Math Masters

Our fifth grade Math Masters team had their regional tournament today. I am the coach and have spent every Monday since January working with the six member team on their math skills. We had four local meets in Grand Rapids, where we are proud to say we've never been last!

Today was a bit overwhelming for my team. 150 kids all in the Itasca Community College gymnasium did math problems for over 2 hours! My team came in 14th place out of 29 teams. After the competition, I took the kids out for lunch at the Chinese Buffet in the mall. I think every one of them agreed that was the best part of the whole Math Masters season!

Stinky Pond Water

Last week some students had brought in frog eggs and so we already had a tank full of cute little tadpoles. Today we went out and got a few more buckets of water from the pond at the edge of the playground. The students used eyedroppers to get a close look at mosquito larva, tadpoles, fairy shrimp and a bunch of other little critters under the microscope.

Win Twins!!!

The 5th grade DARE class headed to Minneapolis today to watch a Twins game. The weather looked rather dreary as we left Hill City at 7:00 a.m, but it cleared up by the time we made it to the Maple Grove rest stop for lunch.

At Target Stadium we were able to walk around the field on the warning track as part of the DARE parade. It was fun to see our faces up on the big screen!

The game was long and the Twins lost (like they seem to do at every DARE game), but we still had a lot of fun watching baseball together as a class!

Super Phenologist!

John Latimer came to visit us today. He has a radio show on KAXE 91.7 in Grand Rapids where he talks about the changes in nature as they relate to climate (phenology). John usually visits my classroom 2 or 3 times a year to teach the kids how to observe the world around them.

Today we went out in the woods to see if spring is on its way. We saw buds on the trees, juncos and chickadees, and many insects including a field full of jumping spiders.

John will be back before the end of the year to teach us about wildflowers and how to make a willow whistle!

April Fools!

Officially it is spring in Minnesota and spring usually means warm sunshine, green grass and daffodils. But this is Minnesota and so today's recess brought fat snowflakes, gray skies and wet feet. This must be Mother Nature's idea of an April Fools joke.