Are you excited for our field trip tomorrow?? I am. Remember to be at school by 8:45 so we can leave right at 9:00. My radio DJ friend is very excited to have you at the studios. We are so lucky because normally this radio studio does not allow public tours...we are the exception:-)

We had a wonderful discussion today about creation stories. We compared the Greek myth creation story with the creation stories that we are familiar with. It was very interesting to hear everyone's point of view as they looked for similarities and differences between each story. We found central themes in each text--many cultures believe the world was created, then man, then woman. We talked about why ancient cultures living all over the world, far away from each other would develop/believe some of the same ideas. We talked about the spread of ideas and how people can influence each other's thinking. The students also found strong similarities between the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and the temptation to eat the apple with Pandora and her curiousness that caused her to open her box. This was an incredibly respectful, mature and insightful discussion--we really became more aware of the many ideas and beliefs that are present in our world today. I am so proud of all of my students for their participation in this discussion.

Tonight is no homework Wednesday--please remember to bring in your social studies journals tomorrow so we can share them with each other.

PS. Tell your families about the COLORS OF MY LIFE activity we did today. Try it with them. :-)

Better updates tomorrow...I am exhausted. :-)

Remember our field trip is Thursday. Reminder notes went home today. Have parents sign in your planners if you are able to ride in the front seat.

Your Oregon Trail journals are due Thursday--pick a Nebraska landmark that we have studied and document your travels up to that point.

Tell your families about our Living Mythology Museum on May 26th. I am so excited about it.

I am so tired.

Oh wait...garden updates--Mr. Don is going to help get our garden covered in 9-12 inches of good top soil. The ground is too rocky for him to use the rototiller. We will be able to plant all seeds by Monday. I am so excited.

The Showcase tonight was amazing. I hope you are all so proud of yourselves. All of you received wonderful comment cards. You can read them tomorrow morning.

Have a great night. Remember to work on your math if you didn't finish today's lesson.

Can you believe tomorrow is Wednesday already and we have 25 days of school left? Where does the time go?

Happy Monday,

I just got finished hanging up and displaying your landmark research on the Oregon Trail board. It look amazing. I want to save your paragraphs and pictures and put them into a laminated book to keep forever.

If your parents volunteered to drive on our field trip on Thursday, please let them know I will be sending them information/detail tomorrow. My radio DJ friend is really excited to show you all around the studios. He has put together some fun goodie bags for you--I hear free t-shirts for all are involved!!

Remember tomorrow is our Student Showcase from 3-5 p.m. We will get everything set up tomorrow and help some of the younger students in the afternoon. I will bring my camera and post pictures.

Homework tonight: Math, study spelling, states and capitals test retakes on Friday

In my spare time...

Hello!

I hope you are warm and cozy, enjoying this rainy Sunday. I decided to share something with you. In my spare time I like to notice small parts of the world around me through my camera lens. Here are some of my photos. What do you like to do in your spare time? Post your answers under the comments section:-)

Shining Stars

As promised from Mrs. Sloot:

http://www.maudhartlovelace.org



Thank you so much for helping your classmates get ready for Tuesday's showcase. An even bigger thank you for being such positive role models and leaders this afternoon during the all-school team building activities. The best thing you did all day was to continue making compliment stars for everyone who didn't get one. All of these things are the reasons I teach. You all made my day today in the biggest way possible.

I am counting my lucky stars for my 15 FPA shining stars.

Have a great weekend. Don't forget that your landmark research is due Monday. Please also remember to bring in your Internet/library information that you found on your Greek deity on Monday.

Quick update for the night. I just got back from a walk outside--the weather is gorgeous. I am excited that Spring is finally here. A few reminders:

Free Dress Day tomorrow
Picture Day tomorrow (you may bring picture clothes and casual clothes to change into later)
Mix It Up--all school activities 2:30-3:15
Spelling test tomorrow
States and Capitals test tomorrow
Final showcase displays due tomorrow

Lots of stuff to remember! If you haven't turned in permission slips, please remember to do so ASAP!

Have a great night.

I am so proud of your efforts today!

