Weekly Update

Hello y'all!  What a week this past week was!  We're hot and heavy creating fabulous products we can't wait to share with you at our Celebration of Learning.  This coming week promises to be even more busy and more creative...I can't wait!

This past Friday, our last book order catalog was sent home.  If you'd like to place an order, it needs to be turned in by Thursday (if turning in the paper order form) or Friday (if placed online).  For every order placed online, our class receives a free book.  Many of you have placed online orders this year and I'd like to thank you!  We've been able to get quite a few expedition related books through this program.

Our Celebration of Learning is scheduled for Wednesday, May 16th.  To give our families the best possible experience, we are running this much like we do our Back to School Night.  The schedule for the evening is based upon last names.  Please take a look below, find the first letter of your last name, and you will find the time frame for your family.

• Last Names A-J 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm
• Last Names K-Q 6:30 pm - 7:00 pm
• Last Names R-Z 7:00 - 7:30 pm

We're all aware that the school year is winding down, but can you believe we have less than 20 days left!  It's crazy!  Between now and the Celebration, it is very important that your child attends school every day.  The nature of the kind of work we are and will be completing is not the kind of work that can be made up at a later date.  I'd hate for your child to miss out on showcasing their product(s) at the Celebration.

Until next time...have a fabulous week!  :)

Weekly Update

I'd like to thank all of you for stepping up and helping to make our fieldwork to the Museum of Natural History a huge success! The students did a fabulous job at finding exemplars to help them with their own museum display creations. Many "aha" moments were had!

We're now in the process of synthesizing all of the expedition information we have acquired. It's hard work, but boy oh boy is it fun! Students are sculpting, painting, sketching, illustrating, building, and writing all of their knowledge in hopes of creating a celebration the likes you'll never forget! As a reminder, our final celebration of learning for the school year is slated for the evening of Wednesday, May 16th. I will pass on more details as the date draws nearer.

We need help making all of our big plans come to fruition. If you'd like to help out, we are in need of the following donations:

• paint (Tempera or craft paint of any color)
• wood (2x4's, plywood, and help cutting it)
• fake plants (shrubs, plants, trees, vines, cacti, etc)
• fake landscaping rocks
• outdoor misters
• outdoor archway
• astro turf
• sand paper
• chicken wire
• plaster
• small hand-held fans
• foam of many sizes and shapes (color does not matter)
• sand
• large old t-shirts (to keep our school clothes nice and clean)
• help in the classroom (wood cutting, painting or just coming in to help)

We are so excited (I bet you can't tell!) and can't wait to share all of this wonderful creating with our families!

Weekly Update

Happy Spring Break to all of you! Hopefully y'all are all out enjoying the beautiful weather and the extra long weekend!

This was an exciting week for us! We had not one, but two experts come work with us. Our first expert visit was from Todd Wetzel and his wife. They are poison dart frog enthusiasts who love to share their passion. They brought so many cool specimens for our kiddos to observe. This truly was a treat since these frogs are not native to our country.

Our second expert was none other than Miss Rebecca's sister. She is a sculptor and came to share her expertise with our kiddos. She helped each student sculpt their expert frog. Once our clay froggies have dried completely, she'll come back and teach us how to paint them to look realistic.

We are now in the refining process for our expedition. Many preparations are need to get ready for our big unveiling at our Celebration of Learning. From here on out, that is what we will be working towards. To pull off our Fabulous Frogs Celebration, students are in need of some donations. If you have any of the following and wouldn't mind sharing with us please send them to school with your child as soon as possible:

• any plastic greenery: shrubs, vines, flowers, cacti, etc
• fake landscape rocks
• chicken wire
• sandpaper
• tempera paints
• large sheets of cardboard
• large shirts for messy painting and other messes (one for each student)

If you have anything around the home that you think would fit any of these habitats: rain forest, desert, or meadow please let me know. We're thinking BIG so any help from home will really help make this happen!