Mrs. Bullen's Blog: 2014

Friday, December 26, 2014

Happy 26th!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I did! There is nothing any better than having my family all together at home! We love watching Christmas movies together! Some of our favorites are Elf and Christmas Vacation! On Christmas Eve, we always watch Rudolph and Christmas day wouldn't be complete without watching The Christmas Story! Family traditions are my favorite! What are you family traditions?

This break is extra long! I can't remember when we have had 16 day off in a row. I will be spending lots of time reorganizing our classroom, planning lessons and planning for National Board Teacher Certification. When we return to school in January, we will take our mid-year NWEA's in math and reading. I love this opportunity because it helps me see the growth we are making,as well as the areas that I need to continue to teach.

We were so busy before Christmas vacation! I hope everyone was able to watch our performance of Elfis and the Sleigh Riders! The students pulled off a flawless performance! We knew they could do it! They were so incredible we could take the show on the road! Here is the link in case you missed it: http://youtu.be/EYRxDtex3gc

Here are some snapshots of happening in our classroom:

Julia

Mari

Jordan

Bailey

Lean

Jacky

Jake

Tanner

Molly

Our special helper, Lexi and Harrison

Harrison

Lexi

GMRI

Molly, Leah and Isaac

Jacky and Nicole

Jordan, Bella and Katie

Mari, Peyton and Austin

Megan

Zach

Taking it all in!

Awesome interactive lab!

Here we go!

We love teaching!!!!

As we can see, we have been BUSY! Don't forget that Rugrats starts the first week we are back. We will be heading to Sunday River on Thursday to have some fun in the outdoors!
Way to go students! Over $1000 for the school. Those box tops sure add up!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BOX TOPS WINNERS

First Place - Mrs. Bullen's Class - 2,236

Second Place - Mrs. Colby's Class - 2,134

Third Place - Mrs. Wight's Class - 1,526

Total Box Tops Submitted: 12,558

We earned over $1,000 from the competition!! Thank You to everyone that participated!

Sunday, November 9, 2014

November 9, 2014

November is flying by quickly! We certainly have had a busy last two weeks with the Halloween concerts and Parent Teacher Conferences. Before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving Break. Hopefully everyone has some fun plans for the holiday! I am very excited to have both of children home from college and my five nieces all together this year. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Dates for your calendar:

11/11 - Holiday

11/17 - Bus Safety

11/26 - Workshop Day

11/27 & 11/28 - Holiday & Vacation Day

12/6 - Breakfast with Santa

I would like to thank each and every family for taking the time out of your busy day to come to parent teacher conferences. I love spending time with you talking about your child. I am so thankful to be their teacher! I have quite an amazing bunch of scholars!

On Friday, we made homemade pretzels and divided them into fractions as a fun kick off to our unit on fractions. We will be starting fractions before Thanksgiving break. This week we will be focusing on Order of Operations. Students will be creating a slideshow to demonstrate their understanding of the concept.

In reading, we are finishing up our books and getting reading to switch groups. I think the students love having the opportunity to work with all the teachers and different classes. Please continue to check student planner each night and sign that you saw it, even if they do not have homework. The reading assignments need to paced out over the week, as we only switch groups on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Planning the amount of time spent on homework each night is an important skill to master in 5th grade.

Lots of exciting learning going on in our classroom!

Here are some Halloween pictures! Sorry I am a bit late with my post!

Student Council Voting Day

Fourth Grade Voting

Mrs. Keane votes!

4th and 5th Grade Superheros!

It's a "wing thing!"

The 3 Amigos

Jordan, Megan, Bailey, and Marley

Our very own color wheel, Mrs. Boles

Brynn the Beautiful Butterfly

Mari

Some of the crew!

Hannah, Celia, Addie, and Marly

Zak and Mrs. Keane

Some of the New England Patriots!

Snap, Crackle and Pop!

Eyeball donuts!

As you can see, it was a VERY FUN DAY!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

October 19, 2014

You can certainly feel the change in temperature this weekend! We have been so lucky with all the warm weather we have had this fall! I wonder when we will have our first snowfall! Although, I think winter can feel really long at times, there is nothing like that first snowfall. I love it! It is one of my favorite times of the year!

We have been super busy in 5th grade. Lots of amazing learning going on and I am always so impressed with the high level of thinking and effort my students put into their work! I love my scholars! Our reading groups are off and running. Our literature books are all centered around the Colonial Times. Our focus is for students to make a statement about the text they are reading and then use details from the text to support their answers. This week we will continue on with practicing that skill, as well as introducing, "I wonder..." statements. In math, we are continuing our work in Algebra and PEMDAS, as well as reviewing some numbers and operations skills that need a bit more practice still. In science, we have completed our research on our biomes and we are working on our final projects. We would like all projects to be completed by the Thursday.

Grandparents Day was a big hit! We had a room full of wonderful friends and the students were very excited to share what they have been doing in class. Here are a few pictures from our day:

GRANDPARENTS DAY!

Here are some pictures from our wonderful field trip to OLD FORT WESTERN!

Blacksmithing! We made a nail! Lots of work for ONE nail!

Shopping at the local mercantile! We learned all about bartering and how to keep a ledger!

Bailey couldn't have been happier!
She bought SHOES!
Imagine that!

Julia bought this lovely bonnet! Jordan and Leah loved it!

Jacky and Jake bought knives for hunting and building!

Leah bought a doll!

Megan bought a box of cinnamon!

Mari shopping still!

Jacky learning how to use a mortar and pestle!

Jacky learning about the healing benefits of Lamb's Ear!

Emily trying out the onion remedy!

More Mortar and Pestle for Jordan and Bailey

Bailey

Bryne enjoying lunch!

LUNCHTIME!

Leah

Learning how to write with a quill pen!

Jordan

Megan

Julia

Mari

Molly

Jacky

Jake

Emily

Tanner

Jake

Megan

We learned that when children misbehaved during school that were often punished by having to stand facing the wall, holding a very heavy book over their head!