Today was a great day. This morning, we attended a Character Education/Self Defense program put on by Excel Martial Arts in Woodbury. Our very own Haven J. achieved her red belt from Excel earlier this year and was a participant in the program.

This afternoon, we were out in the "garden" preparing the area for planting. I think we quickly learned how much patience and discipline we need to complete such a large undertaking. We cleared a 10 foot x 6 foot area--we spent an hour and a half getting rid of the sod, and top soil, and trying our best to loosen the bottom layers of soil at a depth of 9 inches. We will definitely be renting a rototiller this weekend to ensure our soil is loosened. Next week we will be getting rid of any large rocks, and will be applying a new top layer of soil, mostly to level out the sloped area before planting our seeds. We will be planting lettuce, carrots, peas, radishes, sunflowers and watermelon to start. A big thank you to everyone who brought gardening tools, and to Sam's grandparents for sharing their gardening expertise with us.

We will decorate the outside of the garden with rocks painted by the entire FPA student community. I am so excited. I know it might not look like we made any progress today, but believe me...WE DID!

Congratulations to everyone for doing such a great job running the mile. There were some amazing times--several of us took an entire minute off of our Fall times. I really enjoyed running the mile with each of you today.

Remember to bring back both permission slips for one decision dollar per slip this week.

For more pictures from today, click here.
Homework: Math, practice spelling, states and capitals, showcase displays due Friday

PS. Please remember that all final showcase displays are due Friday!

Whew!

Whew! Just got back from a successful trip to Walmart--loaded the trunk full of gardening soil, seeds and shovels. I had so much dirt in my trunk, I needed my husband to come help me drop off the bags at school. It was weird to be on the playground at 8:00 at night. I was covered in dirt after 5 minutes--appropriate clothes tomorrow are ESSENTIAL! We will get dirty:-)

If you have extra gardening shovels (we are in need of large sized shovels) please bring them tomorrow. Any family members and friends are welcome to take part. We need all the man and woman power we can get!

Tomorrow is your mile run in gym. I will bring clothes to run the mile with each of you. I am excited. Headphones and IPODS are fine to bring if you want.

A big thank you to each and every one of my students... I appreciate all of you who keep me on my toes, who like to question, who are honest with me about things that are happening in your lives in and out of school, and who feel comfortable talking about personal concerns in a respectful and mature way. I am so glad that we have created a classroom environment where you feel comfortable expressing your true selves. I truly believe in each of you--you have so many wonderful talents and insights to offer. Our classroom would not be complete without any one of you. Remember that I am always here to listen to you and to be your advocate.

Some of our students have had some preliminary questions/concerns about what we will be discussing in our upcoming unit in Human Growth and Development. As I have told the kids, I will be sending home a detailed letter about the specific topics we will be covering in May. If they have any immediate questions, I told the students to ask a parent at home, and/or to write them down and save them for our future class discussions. Please be assured that no topic will be discussed prior to my letter home, and without school/family consent outside of our unit.

Homework: Math, practice spelling and states/capitals, landmark research due Monday, bring clothes for running and gardening, bring gardening tools if you have them

Pictures Galore!

Goodness gracious! I have TONS of pictures to share with you. Take a look at the several new albums I posted.

I posted pictures of you designing and creating landscaping plans for the FPA vegetable garden.
I posted pictures of you doing The Cup Game. The very first photo in the album is actually a video of you all! Very impressive.
I posted pictures of Jump Rope for Heart. I was so busy jumping and DDRing with you that I didn't have much time to take lots of pictures--but at least you get the idea of what we were doing.
I posted pictures of you drawing and researching your plants that are native to Minnesota. These are the same plants we will be planting in our rain garden. Did you tell your parents that your plant pictures will be made into seed packets that the Maplewood Nature Center will be passing out to guests? We will see if we can get a hold of your drawings on the seed packets so you can see what they look like. If you are interested, the seed packets will be passed out at the Nature Center on May 1 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Finally, I posted pictures of you webbing about Ancient Greece and Rome. Boy, we sure learned some interested facts about the culture!

