Greetings families! Mrs. Maza here again. The countdown has begun! We have just 4 weeks left...unbelievable! Or, as we are prone to say in my family..."Inconceivable!" What a crazy week this has been for me. First off, we had our fabulous field trip on Monday. A big shout out to all the parents who worked with us to pull this off. We are so thankful for this generous, close-knit community. We enjoyed the time off as much as the children did! Then we had our incredible concert on Wednesday; Mrs. Carpenter is something else, right? Boy am I glad she has returned to share her talents. The kids sounded amazing! Last night, we had company for dinner; tonight, I'm heading to watch a little softball before going out with friends to dinner, and then tomorrow we have company again. It's a whirlwind around here. I'm bummed the weather got so hot so quickly, but we usually have one more cool-down during May before the real summer begins. Fingers crossed!

Let's take a look at the upcoming week.

Language Arts:

     Poetry - We are memorizing "If" by Rudyard Kipling. This one is a little challenging, so please remind them every day to spend 5 minutes working on it. It will be recited on May 21st. 

     Literature - Hooray! Testing is over and we can have reading groups again! Please sign up on your classroom volunteer list for the next three weeks. This story is so GOOD!

     Grammar - We will not be having any new lessons in grammar (silent cheering), but will just review for our final test two weeks from today. This week's practice includes subject/verb agreement when you have a set of particular subjects like each, everyone, anyone, neither, etc. We will also work on resolving comma splice errors.

     Composition - This will be our final week with Writing With Ease (more cheering), since after that the students will begin their essays for this quarter.

Math - We will wrap up our unit on area and perimeter on Tuesday. We have a fun review planned for Monday, and Tuesday will be the test. The students are working on finding the area and perimeter of composite figures and also for a path around a quadrilateral. These are challenging problems, but with careful calculation of the sides, they can do the math to solve them. The latter half of the week we'll begin the final unit on volume. 

History - We have spent a couple days this week learning about two pivotal documents in our revolutionary story, "Common Sense" and The Declaration of Independence. Monday the students will be writing about their historical significance. They should be able to tell you why "Common Sense" was important and why the Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence. Homework is to explain to a parent and get a signature. 

Science - We are wrapping up our cardiovascular system studies and moving onto the respiratory system. One final check up will take place on Monday. Students should be able to explain about the four major components within our blood and their functions, too. We still need a few more non-crinkly (new word) bottles for the activity we're doing next week. 

That's it! Hope to see some of you on Wednesday! Have a fabulous weekend! Oh, don't forget, no school Friday! Mothers, I hope you are spoiled rotten on Sunday!