5th Grade Fun at Sea World!

We had a great day at Sea World on Thursday for our fifth grade class trip! The students had so much fun that you could barely hear yourself think on the bus there and back. Honestly, I think they like the charter bus as much as an amusement park! We're slowly recovering, and hope to be back to full speed tomorrow! Only three weeks of school left to go!

Do you know your states and capitals?

Our class is packing up for a fictitious road trip and along the way we will be reviewing our states and capitals. Want to play a game to help you remember? Click here to play.

What a Week So Far!

Students have been busy researching endangered ocean animals with their science buddies. They will use their research to write a children's book to be placed in our media center for others to read. Because endangered animals have been on our mind, we've been talking a lot about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There are many ways for your family to contribute to the clean up efforts. Contact our local St. Francis Wildlife Association by clicking here for more information.

Here is a sneak peek on what we are working on for Mother's Day.



Oh and I have to brag that Mr. Whitaker graduated with a degree in civil engineering this past weekend. I'm very proud of him. He also holds a degree from the University of Georgia in crop science, he loves some soil and plants! I hope that he can find a job that combines both of these talents. As you can see the baby bump is growing! Our little boy is 20 weeks along, and doing very well!

Earth Day Everyday!

Our class is playing host to some beautiful and unique guests. Our fluttering friends are painted lady butterflies and they are living in a butterfly house on the back counter right now. One made a fast get-a-way today when Olivia opened up the home to put in some fresh cut strawberries. He didn't know how good he had it in room 16! We will be releasing them in the next couple of days.




Also, if you haven't seen the new Sun Chips bag look for the next time you are at the store. It is the first 100% compostable chip bag. What a great advancement in packaging. With each American throwing away an average of 1,200 pounds of waste and year, I say Kudos to Sun Chips for helping reduce this staggering number. I feel a little less guilty when I eat chips now!

America's Best Inventions

Here is a glimpse of some of the innovative inventions that our class came up with in this year's Invention Convention!

Let the Games Begin!

Make your own free photobook design

Mining for Chocolate???

In recent weeks we have been reminded of how dangerous the profession of mining can be. This week in language arts we are reading about the gold rush of the mid 1800s. Today, we did a little mining ourselves. Safer and definitely tastier! Students had the task of mining for chocolate chips from a cookie. They were challenged to extract the "gold" without causing major disruption to the earth around the mineral. Some succeeded! We extended the lesson to discuss the reclamation of land, an important subject especially with Earth Day right around the corner! To learn more about land reclamation after mining, click here.