Welcome March!

​It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
– Charles Dickens

We had all of the winter weather come down upon us in February. As a result, I hope that March brings us the pleasant weather of Spring! It is Ohio, though, so please continue to check the forecast and send your children to school with coats and boots. Even if the snow is gone, the mud is not! Wet socks all afternoon is no fun!

We are five chapters into Lost on a Mountain in Maine. This weather is helping the children appreciate what Donn Fendler went through eighty years ago. We read outside in the land lab last week and even ate strawberries when we read that Donn found a strawberry bush in a clearing. This week we will continue reading to hear how our main character persevered through his difficult situation. 

In addition to reading a fantastic book, we are writing our own narrative stories. The children worked all week on their drafts. This week we will continue to revise and edit with hopes of starting a final copy. The creativity and joy in these pieces is contagious. I am looking forward to seeing their final pieces. The students will be graded on capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. 

We have switched back to science in our afternoon block. We are studying the earth's resources, and we will have some fun this week as we explore rocks and minerals. Miss Rice will be teaching the students on Wednesday and Thursday. She has a great rapport with the class already, so I am looking forward to watching her lead these lessons with the students.

I have a couple of housekeeping requests for my great families. As you are out shopping this week, we are getting low on Clorox wipes, believe it or not. I am so thankful that we have wiped our desks once or twice a day since the beginning of the year; it keeps us healthy! With 20+ desks, though, we go through a container quickly. If you can send your child in with wipes, I would greatly appreciate it! In addition, we could use a roll or two of paper towels. Thank you!

Dates to Know:
March 8 - Guest speaker for fourth grade survivalists
March 9 - Builder's Club after school
March 11 - PTA Meeting
March 17 - St. Patrick's Day
March 18 - No school for students