Native American Cultural Regions

Our Native American studies culminated this week with our field trip to the Outdoor Discovery Center, and our Native American Museum Day.  The ODC does a fantastic job engaging the students with the experience of Native American life.  We got to try and start a fire with just two sticks, we built native three pole houses, and got to throw primitive Atlatl.  It was a fantastic learning experience, and big day of fun.

Our Native American Museum Day was another celebration of learning.  The kids presented their differentiated projects to several other classes, we even had a visit by Mrs. Kontowicz and Ms. Miller! We finished up the day by making dreamcatchers from willow branches just like the Native American's here in Michigan would have done. Thank you so much to all the parents that donated food items, artifacts, and helping their students dress up for the day.

The First Friday of Fun

Hello Parents,

Here is a quick video from last week Friday.  The kids had a great time trying to complete the 5th grade readiness assessment!  Make sure you ask them about it!  We also had a little fun at the end of the day with a watermelon eating contest between the classes.  I hope everyone is settling into the school year.

Parent Meeting September 20th 5:30pm

There will be a parent meeting to discuss some specific 5th grade events; such as the bike trip, field trips, and camp. 

Back Together Again!

“Stories of the Great Lakes Sturgeon” Books

  Welcome back everyone!  I was so excited to see all of you on the first Open House night!  Hopefully, all of you received your books.  The hardcovers will not be here for a few weeks.  Trust me I am as upset as you about it!  But, they will be here.  It was amazing to see the kids again and I was very excited to get this long awaited project back in their hands.  The originals are still hanging in the room and will be on display for the first few weeks of school.  We have had a great first week, and we are definitely back in the groove! 

I am very excited to work with your kids again this year!  We will have a similar format to last year, although there be some new additions to our reading program.  There are quite a number of fantastic novels that are part of the 5th grade library.  Throughout the year students will be choosing a book and doing a project to showcase their learning. 

As a fifth grade team we will schedule a Parent Meeting very soon.  Please stay tuned! 

If you haven’t given me your preferred email address please send it to me via email @ bbraymer@zps.org, or write it down on the newsletter and return.  I will be sending more Math Tips of the Day and important information. 

As always, I encourage you to fill your email address in the subscription box on this blog to receive the updates as soon as I publish them.  This year the blog and Newsletter will look the same.  

Quincy Sturgeon Guard 2012 Onoway Michigan

What a great weekend camping trip with the Sturgeon Guard crew!  Several families and teachers made the trek up north to a small town of Onoway Michigan, near Cheybogan to participate in the famous Sturgeon Guard of the Black River.  We had fun bonding, and creating unforgettable memories from this amazing experience.   We had our first up close and personal encounter with wild adult sturgeon!  We met professional scientists, professors, and they gave us a quick tour of the local hatchery!  It was a weekend I will never forget, that's for sure!  Thank you again to all the families that came and all the good times!  With out you these types of experiences couldn't take place.  I hope you enjoy your summer and I can't wait to see everyone again in the fall!

On a Quest for Learning at Ludington State Park

We had a rough start to our famous Ludington State Park trip this year.  It was pouring rain when we started out on the charter buses.  Did that deter us?  Of course not, this is fourth grade at Quincy!  We are up to the challenge, and plus the weather was supposed to clear up.  It was another great trip, and we had an amazing opportunity this year.  We got to see a real live hognosed snake, which is very rare to find out in the wild.  In fact, our ranger Allen said that he has been leading tours in the dunes for 19 years, and this was only the second time he had seen one with a school group!  The kids always get excited to search for Petoskey Stones in a special area where at least 1 or 2 students find one every year.  It was a great day for all, and my favorite part is always the lighthouse climb, and looking out over the vast Lake Michigan and all the beauty of the unique freshwater Great Lakes Dunes.  A few people always over come their fear of heights and walk out on the little lighthouse railing.  Adventures in education! 

Great Lakes Lighthouses and Electricity

The lighthouse project has been part of our electricity and magnetism unit for many years.  Students choose a Great Lakes Lighthouse to research and build while learning about electricity and magnetism.  They worked on a Profiler Project for our differentiated choices at home and then constructed their lighthouses here at school.  They are then tasked with wiring a simple circuit to making their lighthouse come to life.  Last Friday we put together our Great Lakes Lighthouse Museum and had some visitors from third grade, and the other fourth grade classes to see what a great job we had done!

Math Tip of the Day + Educreations

Hello everyone, excuse for being a bit brief with this post, but I still have a pin in my finger from surgery two weeks ago, and that makes typing a bit of a challenge.  I wanted to invite you to view my profile on Educreations website; you should be able to view all of the lessons for our math units.  As the students prepare for the test tomorrow it may be helpful to review some of these lessons a few times.  Good luck tomorrow students!

http://www.educreations.com/profile/659302/