The most precious faces...

Today as Room 8 was working in their mission groups, I was watching them work thinking how absolutely precious they are. I grabbed my camera and took these...



























As you may be able to tell, Carlo was in "rare form." He was making me laugh with his faces and antics with this 'pencil-balancing act.'

Oh, Room 8... you are the best!

San Diego de Alcala...by Jacob

As I've blogged earlier, it's Mission Time in Room 8. Mission reports have been started and are coming along well! Building a mission is optional...it counts as extra credit for Social Studies.

Jacob brought his mission in on Monday. It's San Diego de Alcala...and it's built out of legos!
All of Room 8 were quite impressed with it. I had to get a little closer with the camera so you could see it better 'on the blog.'
Notice the campanario which holds 5 bells?

Great job, Jacob!

Pick Up Sticks

Remember Pick-Up Sticks?
It's having a resurgence in popularity in Room 8...
It looks like this one was a face-off between Kyle W and Jacob.

This is what happens during a rainy day recess!

Open House = a clean desk

Wednesday night was Open House for Room 8 - actually it was for the entire school! I just love this night...visiting with parents and students... meeting future 4th graders ... and visiting with old students who come by to say hi.

Wednesday afternoon, it was CLEAN OUT YOUR DESK time. I think we could clean them once a week and that wouldn't be enough for some. Others could go the entire year without an official desk cleaning time, and their desk would still be neat and tidy!

What a great time to take pictures! Is there ever a time that's not great for taking pictures in Room 8? I don't think so.As you can see, Room 8 was a busy...very busy place! Macey looks a bit overwhelmed!Amber is focused on getting her desk cleaned...Kyle W and Dillon appear to be having a good time....while Devin is heading back to his desk after putting some papers in recycling.Jacob's desk was a work in progress... here's what it looked like at this stage of the game:Trevor was showing how far he had come on getting his desk in tip-top shape! You can see how busy Emma is... and Michael? Well, I think he's exhausted and is thinking, "Gee, Mrs. J., how much longer do we have to do this?""Hey, Mrs. J!" yelled Kamren. "Look what I found!"

Kamren had found one of his Christmas presents from me... a homework coupon. "You better use it, Kamren," Mrs. J replied.

"Well, I want to save it."

"Oh, I see. Do you want to save it for when you really need it?" asked Mrs. J.

"Yep!"
As you can see here, the piles on the chairs are not quite as high.Oh my gosh! Now here are some neat and clean desks!
Mission Accomplished!

Geography Bee

Each 4th and 5th grade classroom had 2 representatives for our geography bee. These were the two students who scored the highest on questions given to the class.

For room 8........ Madison and Mae!

In this first picture, we had narrowed the competition down to five. Room 8's very own, Mae, was the only girl left...
Ryan and Nick were the last two men standing... well, actually they were sitting, but you know what I mean. Nick ended up the official winner, but all twelve of the contestants were winners!

Sorry it's blurry...but I had to include this anyway. These guys are twins!
After the bee was over, I had to whip out my camera and take a photo of all the contestants.Since one is never enough when it comes to picture taking, I naturally took two. Madison is on the back row, far right. Mae is in the first row in pink.

We are PROUD of you!

******Track Stars*******

Here we come...Ready for our first track meet!
Room 8's very own Mrs. W is also our school's track coach! On April 12th, on an absolutely gorgeous spring day, our first track meet was held at our local junior college.
Here's Amber on the long jump!
Here Mrs. W is talking to Amber, Madison, and Hope...I'm sure she's telling them what an awesome job they're doing!

The track team has been a HUGE addition to our school. There are 36 students - only 4th and 5th graders - on the team. I'm not sure how many ribbons were won, but Mrs. W told me that we made an incredible showing. LOTS of ribbons were won!

Thank you, Mrs. W!!!

GO TEAM!

It's Mission time in Room 8

Mission time has hit Room 8!

As you can see from this photo on the left, part of learning about missions is being done in a game format. The class is divided into mission groups. Each group may work together to read and complete assignments /tasks ...however, they are each responsible for their own work.

For example, square #1 required the students to read some pages in our "Oh, California" book. Questions had to do with the advantages/disadvantages of joining a mission, who started the missions, where the second mission was located, the goal of the missions, etc. Each student had to turn in their questions. Each paper is graded individually, with that student receiving their own grade. The number of points from each paper of a group are added together for the 'group points' for each square. A group may not move on to the next square until everyone from that particular group has turned in their paper.
This is where the group points will be kept. I just finished grading the Square 1 papers from 4 different groups. That's why you don't see any points posted ... yet!Kamren, Emily, Casey O., Quinn, and Tucker work together on Square 1.Mae, Emma, Austin, and Tyler are a group.Mary, Danielle, Michael, Elijah, and Kyle A work together.Amber, Shawna, Carlo, and Devin get a little advice from Mrs. W.Casey J., Dillon, Kyle W., and Trevor are an all-male group!Madison, Jacob, and Macey...wait, where's Edin?OK, there's Edin. He's got his head down buried in the book. What a scholar!

So you can see from these photos how Room 8 is working in their groups.