If your answer to this question is “yes”, then consider yourself one of the lucky ones!  It seems that Laurelville has been hit with a number of different bugs recently.  We have had a high number of students (and teachers) absent last week and today.  I told my classes today to remember one word-SOAP!  I reminded all of them to wash their hands, wash their hands, and wash their hands!  Hopefully, those of you who are sick will have a speedy recovery and those who have not been sick will stay healthy!

Today we reviewed squares and square roots.  We also worked on rounding decimals and fractions.

Congratulations to all the fifth and sixth graders who went on the skating trip last Friday.  I heard you all had a great time and there were only a few bruises 😉 to show for your skating efforts!  A HUGE thank you to the PTO for sponsoring this trip that rewarded students who have done their job exceptionally well for the first semester!

As we are quickly approaching April and the dreaded test week, the staff at Laurelville have been frantically thinking of ways that we can get intervention to those students who need some extra help with their school work.  Mrs. Blubaugh has been working with students for a couple of months now during their study hall and library times, and sometimes during recess.  Now that we are getting closer to the testing, we are taking a little more aggressive approach towards intervention.  The fifth and sixth grade teachers have invited students who we feel just need a little more extra work to come to a before school Intervention Study Table.

I have also announced to my math students that I will be taking advantange of Mrs. Blubaugh to work with students, as needed, during their recess time.  We move very quickly in Math class, as you have already noticed.  When students have been absent and have missed direct instruction, meeting with Mrs. Blubaugh may be the best approach to getting them caught up on what they have missed.  I will also be sending students to her for intervention if I notice that they just are not “getting it” and need some more one-on-one assistance.  Assigning students to intervention is NOT meant as a punishment, but rather a time to give them some more direct help in needed areas so they can be more successful in their school work.

Today we took the traditional Math game “Around the World” to a new level!   I had the students register in my class at tutpup.  This is such a fun web site that makes you realize how close we really are to others in the world via computers and the internet!  They had a lot of fun creating their “screen name” and competing against students from around the world (and within our own class) with Math problems.  What a great way to get them to practice their math skills! 🙂  And FYI, anyone can join the fun at this web site.  I just had my students join in my class so that I can keep track of their progress.  This is really a great site for any age level to practice their math skills and learn a little geography, also!