MSP - DAY ONE - Writing

The class is doing an amazing job buckling down and working on their writing and testing their hardest!  I am so impressed! 

To get the students motivated to do their best, they were greeted with this testing treat on their desk!

They were so excited to see that little something extra and happy to have a sweet treat to munch on.  Brains working that hard make us extra hungry!  :)
Students were also given gum to keep their wiggles to a minimum and pretzels this afternoon to keep the brain on full charge!  I know they did a great job! 

Write the word LUCKY on your students planner for 5 bonus points!  :)  Congratuate your student on a job well done!  :)

Writing MSP Tomorrow (Tuesday)

The BIG day has arrived and we are ready for our first MSP tomorrow  - WRITING!  While I can't believe it is time already, I know that the students are well prepared for whatever those prompts may be!

Students will have ALL day to complete each prompt.  There is no need to rush and I am sure everyone will do amazing.

Please make sure that your student gets plenty of sleep, gets a hearty breakfast, and brings both a snack and water bottle to school tomorrow.  There will be breaks and lunch as usual, just in a different way since we will be testing.  I expect that most students will need the full day for writing so be prepared to have a mentally exhausted kiddo tomorrow night!

Since we have to cover all of our walls for the test, we spent some time today decorating large "posters" to give students motivation during the test and give them something fun to look at instead of blank paper.  Now our lovely anchor charts and walls look like this:

 The classroom feels so small with all these coverings!  :(

 

This is one of the motivational pictures that students drew.  It says, "Do your best on the MSP for me and everyone else" with an arrow pointing to it that says, "How can you say no to him?"  I love that students were getting create and were taking this seriously (in a fun way)!  :) 

We will see you tomorrow, ready to write and put everything we have learned this year to work!  Get plenty of rest and know that you'll all do GREAT!

Book Orders and MSP Prep

Book orders came home yesterday with students and are due May 1st by 5 pm.  Online is a great way to order so that both our classroom and your student gets a free book! It's hard to beat that deal!  :) 

The MSP prep continues in our classroom (I can't believe we have MSP already next Tuesday!).  This week we have been working really hard to prepare for our writing tests next week by doing a mock writing MSP - we are sitting down and pretending that it is the real thing!  The kids are doing great, especially considering the weather is GORGEOUS out and we all just really want to be outside playing.  :)  I am actually really impressed with how well students are doing on their writing and I hope that continues next week for "the real thing"! 

In terms of MSP, just a reminder that for our testing days, please make sure your student is well rested and has a hearty breakfast.  On those days it is a great idea to also send them with a water bottle and a hearty snack (not junk food) to have during our long testing days to keep our stamina high.

Thanks for your support!  Write MSP on your student's planner today for bonus points!

Movie Night on Friday

North Beach is proud to present The Rise of the Guardians as our school movie for movie night on Friday (April 26th) at 6:30!  It is going to be a lot of fun so we hope to see you there!

MSP is right around the corner - next week in fact! - and so I wanted to send home a couple of quick reminders:

1. Our tests next week are in writing (both Tuesday and Thursday ALL DAY).
2. Students should come well rested and have a hearty breakfast that morning.
3. Please send your student with a hearty snack to have during testing to keep brain focus high!
4. Encourage students to talk about any anxiety or stress that they are feeling and reassure them that as long as they do their best they will do great.  We have done a TON of writing practice so everyone has a great chance to pass with flying colors - it's what we have done a million times!

Our reading MSP will be May 7th (Tuesday) and our math MSP will be May 9th (Thursday).  The reading is the only test that will be done on the computer, all other tests will be done with paper and pencil. 

We will all do our best and achieve great results!  Let's do our best P4!

THANK YOU and Enjoy Spring Break

I cannot express my excitement and thanks for your generous support of our class's DonorsChoose project.  You came in during that last second and funded all 13 nonfiction book sets - the kids are going to be THRILLED!

I'm off for a week of rest and relaxation and I hope that you all have a great week off and we will see you the 22nd!

Our Project Expires May 13th - We Need Your Help!!

Our DonorsChoose project is about to expire - only 34 days left.  We are SO close to getting our books funded.  We are talking 13 sets of 5 books that are amazing nonfiction.  Every little bit helps so PLEASE think about donating or share with friends and family to encourage their donations to help North Beach!  Thank you in advance for your help and support of this amazing project!!

Bill Nye The Science Guy!

I could not believe my ears when the students had NO idea who Bill Nye was! I grew up with him in my schools so I knew that today was the perfect day to introduce them to Bill Nye.  Science has been crazy lately, getting our crickets, isopods and cloudfish into their new homes so the video was the perfect tie into our science unit and gave students something they could work on while I was getting the animals ready. 

Take a peek at the video to see what we watched!  Write Bill Nye on your student's planner if you watch the video for bonus points for your student's table. 

4 More Days!

Wow, I can tell that the kids are ready for spring break!  They are talkative and just ready to be checked out for a week!  We have really been hitting things hard so I can totally understand that!  I am ready too!  :)

Today we introduced our crickets and pill bugs into our terrariums and they are doing great so far!  The crickets were excited to see how tall our plants have grown, which gives them plenty to munch on!  I hope they will have plenty of food for Spring Break! 

As much as we all are ready for the week off, it's important that students are still here every day and getting a good night's rest.  Be ready to learn every day and ready to earn those points to earn all of our rewards!  Rewards are Friday so make it count!  :)

Aquarium Field Trip and a New Student!

Today will be a quick one because I have so much to get ready for our new student to be here tomorrow!  We are very excited to welcome Alex to our classroom and I know that P4 will help make him feel welcome!

Today was our field trip to the aquarium and it was a huge hit!  The kids did such a great job and had a lot of fun!  Ask your student what their favorite part was!  If they have a response, write SA on their planner for tonight for bonus points! 

Pictures will be posted soon - if you chaperoned (thank you first of all!) please feel free to email me any photos you took so that I can post them ASAP.  :)