Team Persistence enjoyed a trip to Havenwoods State Forest. Students enjoyed learning about and watching for signs of spring! Our dramatic play area has transformed into the weather channel! Students have enjoyed being meteorologists and camera people. Outside, they also made pretend weather maps using chalk while commenting on many types of severe weather. They've used their knowledge gained from books and a Google Hangout with a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Sullivan! April was an eventful month in Team Respect! We continued to work hard when we were not on Spring Break. We would like to share a few photos from writer’s workshop. We wrote poetry, realistic fiction, and learned how to be a critical friend by giving feedback in sharing circle. The students learned to give praise for what they heard, ask a question about the writing, or give a suggestion on “how to polish” their writing. Team Integrity - To go along with our new injury unit on life/plant cycles with a focus on honey bees we went to Honey acres for a field trip! We got to see real honey comb, taste real honey, watch informational videos on honey bees, and much more! We had fun rotating and orbiting around the sun as we learned about day, night and seasonal patterns! Please enjoy our video of the kids acting it out and this is the lip dub they made with Mrs. Tillman! = The month of April brought Team Diversity to the study of landforms and more specifically Erosion. We had a blast learning the effect water has on the land. With some hands on learning, we watched as the water created a river, a lake and noticed how the water in the ocean can affect the sand / shoreline as well. In Excellence East, students are designing and building cities using geometry. Students will design their cities, then build them up using nets and 3D shapes. Students in Excellence West went on a Field Trip around the school. They discussed areas of concern or need for improvement. Students then chose a topic they were passionate about. As part of collaborative groups, student worked to create a survey, interview important people, write business letters along with emails, make a plan and come up with a cost analysis sheet. Although much of the progress has been completed, there is still work to be done! Please take a look at our Padlet to see some of the progress! Student Council was busy wrapping up the Pennies for Patient drive. It was a very successful event, Walker School collected over $2,000. To end the school year, Student Council members have been enjoying eating lunch together laughing and talking. During the month of May we will be going on a field trip to celebrate and begin talking about next school year plans for Student Council. Orchestra Students had an opportunity to attend UW-Whitewater Honors Orchestra last month. Shea Welch, Noah Vanderhoef, Leah Norton and Mackenzie Lotze and Dimitri Fyrogenis attended the one day event. Students met their conductor and proceeded to rehearse with other orchestra students from all over Wisconsin. The final concert involved three orchestras with varying abilities. Walker Lego District competition is on May 14th at Wilson. Students have been working hard on a script and presentation for the project portion of the competition. Wish your "Earth to Lego" team good luck when you see them in the hallway! Students are also working on a newscast to share with the school at our next assembly. SEL: (Persistence, Respect, Integrity, Diversity) Groups are finishing lessons in their Safety Units and next will be starting our Assertiveness Unit. This unit covers our anti-bullying lessons. The curriculum our district uses is an interactive program through Wisconsin Children's Hospital: Healthy Kids Learn More- ACTNow. Check out additional resources at the following website: www.healthykidslearnmore.com/Healthy-Kids-Learn-More/Parents-Act-Now/Kids (Excellence East and West) Groups are continuing to work on the Careers and Individual Planning Conferences Unit. 5th graders are preparing their portfolios that will be presented at their Middle School Planning Conferences. They have the option to present a google slide portfolio or their class workbook. Please keep watch for a signup flyer AND email that will allow you to register for Middle School Planning Conference. Lunch Bunch: Lunch Bunch friends are continuing to practice how to be good friends by spending the past couple weeks learning how to demonstrate good sportsmanship by playing fair. 'The Play Fair Porpoise' has taught us playing fair qualities that students have applied by collaborating to make their own game rules to: learn, agree to, and follow during their very own Play Fair Game! Parenting Resources: Please browse and feel free to use any of the following parenting resources that may be helpful. One includes a FREE positive parenting online conference, starting Tuesday May 7th. There will be 16 masterclasses by popular parenting experts, including: Sibling Rivalry by Dr. Laura Markham Parenting Adolescents by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel Parenting 2-7 Year Olds by Joanna Faber and Julie King Handling Stress in Children by Kim John Payne ... and many more! This conference is online, you can watch it from anywhere. Check out the website: PositiveParentingConference.com to find out more!
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