Dear Parents,

Just wanted to send one last notification out to families before my computer is packed up.  That's right, if your child didn't tell you, my husband is being stationed in Great Falls Montana via the Air Force!  I am so very sad to be leaving.  I always like to see my class the next year in the hallways and I will dearly miss that next year. 

We had a super last few weeks of school in between testing and finishing up the last graded assignments for the year...

Wilderness Survival

We had a guest (Dr. Weishaar) speak to us about living without electricity and running water in wilderness of Alaska for a few years.  He talked about survival skills, living with grizzly bears nearby, and how the concepts he'd learned in science helped him figure out how to live life in the wild successfully.  It was fabulous!

Field Day

We had field day and for the first time, the 4th grade teachers lost at tug of war against the winning student group from Ms. McGough's class.  I could make up excuses but...we were all dragging on the ground at the end!  My arms hurt for 3 days afterwards.  It wasn't such a warm day and actually had to be split into two days--and we still didn't get to all the events.  However, field day was still a blast.

Science Day

We also had our first 4th grade science day.  What a flurry of fun activity that turned out to be!  Students built can phones and tested how well they transferred sound.  They built a "space vehicle" that had to carry 3 marble passengers.  This vehicle had to sit on top of a tub of slime for as long as possible without sinking!  Students watched a presentation from Ms. Daniels and see her release mentos into the air with different types of soda.  In our room, we built catapults and tested how far we could launch a marshmallow!  Most of these activities involved students working together to solve a problem and they did so well!  Each room was busy with activity and students learned a huge amount of information in one fun day:) 

Bridge building and breaking

Our first top-secret-super-fun activity we started 2 weeks ago.  Students built bridges with toothpicks and glue.  They turned out so awesome this year!  Some were beautiful and some very sturdy.  I was really impressed with the ingenuity of the groups when figuring out how to solve problems! We hung a bucket around each bridge and counted how many marbles each bridge would hold.  I counted to over 1300 THREE times and into the high hundreds a few more for different bridges!  By the time we were done, I'd felt like I'd been to the dentist; my lips were so numb!  We actually had a bridge that wouldn't break and another that came close to the same!  We counted all the marbles (1500) and threw in some counting squares from math until the bucket was full.  Finally, after 45 minutes and students almost falling asleep waiting, I called the bridge "unbreakable".  We had to wait another few minutes to see a bridge break!

Cookies!

For the second top-secret activity, students mixed up the batter for the cookies they brought home the last day.  We completed some warm-up activities in the morning to get ready to follow directions.  I took the batter home that night and baked it all up.  It was at eleven o'clock that night when I finished that I remembered why I wanted to have fewer groups!  However when I saw how excited the kids were when they received their finished product, it was worth it!   It was also very difficult not to EAT the cookies--they looked and smelled so good!  This year's group took the activity very seriously and I almost felt like I was watching an episode of "TOP CHEF"! 

Auction

I'm sure you heard all about this one!  But if not, we had a fabulous 3 hours of bidding wars for various prizes on the last day of school.  It seemed the prize of the year was Ms. Whitted's giant caterpillar.  It went for $5000!!

Goodbyes :(

Anyway, just wanted to thank all of the families.  I had a great group of students this year.   They are each so different in their own way.  Each with different strengths and talents.  What I noticed about this group overall is that if I set a goal, they would strive and push each other to meet it!  What a wonderful quality.  I hope they continue to challenge each other to be their best! 

Thank you for all the gifts and goodies I received from students the last day of school!  I ran out of time to write thank you notes--even with the extra half day! So you might find one in the mail in the next couple of weeks...

Thanks to all of the parent support as well.  It has been a tough year for many economically.  For some of our families, personal family situations arose which no doubt, caused additional stress.  And for other families, well, you may have experienced both personal and financial stress.   However, you have been generous group and given what you could either with time in the classroom, donations for things we needed, or spending extra time supporting your child's learning needs at home.  Thank you so much!

 And lastly, my d49 e-mail account has already been deactivated:(  However, I have changed my e-mail connected to schoolnotes.com so that parents and students can still contact me with questions or if you just want to keep in contact!  If you'd like to stay on the list, you are welcome to!  But, if you get tired of receiving notifications next year from my new class and aren't sure how to take your name off the notification list...e-mail me from the school notes website.

Thanks for a GREAT YEAR and have a relaxing summer!

Ms. Kravitsky

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Ms. Kravitsky reserves the right to make silly errors and stupid jokes on her webpage as typing with this font makes her go googly-eyed and become very tired!