Making Learning Fun!!!

Dear Families,
The field trip to the bank was a great success! The highlight and I'm hoping your children shared this with you was our trip into the bank vault where students had the opportunity to hold $50,000.00. All hands were up wanting a turn! The bank also gave each student a piggybank with a dollar in quarters to begin saving. I thought that was very generous! In our "Money Class" this week, students learned how to keep track of inventory in our school store, how to write a check, and keep track of deposits and expenditures in a transaction register. You might consider letting them write checks for your bills as they all seemed to quickly understand the steps!
As you know, the students (3rd-8th) also had their first school dance last week. We had a volunteer DJ who did a superb job in bringing current, student chosen music to our ears! I bought 144 balloons for decoration and to have on the dance floor. The balloons were blown-up by the students that morning and ended up being an ice-breaker for the students. They played with them instead of dancing for a good part of the dance. However at one point, they were all in a circle having a dance-off! Refreshments were served during the dance. All money raised was donated to the student store account.
In history, we continue to read about "Taxation without Representation" which was the impetus for the colonist to rebel against England prior to the Revolutionery War. We recently read about Samual Adams and his part in the war. We also found out that he was originally a brewer of rootbeer. Yesterday, we spent time in the Kroc Center kitchen preparing the ingredients to bottle our own rootbeer. I hope its good! I'm planning on rootbeer floats for Friday after lunch!
Mark your calendar for Saturday, April 26th. I would like to rally my home-room students and parents to join me at "Servapalooza", a service festival and parade of wishes. "Servapalooza" will feature hands-on service projects by 50 community organizations, a Parade of Wishes for youth groups, youth performers, raffles, silent auction, food vendors, and much more. There will be Service Stations where students can volunteer in over 50 fun hands-on projects protecting the environment, caring for youth, servicing the hungry and homeless,and improving health. Registration starts at noon and events after. I will keep you posted as we get closer. Innovations Academy would also like to donate money to this organization. We have a goal of $500.00. If you are interested in making a donation of any amount, please bring it to my classroom and I will get it into the proper hands.
As always, please feel free to contact me through my email or stop by the classroom.
That's it for now,
Kim