Dear Parents,

I can’t believe this is my last Friday letter for the year. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your children grow since August, both physically and academically. They are a wonderful group of kids and I will miss them so much. I have told them that with parent permission they can email me this summer and I will write them back. It will provide them with an authentic writing experience. Thank you all so much for everything you have done for us this year. The school can’t do it alone. It takes parents and teachers working together to produce successful students.

We had an exciting week this week. Monday we participated in a program called Wheel Wise presented by Wellstar. We learned about how to be safe on or in vehicles with wheels. Tuesday we had great fun at our yearbook signing activity. We also got to do some watercolor painting and had 10 minutes to write all over our big white board. Wednesday we spent some time in the computer lab. Today we heard about the summer reading program at the Cobb County library and had our pizza lunch which was a special treat. Thanks to Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Devine for sending in some extras for lunch. Tomorrow we will participate in the school sing-a-long in the morning and then will go outside for the 5^th grade’s final walk.

We celebrated one birthday this week. Matthew had a birthday on Thursday and his birthday treat provided us with a nice dessert for our pizza lunch. Congratulations also to Matthew for being the only one of us who had perfect attendance this year. We have a few friends celebrating summer birthdays. Bradley will celebrate on May 24^th. Will celebrates on May 25^th. Reece will celebrate on June 22^nd, and Cheney celebrates on July 10^th. Happy birthday to all of you.

I hope you all have a safe and restful summer. I look forward to seeing you in the hallways again before we know it.

                                                                       

Sincerely,

                                                                        Mrs. Graska J

Dear Parents,

            It sounds like everyone had a great spring break. We are back in full swing already. We started our science unit on life cycles with some fun activities and experiments this week.

Next week will be a busy week for us. The children will be taking the CRCT on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, April 21, 22, and 23. We will begin testing at 8:00 each morning and finish by about 10:30. If the children are late, they will not be allowed into the classroom and will remain in the office until testing has concluded for that day. Please keep the following in mind so your child feels rested, relaxed, and unstressed on those days. Make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep each night before the test and has a healthy breakfast each morning. Several of our parents have volunteered to send in a healthy snack to share with the class during our break between test sections. The children will also be given the opportunity to have their own snack from home after testing is done each day, so continue to send that each day as well. PLEASE do not schedule any appointments for your child on testing mornings.

We had a wonderful day at the Tellus North Georgia Science Museum on Tuesday. I hope your child told you about all the activities they participated in and the interesting things they saw. Thanks to Mrs. Ealy for being our chaperone. We also had a guidance lesson with Mrs. Craycraft this week and went to the computer lab today. Thanks to Mr. Hampton for coming in this afternoon to share a story and a special treat.

            Have a great weekend!

 

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Mrs. Graska J

April 3, 2009

 

Dear Parents,

            Spring break has finally arrived, and the rest of the school year is going to fly by. It has been a busy week as we try to wrap up a few things before our vacation. We have concluded our multiplication and division unit but will do some reviewing before the year is over. The focus has shifted to 3-digit addition and subtraction in preparation for CRCT testing.

            Our economics unit is well under way and will be continued when we return from vacation. We have done quite a bit of writing this week. Each student is going to go through the complete writing process between now and the end of the year, as they make their own book. We began the pre-writing phase this week. We have also done some response to literature writing this week. The literacy centers we have been working on are finished and we will start new centers when we return. We have also been practicing dictionary skills.

What a great week it has been for the staff at Timber Ridge. The staff appreciation committee has worked so hard to make this a fabulous week for us. The flowers are beautiful and the kids made me the cutest pillow as a keepsake of our year together. Thanks to Mr. Wright and Mr. Asbury, who came in on Tuesday to help with that project and give me a whole hour for our catered luncheon. Also thanks to Mrs. Roach and Mrs. Hampton for coming in on Wednesday morning so that I could attend the staff breakfast. It made the week before spring break very special.

            Don’t forget our field trip on Tuesday when we return. I hope you all have a wonderful vacation. Take time to relax and enjoy your time with family and friends. Send your kids back to me safely on the 13^th!

                                                                       

Sincerely,

                                                                        Mrs. Graska J

Dear Parents,

            Timber Ridge was a busy place this week. Technology Night, the book fair, and the science fair were all big hits. Thanks to all of you who came out in support of these activities. St. Patrick’s Day was also fun as we looked high and low for leprechauns. Thanks to Mrs. Roach for bringing in a special treat on that day.

            We began our multiplication unit in math this week. We are learning what it means to multiply and exploring the concept of multiplication through pictures, arrays, skip counting on a number line, and repeated addition. We explain the concept by saying that 2x4 really means 2 groups of 4. The kids seem to be catching on quickly. Our sun, moon, and stars unit is a big hit. We have had many interesting books and models brought in. This week we have focused on the phases of the moon, and why the sun seems to move in our sky during the day.

            We also had some extra activities this week. Thank you to Mrs. Roach for doing Adventures in Reading on Thursday and to Mrs. Maggard and Mrs. Ocampo for doing a Great Artist Presentation on Friday. We have two birthdays this weekend. Rob celebrates his birthday tomorrow and Emily will celebrate her birthday on Sunday.

            Next Friday we have a Performing Arts trip to the Cobb Civic Center. We will leave school at 9:00 and return at 12:00. We will be eating lunch after we return. I have added a blog page to my website where I will be posting the Friday letter each week. I will also use it to post reminders for special activities such as the Performing Arts trip. Please check occasionally for updates from the classroom.

            Have a great weekend!

I will be adding my Friday letters to the blog link on my website from now on. This will provide you with another avenue for receiving the letter in the event your child is absent on a Friday or you need to reread it after the Take Home Journal has been returned to school. This update will begin on March 20th.