We are continuing our trek along the Oregon Trail. Today students were each given two landmarks along the trail. They need to write one-two paragraph descriptions about each landmark and include a colored drawing of the location. Please make sure to include location, geographic features (mountains, trees, prairie, river, etc. ), a physical description (use your five senses), and for a challenge--how many miles from Independence, Missouri you are. All research and drawings are due Monday, April 27.

In literacy, we started a unit on Myths, Legends and Folk Tales. We did a webbing exercise using non-fictions books to learn about the ancient Roman and Greecian cultures. We will be learning about the elements of myths, as well as about the gods and goddesses--that's the plan for this week anyway:-)

This week for spelling, students chose 15 states and their capitals to practice. For our states and capitals test on Friday, students will be responsible for spelling those 15 states and capitals correctly!

Remember--Wednesday is our garden planting day. We need gardening tools!!!!!!!!!!!

Homework: Math, soc. studies journal, landmark project due Monday

Look for on tomorrow's post:

Cool videos of the "Cup Game"
Pictures from our garden landscaping session
Updates on upcoming field trips

Remember for tomorrow:
a healthy snack
tennis shoes and gym clothes
a jump rope (if you have one)
your finished gardening landscape plans (color coded with a key and all measurements)

Be prepared for a fun morning session researching and drawing native plants with the Maplewood Nature Center and an afternoon workout that will make your hearts happy.

Sweet dreams.

Happy Wednesday. Short post tonight, friends. Wednesday is no homework night--but if you are looking for something to do...practice states and capitals flashcards for your test next Friday, read for 20 minutes, or work on your math.

For Friday: You may bring shorts and a t-shirt to change into for Jump Rope for Heart. Remember to bring a healthy snack to eat that afternoon.

Tell your parents about our field trip to the LOVE 105 studios April 30th. Permission slips and more information to come...

Have a great night

Sun-Day!

Happy Sun-Day!

We had a great day today. Very busy. We had a great discussion about emotions and what causes us to get emotional at our age. We talked about how we can't control how we feel but we can control how we react to situations. We paired this discussion with a non-fiction article taken from HEALTH magazine about self confidence and esteem. We had a round table discussion about what we can do when we feel like we have low self esteem. Ask your student what they took away from this empowering discussion.

We were granted permission from Ms. Nikki to proceed with our rain gardens. I will be taking a class through the city of Woodbury on April 30 which will "train" me to construct a rain garden. We will be busy researching native plants and doing some landscaping design in the meantime.

I have some wonderful field trips planned for the end of the year. I can't wait to share them with you tomorrow! If you could go anywhere on a field trip, where would you go and why? Post your ideas here and get one decision dollar tomorrow.

Homework: math, Spanish sheet, finish journals if you need to, showcase reflection paragraphs due tomorrow, 4th grade computer group please answer the questions about the confidence article

Making the last 8 weeks count

Hello all,

Sorry for the later post tonight. I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous--perfect for egg hunting, long Sunday walks, and reading a book on the sun porch.

I can't believe all of the things we have to do before the end of the year. During our morning meetings, we will be starting Health. We are using the Great Body Works curriculum and pamphlets. This morning we discussed/reviewed basic first aid including what to do with burns, chemicals in the eye or ingesting poisons. The students were even able to teach me several things. We have lots of great potential babysitters in our room. We will be working on Self Esteem, Drug Awareness, Pathways of the Brain, Emotions, and Personal Hygiene. At the end of May we will be doing a unit on the reproductive system. Before I teach anything I will be sending home detailed letters and will make the curriculum available to any family. Look for a letter in the coming weeks.

Jump Rope for Heart donations were due today. If anyone forgot to bring theirs in, you may still bring it in tomorrow (LAST CHANCE!). Your Jump Rope for Heart posters are up in the gym. They look wonderful--extremely creative. I think the American Heart Association should hire you all to do their advertising.

I will be talking with Ms. Nikki about how we can proceed with our rain garden, as well as starting an organic garden with our terrarium seeds that we can use to provide some of our food for hot lunches. Students--show your parents how to calculate the slope of something--they will be impressed!

