New Email Address

After spring break, the district's email system groupwise, will switch to google's gmail. My new email will be rheinric@wausauschools.org . Have a great week kids! Do something worthy of a personal narrative!

Student Government

Today, to learn a little bit more about the three branches of government, we hosted a classroom primary. We voted for our top 4 candidate that will be running for class president against our imcumbant, Emily. We will be voting for our party leader on Monday and host an election before the end of our day. Once we elect our president, our runner up will become our vice president like they did in the early days of our republic. At that point, we will hear from our court justices that would like to be picked by our president.

This challenge came after starting our personal narritive unit. We read One Green Apple and Me, Jane. Both great stories that show how to write with description. I challenged the students to create proposals that would be voted on and also followed through as a classroom. We wanted to take Jane Goodall's challenge on the site http://www.rootsandshoots.org/ that challenges youth to create humanitarian and environmental differences. Stay tuned to see which ideas pass the legislative branch in our classroom. In the meantime, students, I challenge you to join me at http://freerice.com/ where you can answer questions correctly to donate free rice to the World Food Program. See one person can really make a difference.

James Gurney: Dinotopia

The fictional story of Dinotopia begins with the discovery of explorer Arthur Denison's journal, which takes the readers to an island where dinosuars and humans live together. Today, by a cancelation, our 5th graders were able to meet author and illustrator James Gurney. He was able to bring to life his fabulous artworks and imaginative words.

We were able to observe the details he puts into each of his drawings, how he learned to start a journal, and how he uses his imagination to bring to life characters. Tonight, join Gurney at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum from 5:30-7 to create your own journal. He will also be at the museum from 1-3 on Saturday, March 3rd. At the museum, you can also follow the Dinotopia Code to the lost island through the artworks on display.