Is it really May?

    It is hard to believe that it is May already!  The weather does not help with us believing it is really May!  Looking at the forecast for the next week though we might start to believe it!  The day we are going to Notre Dame it is supposed to be in the high 70's!  We are all getting excited for this trip.  We have almost 30 adults scheduled to come with us on this trip.  We will fit as many as we can on the buses but some may have to drive up.  If you are driving up please talk to a teacher as we you will need to park by the JACC to not get a ticket. 
    This week went by very quickly with ISTEP and our trip to the court house.  The students seemed to work very hard and take the ISTEP seriously.  We hope to see great results.  They seemed at ease with the test and that makes us all happy! 
    Our LEAD Mock Trial was a success and we were told by several adults at the court house that our students were very well behaved and that they loved having us there!  That is huge as we brought 100 students to a pretty small court room!  We are very proud of our students for their wonderful behavior and we have told them all this and they earned an extra recess due to their meeting and exceeding our expectations for the day! 
    This week will go by fast as well with our Notre Dame trip and Junior Achievement for the day on Friday!  We are also deep into our current project and students are working hard on their research and prototypes.  We will send out the dates of our Invention Fair as soon as we nail down a date! 
    We hope you have a great week! 

Mock Trial Photos

 Super Hero Day photos from Friday

Last Full Week of April!

   Well, another week down.  It is so hard to believe that these weeks are flying by so quickly.  The students have been busy at work on their newest projects.  They have been learning about different disabilities and will soon be choosing the disability they want to work on.  They seem very excited about their newest project.  We hope that they come up with some great ideas to help those with disabilities.  We are hoping to have a "Invention Fair" that we will be able to have parents attend!
     We continued to work on LEAD this week and will be heading to our Mock Trial this coming Thursday!  That is always a neat experience.  Also, our Notre Dame trip is just over a week away as well!  The kids are very excited about that one as well.  If you have not turned in a permission slip please do so ASAP!
     We will be taking the ISTEP beginning with the practice test on Monday.  We will be testing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday!  We hope you will encourage your child to do their best on these tests.  A good night's sleep and a good breakfasts are a must! 
     The students did a short Earth Day project in humanities this week and we also celebrated Earth Day here at Riverside with Earth Hour where we turned out all of the lights and "unplugged" for an hour.  Mr. Premetz read to the students, "The Giving Tree" and we had a great discussion and a fun activity afterwards.  The hour flew by! 
     Check out the video our 6th grade SOLE kids put together for Riverside's Relay for Life project.  Our entire student body is in it!  Here is the link!  http://vimeo.com/90971229
     Have a great week!  Here are a few more photos from last week and this week!

  

Another Busy Week in the Books!

     It seems like maybe this winter is finally over!  We feel so accomplished when we complete a full week of school!  It is so nice to plan a week and not have to move days over due to missing school!  Thia week we had explorations and this is one of the students favorite times of the year.  They love going to different rooms to learn different things.  Be sure to ask your child what their exploration was and what they learned to do.  I saw some really neat things happening! 
     We had two LEAD speakers this week and an author come and visit.  Our very own Austin Kizer won the Riverside entry to the Marshall County Young Author's Conference and Jordan Brown was one of the finalists.  We are very proud of our blooming authors.  The LEAD speakers were Deputy Prosecutor Nelson Chipman and two ladies from the probation department.  They shared with us some interesting information about their jobs.
    On Friday we had a disabilities challenge activity.  The students went through different stations to see what it would be like to have certain disabilities.  This was a fun activity and the students seemed to understand what we were trying to show them.  From taking a wheelchair through cones to putting together a puzzle blindfolded the students completed six different challenges.  See the photos below!
    We are gearing up for one last round of ISTEP beginning on April 28th.  Most of the students have been working hard in their work.  A few have early spring fever and as much as we understand that this winter has been awful we still expect students to complete their work and follow our class norms.  We have been really trying to keep on top of students not doing work.  Please refer to the document send home after spring break about our Trust card and the rewards and consequence the students came up with.  We appreciate any help we can get. 
     Have a great week! 

Here are some photos from our week!

 Putting together puzzles blindfolded

 Playing Charades

 Going through cones with a wheelchair is not as easy as it looks!  Also notice Mr. Hunter's PJ's for PJ day! 

 Sorting with gloves and goggles on is kind of tough! 

 Learning to tie a tie by watching a video with no sound!

 Trying to put a pair of pants on with one hand taped behind your back!

  Our LEAD speakers

 Our Young Author award winners and finalists!

 Fruit Loop probability in math class

Is Spring Really Here?

    What a beautiful weekend this has been, but looking at the weather forecast it looks like it might be a bit of a teaser!  Looks like we are going to start the week off a little cold but hopefully it won't last long.  We had a busy week this past week.  We kicked off our LEAD (Legal Education to Arrest Delinquency)  program on Wednesday with a visit from Officer Brown.  This program will include a visit from the prosecutor, a probation officer and will conclude with a mock trial at the Marshall County Court House.  This is a great program and we appreciate the partnership of the Plymouth Police Department to help us coordinate the speakers and trial.  Look for permission slips coming home in the Monday folder. 
     Our Notre Dame field trip is coming up in May as well.  A permission slip is coming home for this as well.  Parents are welcome to attend this with us but per our new corporation policy a background check paper has to be filled out before we can allow anyone to attend.  Look for this along with the permission slips in the Monday folder. 
     We have about 38 days left of school so students need to get their Riverside Reads done before the end of the year.  This is a big part of their Language Arts grade.  Also, help remind your child to complete their reading calendars each month (only two left).  They need to make sure to complete their Achieve 3000 each week.  These are things we remind them of weekly but at this time of year a little reminder from home helps as well. 
     We kicked off our next project on Thursday and we think the students are excited!  We had some great knows and need to knows from the students.  We were really excited about how far the students have come with this process.  They have come a long way since the beginning of the year.  We are very pleased with the progress they have made.  Please ask your child about our latest kick off.  They were excited about what we have been asked to do. 
    In Science we have started a new unit that goes right along with our latest project.  On Friday the students completed an activity where they were able to see how difficult it would be to not have the use of some of their fingers/thumbs.  It was a fun activity and they were very engaged. 
    This coming week is our Explorations week and we know they are all excited about this learning opportunity.  Have a great week! 

Here are some photos from our visit from Swoop from the Silver Hawks

Science class

 Work time