, but I'll let you know next week.

Finally I want to remind you that we are competing with Mrs. Bias' class for which class can gather the most canned foods, and dry foods. We are going to have to do some major catching up! Sincerely, I want all of you to remember why it is important to take care of others, and give all that you can. I know you want to win, but please remember the true cause.

Last, but certainly not least I want to thank all of parents for sending in items, or volunteering their time to make our Halloween party an event they will carry throughout high school. I also want to thank Mrs. Reger, Mrs. Jeffery, and Mrs. Armstead for their generous donation of books to our class.

Gould League - Food Webs - build your own

Gould League - Food Webs - build your own

As you make the web by choosing where the item belongs, please make notes in your journal. I want you to write your own definition of a producer, consumer, decomposer, and scavenger. I want you to print out your web when you finish.
Thank you,
Mrs. Casto