Monthly Archives: May 2019

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Describe to your parents what you did for our Service Day.  For service day Noah and I went to John’s house and clean for him.

Tell your parents what your best part of the week was. The best part of the week was going to john’s house.

Hello! One week from today and you’ll be enjoying the first day of summer vacation for your kids!Hard to believe, as it seems like only a month or so ago that I took over for Claire! Things are really winding down in the classroom as we seem to have more and more interruptions to our normal schedule. Personal narratives were turned in today, and if they weren’t, they are considered late. Mr. Hutt is about to test his math students on Chapter 6, and I will be giving my kids a quiz on the material that we covered so far in Chapter 8, Measurement and Geometry. Mr. Hutt is also finishing up his history unit studying the Constitution. From talking to him, he has a good way to bring it to life with the kids! You might have seen the plant the kids planted come home yesterday. Hoping they found somewhere to plant it where it can continue to grow and produce either green beans, lima beans, or radishes. I’ll be anxious to see if any kids come up to me in September with a bean or radish!!The pictures I’ve included are from our Service Day in the community. Please ask your son or daughter what they specifically did today. Enjoy the weekend, and Blessings to your family! Paul

Weekly Blog

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Tell your parents about how scared I got this week in regards to our composting pile! Mr. Keyser got really scared he was scared about the worms he thought he left the lid off the container He thought there was worm all over the floor.
Give your parents some details about Officer Breucker’s presentations over the past 3 weeks. Officer Breucker taught us about Sugar one thing I learn was it can make your lungs look like this good lungs all on the left bad one are on the right.
Image result for lungs black
Give an example how you were a “bucket filler” this week!  I was a bucket filler this week by helping Aaron with his blog and spelling test.

Good Afternoon, and Happy Memorial Day Weekend! It always seems to work out this way, that the closer we get to the end of the school year, the faster the weeks go! It actually is the same with age, the older I get, the closer together the birthdays seem! 🙂 We are finished with the MAP testing, as of yesterday. Overall, I was very pleased with our results. In all three areas(math, language arts, and reading), our class average was above the national average. Our top scores in each of the tests were considerably higher than the national average. Great effort kids!! We had a fun, albeit cool trip to Captain Sundae with our preschool buddies. One good thing, there weren’t too many kids that had the ice cream drip down their fronts, always a plus with little kids!In the classroom, we are winding down as well. Mr. Hutt is nearing the end of the problem solving/equation solving unit, and I am well into the measurement and geometry unit with my class. Next week in social studies students will continue Unit 7, A New Nation. Our focus will be on the Constitution and what it says about how our nation is run. In Bible class, we are putting together some things to go in their Spiritual Journals that are passed on year to year. In ELA, they will be completing their final writing piece, the personal narrative over the next few days. They have made their revisions and are ready to write their final copies. In science class, we are going a bit more deeply into the food chains around us. They have really enjoyed keeping an eye on their plants, and the composting pile we have in our classroom(the 500 worms and debris is safely sealed in a metal garbage can). A week from today, we will be conducting our service day. I’ll have the kids write what they are doing in their personal blogs. Hard to believe that in two short weeks we the class will be enjoying their first day of summer vacation! Nothing like the first day of summer break with the entire vacation ALL in front of you! The only thing better pertaining to school, is the first day in August! Nothing gets me going like that day!The pictures I’ve attached today are from our ice cream outing and from Officer Breuker’s treat of snow cones for the entire 5th grade after his 3 week presentation on substance abuse and bullying. I pray you have some quality family time planned for this nice three day weekend! I’ll be doing something family related all 3 days! Blessings to you all, Paul

Weekly Update

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Tell your parents about the coolest demo from the Calvin field trip. The coolest demo is when the guy lit his hand fire. The cool thing about it is that he didn’t burn his hand.

Describe to your parents the theme of Chapel this week. The theme was to say good bye to the the 8th grader as they went to a different school.

What was your favorite part of the week? My dad getting back from Texas, it was really exciting to see him again.

