Thanksgiving 2009

         We love Thanksgiving at our school.  We have lunch on the 20th of November.  On that day we have turkey, potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, and other foods.  It starts at noon and ends from 1:00 to 1:30.  It’s so much fun!  It will be a great feast!

        We also make a teepee.  It’s about ten feet tall.  It’s made of strings and paper bags.  We cover paper bags with symbols and color it with markers.  It’s so colorful!  It’s in the shape of a cone.  We get to work in it until the end of November.

Mrs. French is our art teacher.  We make cool stuff.  We make art every Friday.  It’s fun.  This year we have made many cool art projects.  We have made: alien prints, refletions, and stained glass windows with markers.  Kindergartners sponge painted their names.  Now, we are working on masks that are made with paper mache and balloons.  We really like art and Mrs. French.

Mrs. Burrows came on March 12th to read us a story for March is Reading Month.  The story was called Alice The Fairy.  She made costumes for 2 fairies.  Their costumes were two crowns, two sets of wings, and two wands.  She made the fairies act out the story.  The fairies tapped our heads and we got a fairy cookie (sugar cookies).   Mrs. Burrows is an awsome story teller.  It was lots of fun.

     We went to the Capitol Building on March 9, 2009, in Lansing, Michigan.  It was a very long drive.  When we got there we learned about Michigan and the capitol. 

     When we started our tour we laid on a glass floor and looked up.  The tour guide told us that the glass was only a half an inch thick but it was strong enough to hold a car.  When we looked up we saw lots of floors.  At the top of the dome  we saw stars for the saying, “‘Reach for the stars meaning follow your dreams.”"  We got to go on the first floor, second floor, and we got to see the governor`s office.

     After the tour we got goodies.  The goodies we got were a coin and a coloring book.  We had a great time.

                                                                            Justin and Sydney

     We go swimming at the Ionia YMCA every other  Thursday part of the year.  We all have swimming lessons.

     The first time we went  swimming a person told us the rules. Then he took us where the lockers were so we could get dressed. Then we sat on a long bench at the pool. Then we all doggy-paddled for a second. Then we separated in groups. The pool is 25 yds. long and 15 ft deep. We only had to swim half of it.

     I learned that I could swim lots of laps in the pool.  I’m mostly good at jumping off the diving board.

                                                                   Jonah and  John

     We are a two room school. We have no library.  So we go downtown Ionia every other Thursday to the Library.

     When I first went in the library it was hard to pick a book because they were all so good.  The name of the library is the Hall-Fowler Memorial Library in Ionia, MI.  It use to be a house. It has tons of stairs. There are all kinds of books. Some are scary, history, mystery, science fiction, for kids, for adults, all kinds of books. I like  them all!                

                                           Taylor and Matthew

For the 100th day of school we wanted to see if we could collect 100 food items to help people who needed help because they couldn’t buy food.  We started collecting food on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 19).  Martin Luther King Jr. wanted everyone to be nice to each other. 

We thought this was a way that we could be nice to other people.  When we got 100 food items we decided to try and get 200 items. 

On the 100th Day of School, we counted all of the food items and put them in bags.  On Thursday, February 5, 2009, we took 237 food items to the Zion United Methodist Church Food Pantry.  We all felt happy and proud that we could do it.

     On February 24, 2009, we went to the Ionia County Intermediate Office to see the zoomobile.  Binder Park Zoo brought five rainforest animals for us to see.  Angie, the presenter, brought a millipede, a giant toad, a parrot, a two-toed sloth, and a kinkajou.

     The fifth grade students surveyed their classroom.  We asked them, “What is the coolest thing you learned from the show?”  Here are their responses:

 I didn’t know there was a rainforest in Hawaii.

I learned millipedes can grow to be one foot long.

     I learned that parrots live in the rainforest.

     I learned kinkajous are nocturnal.

     I learned that sloths like redskin potatoes and peas.

        I learned sloths only go to the bathroom once a week and there are many layers in the rainforest. 

     A sloth only pees once a week.  There are only two types of sloths.  It likes redskin potatoes, peas, and fruit.  When Angie was talking he whacked her.

     I didn’t know there was a rainforest in Hawaii.  It is the only rainforest in the U.S.  The rainforest is pretty big.  I would want to visit Hawaii.

     I learned that toads have sacs on their backs that held a nasty tasting liquid.

     I learned that the kinkajou only sleeps during the day.

     The parrot could talk and it was funny.

     I learned that the sloth only goes to the bathroom once a week.

     Sloths can hold their waste for one week.