I firstly wanted to sincerely thank the Lewis community for making the square dance and singalong a true success! I had such fun dancing, playing, and calling! I wanted to personally thank the families from room 20 who came, contributed a desert, volunteered time, and/or got the word out! I know even if you had other plans, you talked us up. It certainly showed! We had fourth grade families but also families from all grades. I was so impressed! Thanks also to Ms. Bamber for coming and lending a hand. Speaking of Ms. Bamber, she will be soloing (going it alone) this week for three days (with a little Mr. Marchyok sprinkled in). Sadly, this will also be her last week with us. She will move on to graduation and her new incarnation as a teacher-to-be. We wish her well and thank her for sharing a part of herself with us. We finish up our bus field trips this week with a journey to Bonneville Dam. This will be a wonderful opportunity to learn about hydopower and salmon migration. The idea of how water effects the land and people is a central focus of this experience. We will also discover how the dam changed the way of life on the Columbia for cities, animals and Native Americans. This week, we finish our persuasive writing essays. We also continue with “Journey West,” our book about Oregon Trail life. This book will prepare us for when we do our Oregon Trail simulation- a role playing study where students “become” a pioneer and make decisions based on what would be appropriate for that historical context. Starting the week of May 21st, we will begin a unit on fables and will also write and perform our own fables using shadow theater. If you (parents) would like to help out during this time with cutting out characters using an exacto-knife, please let me know. Cutting will probably take place Friday, May 25th, or early the next week. This should be a very fun study! If you have a favorite fable, please read it with your child! If you don’t, maybe you could find one together. That week (21-25), we will also have a special guest with us for an hour a day working on a marvelous pioneer craft project that will be out of this world! Walk and Bike survey, graph creation and analysis is going strongly! If you are in the building, please go to the dip and check out our statistical findings. What do you notice? Homework: Math and Spelling practice packets. Read 30 minutes per night.