Thursday, May 25, 2017

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 3:07 PM
All year, we have been working on having a growth mindset in Room 18.  We have been graphing our progress, setting personal goals and celebrating our achievements together.  As the year winds down, we have been looking at our progress from September until now, reflecting on areas we still need to work on and give an abundance of high-fives for the amount of success we have shared together.  We'd like to take a moment and celebrate some of our top "grow-ers" in three key academic areas: Reading comprehension, reading fluency and math.  This information is based upon the Star computer assessments.

For Reading Fluency, our top ten grow-ers were:

Tied for 8th place, increasing 47 correct words a minute over the course of the year:
     Natalie
     David
     Bradley

Tied for 6th place, increasing 51 correct words a minute over the course of the year:
     Gavin
     Andrew

Tied for 4th place, increasing 60 correct words a minute over the course of the year:
     Olivia
     Precious

Third place, increasing 64 correct words a minute over the course of the year:
     Benny

Second place, increasing 69 correct words a minute over the course of the year:
     Karsyn

and FIRST PLACE, increasing 73 correct words a minute over the course of the year:
     EVAN!!!!

For Reading Comprehension (as measured by the Star Reading Assessment):

10th place - increasing 236 scaled score points:
     Benny

9th place - increasing 239 scaled score points:
     Logan

8th place - increasing 248 scaled score points:
     Precious

7th place - increasing 250 scaled score points:
     Bradley

6th place - increasing 259 scaled score points:
     Karsyn

5th place - increasing 267 scaled score points:
     Evan

4th place - increasing 297 scaled score points:
     Andrew

3rd place - increasing 302 scaled score points:
     Gavin

2nd place - increasing 303 scaled score points:
     Christian

FIRST PLACE - increasing 323 scaled score points:
     OLIVIA!!!!


For Math (as measured by the Star Math Assessment):

10th place - increasing 173 scaled score points:
     Kami

9th place - increasing 175 scaled score points:
     Blayne

8th place - increasing 178 scaled score points:
     Karsyn

7th place - increasing 179 scaled score points:
     Evan

6th place - increasing 183 scaled score points:
     Holden

5th place - increasing 187 scaled score points:
     Bradley

4th place - increasing 203 scaled score points:
     Andrew

3rd place - increasing 209 scaled score points:
     Zach

2nd place - increasing 228 scaled score points:
     Gavin

FIRST PLACE - increasing 230 scaled score points:
     OLIVIA!!!

Friday, May 19, 2017

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 4:00 PM
Our Nonfiction Sharing Day was a blast!  Thank you to EVERYONE who came to hear and see all that we have been learning in science, writing and reading!  

Jude and Natalie did a tremendous job being our news anchors for the show!
All the reporters and "experts" did a great job on their videos as well!

Everyone loved seeing what we learned about plants, tadpoles, frogs, caterpillars, butterflies and chickens!

The audience also loved hearing a little interesting fact from each of our animal research projects!

But the "Butterfly Song" was the biggest hit!  
Awesome job, BUGS!!

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 10:06 AM
We started our day learning about a steer that was off to the fair in July.

We learned how much he weighs, what he eats, what we use cow hides for and what cuts of meat we can get from one.
We also learned an amazing fact that cow tongues are all as unique as our fingerprints!

Then we went to learn about pigs.  There were three little pigs...(sounds like a great story!)
They were only a few weeks old!  We learned lots of great information about swine!  Karleigh knew ALL the answers to the quiz, too!  Way to go, Karleigh!

Next we visited two holstein calves.
One was a bull calf and one will be a milk cow when she grows up!

We went outside and planted some begonias!  We remembered what we had already learned about what plants need.  We gave them some dirt, a bit of water and promised to plant them so they will get some sunshine at home (but not too much!)

There was a fascinating station all about bees!
We knew some things about bees, but we learned even more!  We learned that the female bees do all the work!

We got to pet some sheep...

...and a baby goat!
We learned what we use sheep and goats for and how they remove their horns.

We also met a rooster.
He goes to a lot of shows so he is used to people touching him and looking at him closely!
We remembered learning about the comb and the wattle in class!

There was a guy there who had all kinds of animal pelts for us to see!  
It was cool to see and touch coyote fur, skunk, badger and bobcat pelts!  
We also got to see a couple skulls from animals!

This station taught us a lot about farm safety!
There were so many terrible things happening on this pretend farm we decided we never wanted to visit there!
We now know of ways we can be much safer when we are on a farm!

Our last stop was at the combine!  It was HUGE!!
We learned all about the crops it can harvest and what the farmer does when the bin gets full!

We had a great day at the fairgrounds!!
Thanks to Mrs. Butler for arranging this field trip and to all the students at the fairgrounds who taught us so much about Michigan agriculture today!

Monday, May 8, 2017

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 11:36 AM
Our first chick arrived early! (There's always one!)  He arrived on Sunday and is doing very well!
We are keeping a close eye on the other four eggs for signs of any holes or cracks!  We sure hope we get to see one hatch while we are at school!

Friday, May 5, 2017

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 10:51 AM
We set our Painted Lady butterflies free today. 

Four emerged from their chrysalises and after letting their wings dry for a day they were ready to fly!
We were super excited to see them fly, but we were a bit sad to see them go!

Go pollinate our world, butterflies!



Monday, May 1, 2017

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 10:50 AM
Blayne and Ezekiel each got a free lunch from Mrs. Koehn today!  They passed all their math facts and got to go to Subway for a treat!

Way to work hard, boys!!