Monday, August 09, 2010

What to Bring on the First Day


I have already told you about our pets, and here is a photo of one of our dogs, Tavin Mackenzie. He is three years old and likes to act like a guard dog. One of his favorite activities is to lie on the back of the sofa and look out this window. He watches for wildlife and always lets us know if a deer or rabbit is in the yard.

At the end of fourth grade you received a list of supplies to bring back to school for fifth grade. I also included the list in the newsletter which you received last week. Just in case you may have misplaced the list, here it is one more time!

You will NOT need an assignment book as I have ordered them for all of you and will give them to you on the first day of school. You will need:
  • 8 plain pocked folders with horizontal pockets and that are also 3 hole punched
  • a very fat trapper of 3-ring binder that is big enough to hold your folders and paper
  • a supply pouch for pencils, erasers, scissors, etc. with holes so that it fastens into your binder
  • a 12 inch ruler which is also marked in centimeters- the flexible kind is best as they are less likely to break
  • a pair of scissors
  • a fat glue stick
  • pencils with erasers
  • a supply of lined paper that is hole punched so it will fit into your trapper or binder (not the kind that comes in spiral notebooks)
  • a set of colored pencils
  • a set of colored Sharpies or other markers
  • a hand held pencil sharpener
  • a calculator (this does not need to be expensive or fancy - I have seen them for $1.00 at the Dollar Store)
Remember, if you lose or use up something, you will need to replace it as we will be using these materials all year long!

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Meet SOME of the Goldfish!


I hope that you have had a chance to read your whole newsletter by now and will plan on writing to me soon! I always like to read what my students have to say in their letters and it's a great way to start getting to know you a little bit. If you are reading this blog, please leave a message before you navigate away from this page. There is a way to do it "anonymously" so that no one can see your e-mail address if you want to remain private. Ask your parents to help!

In the newsletter, I wrote about the goldfish. When you arrive for the first day of school you will see an empty aquarium because the fish are still in the water garden. I thought you would like to see a picture of some of the adults in their summer home. You can click on the photo showing all four fish to make it larger and easier to view. If you look at them from left to right, they are Samson (the biggest orange fish), Bob (the smallest orange fish), Stripe (the orange and white fish with more orange), and Spot (the orange and white fish with more white).

This summer when I brought these fish home and placed them in the water, I had a big surprise! There was already a fish there! Apparently, last summer, there were baby fish born and I didn't see them in the fall when I was taking them all out and bringing them in for the winter! (One of the reasons I wasn't able to see them is that when they are little, the fish are a silvery greenish brown color so they blend in with the pond.)

Can you imagine how surprised I was?
WOW! Well, this little fish is now changing color and will be mostly, if not all, orange like Bob. I named the new fish Poseidon because I think he must be very powerful to have survived the winter outdoors in very little water that I thought was frozen all the way to the bottom!

See you soon,
Mrs. W.