How is this year almost done!? It has been an awesome year at Beulah Ralph and I wouldn't have wanted to do it with any other class! :) 

Upcoming Dates: 

• May 22nd: Field Day
• May 25th: Last Day of School and report cards sent home

What We Have Been Up To! 

• Writing: This week we spent time finishing up our poetry notebooks. We went through our checklist of poems and made sure everything was great for our poetry share!
• Social Studies: This week we spent some time working on finishing our research for our Famous Missourian project.  Remember that kids can bring these home to work on!  We will start presenting these on Friday, so that should give everyone enough time to finish! Kids will still have some time to work on these in class next week as well.
• Science/Health: We started our health unit this week.  Kids worked in groups to take notes on functions of our different body systems. Next week we will learn about hormones and the different glands in our body.  On Thursday, we will split up into girls and boys and watch the puberty videos.  I’m sure you can imagine how excited all of the kids are for this!
• Math: We took our final math STAR test this week and the kids did great! We also started our new math inquiry unit.  I love how excited the kids get when they know they’ve got a touch problem to solve. We will continue with this inquiry unit next week.  We will focus on working with fractions with unlike denominators.  
• Reading: This week we finished up our reading assessments!  It’s been amazing to see how much these readers have grown since the beginning of the year! Next week, we will continue to read our super silly read aloud, Sideways Stories from Wayside School.  In reading groups, we will read some fun articles and short stories.

Here are some pictures from today's Poetry Picnic: Writing Share! - For more look at our Twitter Feed. 

Happy May!

Upcoming Dates:

• May 8th: Buckman Farm Field Trip
• May 10th: PTA Meeting - 6:30 Media Center
• May 9th-11th: STAR Testing
• May 12th: Poetry Picnic Lunch (4th Grade Writing Celebration)
• May 22nd: BEU Field Day
• May 25th: Last Day of School

Service Learning Update:
  The kiddos did a great job picking out some more fun and practical items for our baskets. We worked together as a grade level this week to put all the materials together with ribbon and but them into the bags for moms.

What We are Learning!

Writing: We will be completing our Poetry Notebooks next week to get them all ready to show on our Poetry Picnic day! 

Social Studies: Students are going to complete their research on their Famous Missourian and begin the project of their choosing. 

Math: We are going to be doing one last unit called Field Trips and Fundraisers. The kiddos will be using their knowledge of fractions to solve real world situations. They will get to work together to create posters explaining their thinking and then participate in whole class discussions. 

Reading: We are continuing our fun read aloud book to wrap up our school year. I will also begin our DRA and AIMs Web testing. During this time students will still meet in their book groups, but work on facilitating it on their own. They will also be using this chunk of time to work on their Famous Missourian project.