Kick for a Cause

We've won one game, and we are fighting it out for another win today! If we are victorious, than we get to play in the championship game tomorrow during our Kick for a Cause event. The annual kickball game raises money for the Brenda Luca Family Endowment at TMH. The family endowment helps those in need of support while fighting cancer. Brenda lost her battle to cancer two years ago, but still shines on in the hearts of many around here! Brenda was a great mother, wife, friend, and Gilchrist volunteer. She was a spark of energy and I truly enjoyed not only knowing her, but having her as a parent to one of my students. Wil and Jarrod are her twins, and they along with their father Roger, will be here tomorrow to toss the first pitch!

A Trip to the Farm...Join Us!

We had a glorious day today as we relished in beautiful weather and science. Turkey Hill Farm is a great escape from the classroom to see science in action. We loaded up with our science buddies and headed out to the farm, and we learned a lot. A huge thank you to Miss Louise and Farmer Herman for sharing their time and talents with us. If you like what you see, visit them at Market Square on Tuesday afternoons or Saturday mornings, or at Lake Ella on Wednesday afternoons. You won't regret it!

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A Girl Can Dream, Can't She?

This past weekend my mom and I headed over to our sister city (I use that loosely) of Monticello. If you haven't visited historic Monticello, you should! The occasion was the Historic Tour of Homes. Since I was a little girl I have adored homes. For years I thought I wanted to be an architect, but soon realized that my talents did not include geometry. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that my deep love of history is why I love homes, especially historic homes. My grandfathers are engineers/architects, so I suppose I get it naturally. I had a drafting table and T-square in my room by age 10. So my dream is to live or just wander through historic homes. Here are a few gems...





I'll settle for this cottage (one of our vocabulary words this week)...wink, wink.



So head on over to Monticello and do some roaming around. When your stomach starts grumbling swing by Tupelo's Cafe and Bakery across from the Opera House. Their sandwiches are to DIE FOR! On your way back home, don't forget to stop for a strawberry shake behind the BP station (I know that sounds sketchy) on the corner of Crump Rd./Chaires Rd. and 90! Enjoy!

We're Done!

We've completed FCAT...finally! We are happy to be done, and ready to move on with some exciting times in fifth grade. This week we will be doing a brief women's history project, picking a country for our end of the year research project, and starting our Science Spot journal!

This is how I feel right now, TIRED! Thank you to my precious niece for lending us her cuteness!

It's Electric!

Today was full of science review to prepare for the next couple of days! One way to prepare is this fun game at Blobz! Go to bed early tonight and eat a great breakfast so you will be the best scientist you can be tomorrow!

Happy Pi Day!

To all you Sir Cumferences out there, Happy Pi Day! We celebrated early, on 3.12, but we hope your 3.14 is full of tasty circular treats! Sorry there are no pictures, the camera was left at home!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Today while reviewing for the reading portion of FCAT (BORING!)we came across a reading passage about newspapers. By a show of hands, more fifth graders get their news (or their parents get their news) from the television or the Internet. Kind of a shame, but it seems to be a trend. More and more newspapers are having to close down shop and focus just on web versions of the daily happenings. I have fond memories of my mom and dad reading the paper.

After reading our passage we jumped on the Internet to get our hands on news from across the country (notice, we used the Internet for this). My dad introduced me to a portion of the Newseum's (this D.C. museum dedicated to past current events just got redone and sits on the Mall, and I really want to go there!) that shows the front page news from some far off places. Check it out here.

So check out what's going on in the world around us!

Freaky FCAT Friday!

It was a crazy one, but a lot of learning and fun went on! Wish us luck these next two weeks as my students show what they know!

Caution: Work Zone

Our brains are definitely in overdrive right now! We are having to close down this work zone on Friday for Freaky FCAT Friday. We will be doing some fun math centers, picnicking outside, singing Mrs. Berry's great FCAT song, and of course dressing mix matched. Check back to see all the craziness!