Please have all reflection paragraphs finished by Wednesday for the Student Showcase. We will NOT be having any more class time to work on these. All Student Showcase pieces need to be finished by Friday, April 24th. We will have the next two Mondays in class to work on showcase pieces for a total time of 75 in class minutes.

If you did not finish your journal entry for social studies today, please do so.
We will be back to regular math tomorrow--our mini lesson on ratios took a little longer than I thought--but that's okay:-) Some great learning took place.

Have a restful night. See you bright and early tomorrow morning.

Excellent Engineering

Who knew we had a bunch of geo-technical engineers in our room. This afternoon we went out and explored the pond area to the east of Footprints Academy. This pond was formed from the drainage and run off water from Footprints. This area is a perfect place for a rain garden. Today the kids went out to find the perfect place for a rain garden. In order to find the perfect place, they had to perform three tests on the area. They had to find the slope of the land and it had to be less than 15%. A slope greater than 15% requires help from the city of Woodbury to help us dig. They had to dig a one foot by one foot by one foot hole and do a soil test--the students picked up a handful of dirt and had to squeeze it into a ball. If the soil stayed in a ball form, the soil is too clay-like and is an indicator of poor water absorbtion and drainage. If the soil was most and not too sandy it was an indicator of a well draining area. The last test the kids performed was a water test. They had to pour 8-12 inches of water in their holes. We let the water sit for 15 minutes and used rulers to measure how much water had been absorbed into the soil. We then multiplied that number by 12 to see how much water would be absorbed in one hour. Anything more than .5 inches/hour indicated great soil. I took several pictures of the kids hard at work. Click here for more pictures. Tomorrow we will be comparing and compiling our data to determine our top preference area for our garden. What a great day!

A quick side note: We returned to our first grade selves this morning. For our morning meeting game we sang the song "Tooty Ta." Ask your student to sing it for you. Click on the link to hear the song. Hopefully you will enjoy these hilarious pictures and video.

Homework: Finish math, spelling test tomorrow, re-write/organize science observations from this afternoon.

Pictures!

Here are several pictures from today.

You can see Ann's slide show about watersheds and rain gardens, a few of us playing on the swings and a demonstration of what neighborhood pollution does to local wetlands. Would you want to live in Fred's neighborhood? (You may click on each picture for a larger view)

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday. I will upload some pictures later from our day today--a few from outside, and a few from our time with Ann from the Maplewood Nature Center. Today we learned about watersheds and rain gardens, and how small things that we do affect the quality of water that runs off into the wetlands. I learned something new today...I never knew that it was okay to wash my car on the grass without hurting it. Did you learn anything new today?

Can you believe we have about 8 weeks left of school? I can't believe how quickly the year has flown by. I am excited to work more on the Oregon Trail. I am hoping to split us into groups again to do some research on a few Oregon Trail landmarks that we can add to our bulletin board. I was reading some of your journal entries today...they are amazing. I will post some examples in the coming days.

What have been some of your favorite things that we have done so far this year? Post your comments in the comments section:-)

Tonight is no homework Wednesday--however, if you are looking for something to do, you can always work ahead in math, practice spelling and read for 20 minutes.

Have a great night. Check back later for pictures!

Quick check in

Whew! Late night tonight, friends! I just got back from a great Open House. I met many wonderful potential families and students from Saint Andrews. I am tired and headed to bed, but I wanted to make sure I checked in with you tonight. Thank you to those students who volunteered your time tonight at the Open House. We all appreciate that you did so.

I am going to watch the end of the Twins game:-) Baseball is a sure sign of Spring. Remember that your gym posters are due tomorrow. Work on your budget list for the Oregon Trail. We will worry about figuring out how much things weigh tomorrow. Remember to think about what you want to display at the Showcase Extravaganza:-)

Good night:-)

PS

Tomorrow night from 5:30-7:30 is the FPA open house which will welcome incoming Saint Andrew's families to our school community. I am looking for tour guides and students to answer questions from new families. Any volunteers?

Where has the year gone?

