Room 15 students are wrapping up our history studies with some review activities, History Jeopardy, and their final exam. Over the course of the year, the kids studied American history from pre-colonization through the Oregon Trail. This is half of what we’d study in a normal year but due to instructional limitations related to class size, scheduling, and state testing, we’ve had to spread our content over two years. Next year’s Room 15 kids will get a close look at American history from the Civil War to the present.

In language arts, students are finishing their OMSI essays, studying a new bank of vocabulary words, and starting new Book Clubs. We’re making a slight change for this final Book Club, however. Instead of being assigned as homework reading, these books will be read entirely at school. The kids will be asked to read books of their own choosing for their nightly homework.

In math class, students are continuing their study of fractions by seeing how they relate to decimals. They’ve already done a bit of this earlier in the year, so this final step should come pretty easily. Here’s the homework for this week: Monday, May 14th; Tuesday, May 15th; Wednesday, May 16th; Thursday, May 17th.

Finally, upcoming important events include the Science Fair on Friday the 18th, the Adopt-A-Street Clean-up on May 24th (4th grade math kids) and DARE Day at Emmigrant Lake (5th graders). There’s no school on May 25th (budget cuts) or May 28th (Memorial Day). All 4th and 5th graders will be going to Don Jones Water Park on June 4th, Roadrunner Day is June 6th, and the End-of-the-Year Baby Picture Program is June 7th, which is also our last day of school.