Dear Families,
Students are working extremely hard on their literary essays. This week, students read a short story and began to write down their thoughts, ideas, and observations about the story. This will lead into writing an essay where they analyze and discuss the short story. This will be the last published piece before summer.
Our trip to the World Forestry Center on Monday was superb. The museum is a hidden gem, as many people that go to Washington Park in Portland tend to visit the Oregon Zoo or the Children’s Museum. This museum impressed all of us with its hands-on exhibits that focused on the timber industry and how wood is intertwined in our lives. Students were pretty excited. At one point I asked an employee, “Are school groups always this loud?” as I wasn’t sure if I feel embarrassed. She said, “Absolutely! Kids love it here.” I recommend you check it out if you haven’t previously done so. It’s a great museum! Pictures of the trip are up on our classroom Instagram page (mr.barnard).
We are gearing up for our final two weeks of school! One way to keep our students maximally engaged is to end the year with an engineering teamwork challenge. This year, our young engineers will be building bottle rockets. They will work in teams to design, build, and launch a bottle rocket made from a two-liter plastic bottle. We are looking for distance, time aloft, and overall aesthetic beauty. To help with the launching we are looking for a couple of volunteers that could commit to helping us out on Wednesday, May 30 (1:45 pm – 3:15 pm), Thursday, May 31 (1:45 pm – 3:15 pm) and Friday (8:30 am until 10:00 am). On Wednesday, May 30 at 1:30 pm, Sarah Loveland will be providing a training for any volunteers that think they can help out on ALL THREE DAYS. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering. We are also in need of many 2-liter plastic bottles. If you have some to donate, please send to school on or before Monday, May 21.
For families with fifth graders that are heading to middle school next year, Mrs. Young and Dr. Trani will host a Q & A session about Corbett Middle School on Monday 5/21 from 4-5 p.m. in Mrs. Young’s classroom (located in the middle school). They will be there to answer any questions for families of new incoming students.
To say that there are a lot of items in the Lost and Found would be an understatement. It’s a little out of control right now. Here’s a link to an online photo album of the items that miss their homes. On May 31st, all items will be donated. If you see something that belongs to your family, you can come in and grab them out of one of the garbage bags outside the grade school gymnasium.
A reminder that Wednesday 5/30 is portfolio night. Please plan on coming by anytime between 4pm and 7pm to check out your child’s growth this year.
Have a great weekend,
Mr. B