Where has the year gone? This is the 200th post that I have written to you this year. Thanks for keeping up with this blog. I hope that it has been helpful to you. My goal was to have 4000 hits by the end of the year. I think we will do it!

I had a lot of fun doing Oregon Trail stuff with you. Can you believe that a covered wagon has all of those parts that make it work? Can you see how the invention of the automobile was not far behind? What is another name for the covered or conestoga wagon? Remember that people considered it to be "a boat sailing on the green prairie." One decision dollar for anyone who can tlel me the answer tomorrow. What are you putting on your list of things to take with you on the journey? Post your favorite item in the comments section. I hung up our giant Oregon Trail map that your groups made this afternoon. It looks great. I will post a picture of it tomorrow.

Do you have any thoughts on where we could plant our seeds to make a lasting garden at Footprints? Do you have any suggestions for other seeds we could plant and grow to use in our lunches at school? Laura has been working hard to research native Minnesota plants that would thrive in our rain garden. I am so excited for Wednesday when the people from the nature center come and teach us about rain gardens and watersheds. Do you know what a water shed is? Google it for fun.

Remember your gym posters are due Wednesday. We will do a mini lesson on your spelling words tomorrow. Everyone has 15 words this week. Don't forget to finish writing in your Oregon Trail journals--a minimum of 20 items to bring--5 of them need to be special mementos:-)

Happy Monday!

I need your help!

Hi Friends,

I hope you are having a wonderful day off. The weather outside is beautiful! I have been busy at school learning lots of different things that I am excited to teach you one day. I have a favor to ask you. My sister is studying to be a teacher. She has been visiting our blog and following what we have been doing at Footprints. She has three questions that she would like to ask each of you. She will be taking your answers and using them to write a paper for her teaching classes. You do not need to include your name when you answer. Post your answers under the comments section. Please remember to label your answers so I know which response belongs to which question.

Here are the questions my sister would like to ask you:

1.) What do you use the blog for?
2.) How often do you use Mrs. E's blog?
3.) Do you like using the blog? Why?

Have a great weekend. Remember that your American Heart Association posters are due to Mrs. Lisa by Wednesday. Please finish your journal entry on why you chose the route you did to move west. You should be writing from your character's point of view--include factors like climate, topography (mountains, rivers, plains, etc.), distance, etc.

A response to your SECRET MESSAGE

Thank you for being my students. Happy April Fool's Day.
Your emails made me smile.

Love, Mrs. E.

Rain Gardening!

Happy Spring! April Fools! Goodness sakes--where is the beautiful Spring weather that Minnesota is known for? I am glad to see that the snow has pretty much melted from this morning.

I have some great news to share with families:
On April 8, specialists from the Maplewood Nature Center will be coming to do a three hour intensive course on watersheds and rain gardens. I am so excited for this course because it will help further support our study on plant environments. On May 21, we will be going to the Maplewood Nature Center to help them build a rain garden. In between, we will be doing a study of Minnesota native plants, and rain garden design in the hopes of designing Footprints' OWN rain garden just east of the school near the pond. We will be doing landscape design and scaled map drawings of how we want our garden to look. We would need to collaborate with the city of Woodbury during the "digging and planting" process.

For those of you who are not familiar with rain gardens and their environmental benefits, please explore this link to learn more about them. We will be calculating the cost, how big the garden should be, what kinds of plants we should grow, how much extra soil we need, necessary equipment, etc. I will keep you posted on this exciting science unit.

Tomorrow is our all school assembly at 9:10 a.m. All families are invited to attend. Tomorrow evening from 6:30-8:30 is the Footbridge sponsored Family Game Night. Come enjoy games, popcorn and fun with Footprints families and friends. Please note that on Tuesday, April 7 from 5:30-7:30 all Footprints families are invited to join potential incoming Saint Andrews families for a family dinner and open house event. This evening will be an opportunity for Saint Andrews families to meet us and to have a chance to tour the school and ask current families about FPA life. I would love to have student helpers volunteer to help give tours and welcome the families! Let me know if you are interested.

Homework: Science vocabulary test tomorrow!