Testing and dates for end of school

I've sent a note home with this information with the students' homework today, but here it is again:

Dear Parents,

These next few weeks are busy and filled with lots of good activities.  Today begins the End of Year Testing (SAGE) Period; it runs from April 20-May 18.  Students get as much time as they need, so there shouldn’t be any feelings of needing to rush just to “finish.” When they finish, they will read a book in the computer lab.  Our class is assigned these dates:

·         Thursday, April 30: 9-10am Language Arts

·         Friday, May 1: 12:20-1pm Language Arts

·         Thursday, May 7: 9-10am Language Arts or Math

·         Friday, May 8: 12:20-1pm Language Arts or Math

·         Thursday, May 14: 9-10am Math

·         Friday, May 15: 12:20-1pm Math

However, other dates may be used for testing for make-up purposes.  Please make sure that your child comes to school every day having received a good amount of sleep the night before (8-10 hours), a healthy dinner the night before and a filling breakfast the day of, and with confident ideas in their head about their ability to do well from you.

Here is a calendar view with the testing dates and other activities for these next six weeks.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
April 20	April 21	April 23	April 24	April 25
April 27	April 28 Track Meet 9am-2pm Payson High School	April 29	April 30 9-10am Language Arts SAGE Test	May 1 12:20-1pm LA SAGE Test Barnett Literacy Night 6-8pm
May 4	May 5	May 6	May 7 9-10am Language Arts or Math SAGE Test	May 8 12:20-1pm LA or Math SAGE Test
May 11	May 12 Benchmarks for reading level	May 13	May 14 9-10am Math SAGE Test 3rd Grade Spelling Bee 2:30pm	May 15 May 8 12:20-1pm Math SAGE Test
May 18	May 19	May 20	May 21 Fun Run	May 22 Last Sharing Day 11-11:30am
May 25 Memorial Day No School	May 26	May 27	May 28 Payson Pool Field Trip 10-noon (lunch at park after)	May 29 Last day, Field Day, ½ day in the morning

Thanks for all of your support, especially during this testing time.  All students have made progress this year and I hope that they will feel confident enough to show that on the end of year tests.

--Mrs. Knudsen

Wordless book (with written story at the end)

The last week of March, we read two wordless books and then we created our own. As part of this process, we wrote a story all together and then divided it up into sections for illustrations to be made. The illustrations will be shown first, with the story at the end. Enjoy!

Eating What You Shouldn’t

By Mrs. Knudsen’s Class

Characters:

Cat-Tommy (boy-black)   Dog-Tucker (boy-dalmation)      Fish-Bill (boy-purple)       

Snake-Sprite (girl-green & white stripes)

            Tommy the cat was talking to Bill the fish one day and said, “I want to eat you.”

            “What do you mean, you want to eat me? I thought we were friends!” said Bill.

            Tommy said, “You’ll be yummy!”

            Bill swam into his castle in the fishbowl to hide.  He peeked out of his castle window and noticed Sprite acting suspicious by the windowsill. 

            Then, suddenly, Sprite eats the cactus on the windowsill.

            “Don’t eat a cactus!” exclaimed Tucker.

            “Too late…” grumbled Sprite. Her belly started to hurt because all the spikes from the cactus were stuck inside of her. She began twitching and turning, trying to get the cactus out. Tucker watched as Sprite began to puke on the floor. Tucker was afraid that Sprite would turn into a snake-cactus!

            After much effort, most of the cactus came out of Sprite, but there was a small part left in.  That small part made Sprite sick. She just lay on the floor and wouldn’t play with Tommy and Tucker all day.

            While Tommy and Tucker played, and Sprite lay on the floor, Bill emerged from his castle cautiously.  He whispered down to the invalid Sprite, “Are you okay?”

            Sprite whispered up at him, “No…I’m really not. I feel like there’s a porcupine in my stomach.”

            Tommy noticed that Bill had come out of his castle and came over to apologize.   “Hey Bill, I’m really sorry I said I wanted to eat you. I’ll never do it again. You just looked really good and I just said it. I promise I won’t say it again. It must have scared you.”

            “It really did. Thanks for apologizing,” said Bill.

            While Bill and Tommy were talking, Tucker went and got some medicine for Sprite.  He gave it to her in a baby bottle because she’s a snake and only has fangs.  Once Sprite took the medicine, after a few hours she was good as new, and decided to go dancing with her friends. 

New Year!

Today was the first French Friday of the new year! Most students were able to participate because they had finished and turned in their homework on time.  First we looked at pictures of the Eiffel Tower and talked about some facts.

Then they got to make their very own Eiffel Tower out of marshmallows and toothpicks!  Here are some pictures:

Kendall & Megan

Hunter & Macrae

Makayla & Carson

Lynus & Ian

Victoria

Dillon

Shanae

Tiffany & Julia

Jovan

Close up of Julia & Tiffany's

Jentri

Wade

Rafael

Alexa & Lindsey

Erick

Aztec Unit

A week ago, the students in class finished a unit on the Aztec culture using myths, music, and art to explore the way that the Aztecs lived. Miss Wilson, the student teacher, taught the unit and took some pictures of the projects that the kids engaged in.  After learning about the Aztec sculptures, students were able to create their own sculpture.  Also, after learning about the important of sunstones to the Aztec culture--calendar, music, etc.--students created their own sunstones.

Aztec sunstone project

Macrae and his sculpture.

Hunter working on his sculpture.

Hunter with his finished sculpture.

Megan and Kendall with their Aztec sculpture.

Jovan with her sculpture.

Victoria with her sculpture.

Saul with his sculpture.

Dillon and Carson displaying their sculpture.

Madison showing off her sculpture.