Good Morning, and Happy Friday!Two more Friday’s with this wonderful group of kids! Going to be sad saying goodbye to them, but I am very excited to have them again in two short years! It has been a very busy week, with quite a few positive interruptions. The biggest has been the NWEA’s Measure of Academic Achievement assessment. We completed the math portion on Wednesday, and I am very pleased with how they did as a whole. Over half of my homeroom did better than the national 5th grade average. The rest were close to it, but just below the mark. Today, we take the language arts portion of it, and Wednesday the reading portion. We also had the final Chapel and Family Group gatherings yesterday, the field trip Monday, and Officer Breucker in on Wednesday talking about making positive choices. So, to some degree the regular classes have taken a back seat to all the special activities. I have included a few pictures from Monday’s field trip to Calvin’s chemistry presentation. A good time was definitely had by all! Very informative and exciting demo put on by three of Calvin’s chemistry professors!As for academics, Mr. Hutt is concentrating on different types of comparison problems, equations, parentheses, and multi step word problems in math, and in social studies the kids will be focusing  on the compromises that were made at the Constitutional Convention and the role federalism plays in our Constitution. My math class is going further with area and perimeter of irregular figures. Our science classes are making a class composting pile, and are delving more deeply into food chains. In Bible class we are studying more about how Christ had a servant mentality while here, and how we can be more like him in our day to day lives, especially here at school. In ELA, we are spending quite a bit of time on reading activities and finishing up their personal narratives. They are coming along very impressively. Yesterday was a milestone of sorts for my family. My son Jeff, turned 30. He’s about to become a Dad at the same age that Kathy and I had him. We are so very excited to see what God has in store for the parents to be and their first week of June baby boy! The kids loved it when he came in and so they wanted to make him a big birthday card, also attached below. He is going to try to come in one more time before the end of the school year! Have an incredibly Blessed weekend! Paul

Weekly Update

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Tell your parents about your service learning project. The service learning project is a service that helps people that need help. I am doing my Grandpa John

Tell your parents about the Revolutionary Walk! It is going to be Great

Good Morning,Sending this out Thursday this week so that you get one more day heads up for the things that are coming up next week. First and foremost is to tell you that we will begin taking the Measure of Academic Progress(MAP) assessment next week. I have included information given to us to help our students perform at their best. Please read it and encourage your son or daughter about the importance of giving this their best effort to “show off” what they have learned so far this year.MAP Growth AssessmentsWe’re looking forward to upcoming MAP Growth assessments! MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) assessments in Math, Reading, and Language will help teachers to understand how much students have grown in their learning this year and to know what they’ll be ready to learn in the upcoming school year.We’ll be taking these assessments in the morning during class on the following dates:Wednesday, May 15th, Friday, May 17th, and Wednesday, May 22nd. It’s important that students do their best to show all that they’ve learned this year! We are helping your student by preparing them to know what to expect on the assessment, coaching them on assessment-taking strategies, reminding them that they are capable of doing well, and shaping a structured and supportive classroom environment on those mornings.You can help your student by ensuring that they get proper sleep the evening before an assessment, feeding them a healthy breakfast on each assessment morning, and encouraging them to have a positive attitude and to do their best–this assessment is important, and they are capable!Together, we can support students in doing their best to show how much they have learned this year! There is additional information available at https://www.nwea.org/parent-toolkit/. If you have further questions, please let me know!We are going on a field trip this Monday to Calvin College to watch a chemistry demonstration. I understand this is one of the kid’s favorite field trips that they go on while at ZCS! Should be memorable!! Please have your son or daughter bring a sack lunch with them on Monday. There will not be food or snacks to purchase there. This is the itinerary for Monday’s trip.10:45 – Meet at our 5th grade classroom for final instructions.10:50 – Leave ZCS11:30 – Arrive at Calvin College – Park in Lot 1 or 2 which is to the left of the drive as you enter off of Burton St. Let’s plan on meeting right outside of the Gezon Auditorium so that we can all walk to lunch together.11:40 – Lunch in Knollcrest on Calvin’s Campus (kids bring sack lunch)12:00 – Kids run around outside for a bit.12:10 – Walk back to the Gezon Auditorium for use of bathrooms and for Chemistry Demonstration.12:30 – Chemistry Demonstration begins.1:45 – Chemistry Demonstration ends. Head back to school.2:20 – Arrive back at ZCS – drop off in the front of schoolI know you have already received information about Mr. Hutt’s Revolutionary War walking tour tomorrow afternoon from 2:20 to 3:10, but this is just a reminder if you are planning on coming. In Science we are delving more deeply into the relationships between organisms and the transfer of energy in various food webs. In math, the two classes are working through either measurement conversions(my class) or word problems and solving equations(Mr. Hutt’s class). In Bible class, we are learning about the servant’s heart that Christ had, and how the class can constantly try to be more like Christ in that area. We are also in the early stages of setting up a chance for both of our classes to do a service project with a group nearby ZCS. The kids will tell you about their idea in their Friday blog. In ELA the class is getting close to finishing their first drafts of their personal narrative.Thanks for your prayers and support at home for my concern about the behaviors that I was seeing last week. I have to say that this week has been much better! Please continue to pray and reinforce the positives at home! Hope you have a great weekend! Blessings, Paul