Yippee...We're Finished With Testing

Hello Otter Families,

I hope all of the Otter Moms had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Thanks for all you do to raise such terrific children.

We are so proud of our Otters for the effort and concentration that they put into this year's STAR testing last week. Results of the test will be sent to your home sometime in August. Tomorrow, we will return to an almost normal schedule. First period will be extended by a few minutes to accommodate the two remaining days of eighth grade testing. Today we spent a fun-filled homeroom period playing games and just having fun as a team.

Unfortunately, last week we had to cancel our sixth grade social due to a lack of volunteers. Thank you so much to the many Otter parents who signed up to help. Our last social event of the year will be our annual Olympic Day. This is an exciting event for the entire sixth grade and we will need lots of adult help to make it happen. Mark your calendar for Thursday, June 9, if you would like to volunteer.

Our third quarter academic awards assembly has finally been scheduled for Friday, May 20, during 3rd period in the library. Please join us if you can. The awards assembly will be followed by our Otter Auction, which will be held during 4th period. We'll finish up the day with our Art Vistas lesson and project on Greek and Roman architecture. We could use a few adult hands to help us with the hands-on project. If you can assist us, please sign up on our wikispace page.

With testing out of the way, we can now return to our regular mathematics and social studies curriculum. In math we are reviewing for the end-of-the unit test on geometry. The test will be on Thursday of this week. Students need to really focus on careful work as this is a TEST, which will not be revisable. Our final unit is on data analysis and statistics. In social studies, the kids will take the Chapter 7 test on Ancient Greece tomorrow. We still have one more chapter on Greece and then it is on to Rome to finish up the year.

My second period cooking class has been cooking up a storm. In addition to learning about culinary creativity and nutrition, the students have been mentoring peers from Mrs. Hughes' special day class. I am so proud of my students for the kindness and patience that they have shown to their buddies. Last week we met with our buddies twice; once to get acquainted and another time to bake some delicious chocolate chip cookies. All students are learning the importance of reading and following directions in the kitchen. Thanks a million to those of you who have made a monetary donation to our class. Your generosity will ensure that the kids will get a maximum number of cooking experiences this quarter.

Thanks for sending in Kleenex tissues. Our sneezy, drippy noses have really appreciated it! And more importantly, thank you for all you do to support your children and our team.

Only five more weeks...let's make each day count!

Until next week.

Mrs. Shimamoto